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std::unreachable_sentinel_t, std::unreachable_sentinel - cppreference.com

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Defined in header <iterator>

struct unreachable_sentinel_t;

 (1) (since C++20)

inline constexpr unreachable_sentinel_t unreachable_sentinel{};

 (2) (since C++20)

1) unreachable_sentinel_t is an empty class type that can be used to denote the “upper bound” of an unbounded interval.

2) unreachable_sentinel is a constant of type unreachable_sentinel_t.

Non-member functions

operator==(std::unreachable_sentinel_t)

template<std::weakly_incrementable I> friend constexpr bool operator==( unreachable_sentinel_t, const I& ) noexcept { return false; }

 (since C++20)

unreachable_sentinel_t can be compared with any weakly_incrementable type and the result is always false.

This function template is not visible to ordinary unqualified or qualified lookup, and can only be found by argument-dependent lookup when std::unreachable_sentinel_t is an associated class of the arguments.

Example

#include <algorithm>
#include <cstddef>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>

template<class CharT>
constexpr std::size_t strlen(const CharT* s)
{
    return std::ranges::find(s, std::unreachable_sentinel, CharT{}) - s;
}

template<class CharT>
constexpr std::size_t find_first(const CharT* haystack, const CharT* needle)
{
    const char* needle_end = needle + strlen(needle);
    // search(begin, unreachable_sentinel) is usually more efficient than
    // search(begin, end) due to one less comparison per cycle.
    // But "needle" MUST BE PRESENT in the "haystack", otherwise the call
    // is UB (which is a compile-time error in constexpr context).
    auto found = std::ranges::search(haystack, std::unreachable_sentinel,
                                     needle, needle_end);
    return found.begin() - haystack;
}

int main()
{
    static_assert(strlen("The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.") == 42);
    static_assert(find_first("unsigned short int", "short") == 9);
//  static_assert(find_first("long int", "float")); // compile-time error
}

See also