Is there a way to use standalone `std::begin` and for a const_iterator?

Question

I like consistency. I recently asked the question of using std::begin vs. e.g. std::vector<int>::begin, and the unanimous decision seemed to be to use the former since it is more general. But I think I found a stick in the mud. Sometimes, you want to convey you will not change a container as you loop through it, hence calling std::vector<int>::cbegin. It would make your code quite asymmetric if you sometimes did iter = v.cbegin() and other times did iter = begin(v). Is there a way around this lack of symmetry, and would you still recommend std::begin given this knowledge? Why does C++ not have std::cbegin?

Answer 1

C++14 has cbegin/cend/etc. and it is starting to be available in major compilers.

Answer 2

When your container is declared "const", for example, it is passed to a function as foo(const std::vector<int> & v), then std::begin will actually return a const_iterator.