Question

_______________ are pointer-like objects used to access information stored in a container.

Short answer

Answer: Iterators

Step-by-step solution

Understand the concept of iterators

Iterators are objects that help access the elements of a container (such as arrays, vectors, or sets) in a sequential manner. They behave similarly to pointers in that they can be incremented or derecremented to access elements, but iterators are generally considered to be more abstract, and they can handle different types of containers and traversal methods.

Learn how to declare and use iterators

In C++, iterators are available within container classes like vector, list, and set. To create an iterator, you can use the type of the container followed by "::iterator". For example, for a vector of integers, you can declare an iterator like this: ```cpp std::vector::iterator it; ``` To initialize an iterator, you can use the "begin()" or "end()" functions provided by the container classes. The "begin()" function returns an iterator pointing to the first element of the container, while the "end()" function returns an iterator pointing one element past the last element. For example: ```cpp std::vector myVector = {1, 2, 3}; std::vector::iterator it = myVector.begin(); ```

Traverse a container using iterators

With iterators, you can traverse containers by incrementing or decrementing the iterator using the ++ or -- operators similar to pointers. To access the element that an iterator points to, you can use the dereference operator (*). For example, the following code prints all elements of a vector: ```cpp std::vector myVector = {1, 2, 3}; for (std::vector:: iterator it = myVector.begin(); it != myVector.end(); ++it) { std::cout << *it << ' '; } ``` The output would be: ``` 1 2 3 ```

Familiarize yourself with common iterator functions

There are several common functions associated with iterators that you should be familiar with, such as: 1. `begin()`: Returns an iterator referring to the first element of a container. 2. `end()`: Returns an iterator referring to one element past the last element of a container. 3. `rbegin()`: Returns a reverse iterator referring to the last element of a container. 4. `rend()`: Returns a reverse iterator referring to the position before the first element of a container. 5. `cbegin()`, `cend()`, `crbegin()`, `crend()`: Similar to the above functions, these provide constant iterators to prevent modification of the elements. Remember that different types of containers and iterators might have different functions and properties, so always refer to the documentation of the container class you're using for more information.