C++ STL: How to iterate vector while requiring access to element and its index?

I frequently find myself requiring to iterate over STL vectors. While I am doing this I require access to both the vector element and its index.

I used to do this as:

typedef std::vector<Foo> FooVec;
typedef FooVec::iterator FooVecIter;

FooVec fooVec;
int index = 0;
for (FooVecIter i = fooVec.begin(); i != fooVec.end(); ++i, ++index)
{
    Foo& foo = *i;
    if (foo.somethingIsTrue()) // True for most elements
        std::cout << index << ": " << foo << std::endl;
}

After discovering BOOST_FOREACH, I shortened this to:

typedef std::vector<Foo> FooVec;

FooVec fooVec;
int index = -1;
BOOST_FOREACH( Foo& foo, fooVec )
{
    ++index;
    if (foo.somethingIsTrue()) // True for most elements
        std::cout << index << ": "开发者_运维百科 << foo << std::endl;
}

Is there a better or more elegant way to iterate over STL vectors when both reference to the vector element and its index is required?

I am aware of the alternative: for (int i = 0; i < fooVec.size(); ++i) But I keep reading about how it is not a good practice to iterate over STL containers like this.

---

for (size_t i = 0; i < vec.size(); i++)
    elem = vec[i];

Vectors are a thin wrapper over C arrays; whether you use iterators or indexes, it's just as fast. Other data structures are not so forgiving though, for example std::list.

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You can always compute the index in the loop:

std::size_t index = std::distance(fooVec.begin(), i);

For a vector, this is quite likely to be implemented as a single pointer subtraction operation, so it's not particularly expensive.

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Elegance is in the eye of the beholder, however do remember pointer/iterator arithmetics :)

for (FooVecIter i = fooVec.begin(); i != fooVec.end(); ++i)
{
    Foo& foo = *i;
    if (foo.somethingIsTrue()) // True for most elements
        std::cout << i - fooVec.begin() << ": " << foo << std::endl;
}

The up-side compared to the distance method is that you won't mistakenly do this for a non-random_access_iterator, so you'll always be in O(1).

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For the specific question:

Is there a better or more elegant way to iterate over STL vectors
when both reference to the vector element and its index is required?

IMHO,

for (size_t i = 0; i < fooVec.size(); ++i) {
    Foo & foo = fooVec[i];        // if 'foo' is to be modified
    Foo const& foo = fooVec[i];   // if 'foo' is to be NOT modified
}

is the most simple and elegant solution. Per the requirements of the question, using an iterator is not required.