std::span

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< cpp‎ | container
Defined in header <span>
template<

    class T,
    std::size_t Extent = std::dynamic_extent

> class span;
(since C++20)

The class template span describes an object that can refer to a contiguous sequence of objects with the first element of the sequence at position zero. A span can either have a static extent, in which case the number of elements in the sequence is known and encoded in the type, or a dynamic extent.

A typical implementation holds only two members: a pointer to T and a size.

Template parameters

T - element type; must be a complete type that is not an abstract class type
Extent - the number of elements in the sequence, or std::dynamic_extent if dynamic

Member types

Member type Definition
element_type T
value_type std::remove_cv_t<T>
size_type std::size_t
difference_type std::ptrdiff_t
pointer T*
const_pointer const T*
reference T&
const_reference const T&
iterator implementation-defined LegacyRandomAccessIterator, ConstexprIterator, and LegacyContiguousIterator whose value_type is value_type
reverse_iterator std::reverse_iterator<iterator>
const_reverse_iterator std::reverse_iterator<const_iterator>

Note: iterator is a mutable iterator if T is not const-qualified.

All requirements on the iterator types of a Container apply to the iterator type of span as well.

Member constant

static constexpr std::size_t extent = Extent;

Member functions

constructs a span
(public member function)
assigns a span
(public member function)
Iterators
returns an iterator to the beginning of the sequence
(public member function)
returns an iterator to the end of the sequence
(public member function)
returns a reverse iterator to the beginning of the sequence
(public member function)
returns a reverse iterator to the end of the sequence
(public member function)
Element access
access the first element
(public member function)
access the last element
(public member function)
accesses an element of the sequence
(public member function)
returns a pointer to the beginning of the sequence of elements
(public member function)
Observers
returns the number of elements in the sequence
(public member function)
returns the size of the sequence in bytes
(public member function)
checks if the sequence is empty
(public member function)
Subviews
obtains a subspan consisting of the first N elements of the sequence
(public member function)
obtains a subspan consisting of the last N elements of the sequence
(public member function)
obtains a subspan
(public member function)

Non-member functions

converts a span into a view of its underlying bytes
(function template)

Non-member constant

a constant of type size_t signifying that the span has dynamic extent
(constant)

Helper template

template<class T, std::size_t Extent>
inline constexpr bool ranges::enable_borrowed_range<std::span<T, Extent>> = true;

This specialization of std::ranges::enable_borrowed_range makes span satisfy borrowed_range.

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