\( \newcommand{\E}{\mathrm{E}} \) \( \newcommand{\A}{\mathrm{A}} \) \( \newcommand{\R}{\mathrm{R}} \) \( \newcommand{\N}{\mathrm{N}} \) \( \newcommand{\Q}{\mathrm{Q}} \) \( \newcommand{\Z}{\mathrm{Z}} \) \( \def\ccSum #1#2#3{ \sum_{#1}^{#2}{#3} } \def\ccProd #1#2#3{ \sum_{#1}^{#2}{#3} }\)
CGAL 4.12 - Handles and Circulators
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Handle Concept Reference
Handles and Circulators Reference » Concepts

Definition

Most data structures in CGAL use the concept of Handle in their user interface to refer to the elements they store. This concept describes what is sometimes called a trivial iterator. A Handle is akin to a pointer to an object providing the dereference operator operator*() and member access operator->() but no increment or decrement operators like iterators. A Handle is intended to be used whenever the referenced object is not part of a logical sequence.

Like iterators, the handle can be passed as template argument to std::iterators_traits in order to extract its value_type, the type of the element pointed to. The iterator_category is void.

Refines:
Descriptor

The default constructed object must be unique as far as the equality operator is concerned (this serves the same purpose as NULL for pointers). (Note that this is not a generally supported feature of iterators of standard containers.)

Has Models:

T* (pointer)

const T* (const pointers)

Iterator

Circulator

Dereference

value_type & operator* ()
 returns the object pointed to.
 
value_type * operator-> ()
 returns a pointer to the object pointed to.