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dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>

Contents

Description
Synopsis
Definitions
Examples
Rationale
Header Files
Template Parameters
Concepts modeled
Type requirements
Public base classes
Member typedefs
Constructors
Destructor
Member functions
Non-member functions
See also
Acknowledgements

Description

The dynamic_bitset class represents a set of bits. It provides accesses to the value of individual bits via an operator[] and provides all of the bitwise operators that one can apply to builtin integers, such as operator& and operator<<. The number of bits in the set is specified at runtime via a parameter to the constructor of the dynamic_bitset.

The dynamic_bitset class is nearly identical to the std::bitset class. The difference is that the size of the dynamic_bitset (the number of bits) is specified at run-time during the construction of a dynamic_bitset object, whereas the size of a std::bitset is specified at compile-time through an integer template parameter.

The main problem that dynamic_bitset is designed to solve is that of representing a subset of a finite set. Each bit represents whether an element of the finite set is in the subset or not. As such the bitwise operations of dynamic_bitset, such as operator& and operator|, correspond to set operations, such as intersection and union.

Synopsis

namespace boost {

template <typename Block, typename Allocator>
class dynamic_bitset
{
public:
    typedef Block block_type;
    typedef implementation-defined size_type;
    enum { bits_per_block = CHAR_BIT * sizeof(Block) };

    class reference
    {
    public:
        // An automatically generated copy constructor.
        reference& operator=(bool value);
        reference& operator|=(bool value);
        reference& operator&=(bool value);
        reference& operator^=(bool value);
        reference& operator-=(bool value);
        reference& operator=(const reference& j);
        reference& operator|=(const reference& j);
        reference& operator&=(const reference& j);
        reference& operator^=(const reference& j);
        reference& operator-=(const reference& j);
        bool operator~() const;
        operator bool() const;
        reference& flip();
    };
    typedef bool const_reference;

    explicit dynamic_bitset(const Allocator& alloc = Allocator());

    explicit dynamic_bitset(size_type num_bits, unsigned long value = 0,
                            const Allocator& alloc = Allocator());

    template <typename CharT, typename Traits, typename Alloc>
    explicit dynamic_bitset(const std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Alloc>& s, 
        typename std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Alloc>::size_type pos = 0, 
        typename std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Alloc>::size_type n = std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Alloc>::npos,
        const Allocator& alloc = Allocator());

    template <typename BlockInputIterator>
    dynamic_bitset(BlockInputIterator first, BlockInputIterator last,
                   const Allocator& alloc = Allocator());

    dynamic_bitset(const dynamic_bitset& b);

    void swap(dynamic_bitset& b);

    dynamic_bitset& operator=(const dynamic_bitset& b);

    void resize(size_type num_bits, bool value = false);
    void clear();
    void push_back(bool bit);
    void append(Block block);
    template <typename BlockInputIterator>
    void append(BlockInputIterator first, BlockInputIterator last);

    dynamic_bitset& operator&=(const dynamic_bitset& b);
    dynamic_bitset& operator|=(const dynamic_bitset& b);
    dynamic_bitset& operator^=(const dynamic_bitset& b);
    dynamic_bitset& operator-=(const dynamic_bitset& b);
    dynamic_bitset& operator<<=(size_type n);
    dynamic_bitset& operator>>=(size_type n);
    dynamic_bitset operator<<(size_type n) const;
    dynamic_bitset operator>>(size_type n) const;

    dynamic_bitset& set(size_type n, bool val = true);
    dynamic_bitset& set();
    dynamic_bitset& reset(size_type n);
    dynamic_bitset& reset();
    dynamic_bitset& flip(size_type n);
    dynamic_bitset& flip();
    bool test(size_type n) const;
    bool any() const;
    bool none() const;
    dynamic_bitset operator~() const;
    size_type count() const;

    reference operator[](size_type pos) { return reference(*this, pos); }
    bool operator[](size_type pos) const { return test(pos); }

    unsigned long to_ulong() const;
  
    size_type size() const;
    size_type num_blocks() const;

    bool is_subset_of(const dynamic_bitset& a) const;
    bool is_proper_subset_of(const dynamic_bitset& a) const;
};

template <typename B, typename A>
bool operator==(const dynamic_bitset<B, A>& a, const dynamic_bitset<B, A>& b);

template <typename Block, typename Allocator>
bool operator!=(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& a, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b);

template <typename B, typename A>
bool operator<(const dynamic_bitset<B, A>& a, const dynamic_bitset<B, A>& b);

template <typename Block, typename Allocator>
bool operator<=(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& a, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b);

template <typename Block, typename Allocator>
bool operator>(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& a, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b);

template <typename Block, typename Allocator>
bool operator>=(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& a, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b);

template <typename Block, typename Allocator>
dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>
operator&(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b1, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b2);

template <typename Block, typename Allocator>
dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>
operator|(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b1, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b2);

template <typename Block, typename Allocator>
dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>
operator^(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b1, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b2);

template <typename Block, typename Allocator>
dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>
operator-(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b1, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b2);

template <typename Block, typename Allocator, typename CharT, typename Alloc>
void to_string(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b, 
          std::basic_string<CharT, Alloc>& s);

template <typename Block, typename Allocator, typename BlockOutputIterator>
void to_block_range(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b, 
                    BlockOutputIterator result);

template <typename CharT, typename Traits, typename Block, typename Allocator>
std::basic_ostream<CharT, Traits>&
operator<<(std::basic_ostream<CharT, Traits>& os, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b);

template <typename CharT, typename Traits, typename Block, typename Allocator>
std::basic_istream<CharT, Traits>&
operator>>(std::basic_istream<CharT, Traits>& is, dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b);

} // namespace boost

Definitions

Each bit represents either the Boolean value true or false (1 or 0). To set a bit is to assign it 1. To clear or reset a bit is to assign it 0. To flip a bit is to change the value to 1 if it was 0 and to 0 if it was 1. Each bit has a non-negative position. A bitset x contains x.size() bits, with each bit assigned a unique position in the range [0,x.size()). The bit at position 0 is called the least significant bit and the bit at position size() - 1 is the most significant bit. When converting an instance of dynamic_bitset to or from an unsigned long n, the bit at position i of the bitset has the same value as (n >> i) & 1.

Examples

An example of setting and reading some bits. Note that operator[] goes from the least-significant bit at 0 to the most significant bit at size()-1. The operator<< for dynamic_bitset prints the bitset from most-significant to least-significant, since that is the format most people are use to reading.

#include <iostream>
#include <boost/dynamic_bitset.hpp>
int main(int, char*[]) {
  boost::dynamic_bitset<> x(5); // all 0's by default
  x[0] = 1;
  x[1] = 1;
  x[4] = 1;
  for (boost::dynamic_bitset<>::size_type i = 0; i < x.size(); ++i)
    std::cout << x[i];
  std::cout << "\n";
  std::cout << x << "\n";
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

The output is

11001
10011

An example of creating some bitsets from integers (unsigned longs).

#include <iostream>
#include <boost/dynamic_bitset.hpp>
int main(int, char*[])
{
  const boost::dynamic_bitset<> b0(2, 0ul); 
  std::cout << "bits(0) = " << b0 << std::endl;

  const boost::dynamic_bitset<> b1(2, 1ul); 
  std::cout << "bits(1) = " << b1 << std::endl;

  const boost::dynamic_bitset<> b2(2, 2ul); 
  std::cout << "bits(2) = " << b2 << std::endl;

  const boost::dynamic_bitset<> b3(2, 3ul); 
  std::cout << "bits(3) = " << b3 << std::endl;

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

The output is

bits(0) = 00
bits(1) = 01
bits(2) = 10
bits(3) = 11

An example of performing some bitwise operations.

#include <iostream>
#include <boost/dynamic_bitset.hpp>
int main(int, char*[]) {
  const boost::dynamic_bitset<> mask(12, 2730ul); 
  std::cout << "mask = " << mask << std::endl;

  boost::dynamic_bitset<> x(12);

  std::cout << "Enter a 12-bit bitset in binary: " << std::flush;
  if (std::cin >> x) {
    std::cout << "input number:     " << x << std::endl;
    std::cout << "As unsigned long: " << x.to_ulong() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "And with mask:    " << (x & mask) << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Or with mask:     " << (x | mask) << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Shifted left:     " << (x << 1) << std::endl;
    std::cout << "Shifted right:    " << (x >> 1) << std::endl;
  }
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

The output is

mask = 101010101010
Enter a 12-bit bitset in binary: 100110101101
input number =    100110101101
As unsigned long: 2477
And with mask:    100010101000
Or with mask:     101110101111
Shifted left:     001101011010
Shifted right:    010011010110

Rationale

The dynamic_bitset does not provide iterators (and therefore is not a Container) for the following reasons:
  1. std::bitset does not have iterators, and dynamic_bitset is meant to be a run-time sized version of std::bitset.
  2. The dynamic_bitset is not designed to be a Container.
  3. A container with a proxy reference type can not fulfill the container requirements as specified in the C++ standard (unless one resorts to strange iterator semantics). std::vector<bool> has a proxy reference type and does not fulfill the container requirements and as a result has caused many problems. One common problem is when people try to use iterators from std::vector<bool> with a Standard algorithm such as std::search. The std::search requirements say that the iterator must be a Forward Iterator, but the std::vector<bool>::iterator does not meet this requirement because of the proxy reference. Depending on the implementation, they may or not be a compile error or even a run-time error due to this misuse. For further discussion of the problem see Effective STL by Scott Meyers). So dynamic_bitset tries to avoid these problems by not pretending to be a container.

Some people prefer the name "toggle" to "flip". The name "flip" was chosen because that is the name used in std::bitset. In fact, most of the function names for dynamic_bitset were chosen for this reason.

dynamic_bitset does not throw exceptions when a precondition is violated (as is done in std::bitset). Instead assert is used. See the guidelines for Error and Exception Handling for the explanation.

Header Files

The class dynamic_bitset is defined in the header boost/dynamic_bitset.hpp. Also, there is a forward declaration for dynamic_bitset in the header boost/dynamic_bitset_fwd.hpp.

Template parameters

Parameter Description Default
Block The integer type in which the bits are stored. unsigned long
Allocator The allocator type used for all internal memory management. std::allocator<Block>

Concepts Modeled

Assignable, Default Constructible, Equality Comparable, LessThan Comparable.

Type requirements

Block is an unsigned integer type. Allocator satisfies the Standard requirements for an Allocator.

Public base classes

None.

Member typedefs


dynamic_bitset::reference

A proxy class that acts as a reference to a single bit. It contains an assignment operator, a conversion to bool, an operator~, and a member function flip. It exists only as a helper class for dynamic_bitset's operator[]. The following table describes the valid operations on the reference type. Assume that b is an instance of dynamic_bitset, i, j are of size_type and in the range [0,b.size()). Also, note that when we write b[i] we mean an object of type reference that was initialized from b[i]. The variable x is a bool.

ExpressionSemantics
x = b[i] Assign the ith bit of b to x.
(bool)b[i] Return the ith bit of b.
b[i] = x Set the ith bit of b to the value of x and return b[i].
b[i] |= x Or the ith bit of b with the value of x and return b[i].
b[i] &= x And the ith bit of b with the value of x and return b[i].
b[i] ^= x Exclusive-Or the ith bit of b with the value of x and return b[i].
b[i] -= x If x==true, clear the ith bit of b. Returns b[i].
b[i] = b[j] Set the ith bit of b to the value of the jth bit of b and return b[i].
b[i] |= b[j] Or the ith bit of b with the jth bit of b and return b[i].
b[i] &= b[j] And the ith bit of b with the jth bit of b and return b[i].
b[i] ^= b[j] Exclusive-Or the ith bit of b with the jth bit of b and return b[i].
b[i] -= b[j] If the jth bit of b is set, clear the ith bit of b. Returns b[i].
x = ~b[i] Assign the opposite of the ith bit of b to x.
(bool)~b[i] Return the opposite of the ith bit of b.
b[i].flip() Flip the ith bit of b and return b[i].

dynamic_bitset::const_reference
The type bool.
dynamic_bitset::size_type
The unsigned integer for representing the size of the bit set.
dynamic_bitset::block_type
The same type as the Block template parameter.
dynamic_bitset::bits_per_block
The number of bits in a Block.

Constructors


dynamic_bitset(const Allocator& alloc = Allocator())
Effects: Constructs a bitset of size zero. A copy of the alloc object will be used in subsequent bitset operations such as resize to allocate memory.
Postconditions: this->size() == 0.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).
(Required by Default Constructible.)
dynamic_bitset(size_type num_bits,
               unsigned long value = 0,
               const Allocator& alloc = Allocator())
Effects: Constructs a bitset from an integer. The first M bits are initialized to the corresponding bits in val and all other bits, if any, to zero (where M = min(num_bits, sizeof(unsigned long) * CHAR_BIT)). A copy of the alloc object will be used in subsequent bitset operations such as resize to allocate memory.
Postconditions: Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).

dynamic_bitset(const dynamic_bitset& x)
Effects: Constructs a bitset that is a copy of the bitset x. The allocator for this bitset is a copy of the allocator in x.
Postconditions: For all i in the range [0,x.size()), (*this)[i] == x[i].
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).
(Required by Assignable.)
template <typename BlockInputIterator>
explicit
dynamic_bitset(BlockInputIterator first, BlockInputIterator last,
               const Allocator& alloc = Allocator());
Effects: Constructs a bitset based on a range of blocks. Let *first be block number 0, *++first block number 1, etc. Block number b is used to initialize the bits of the dynamic_bitset in the position range [b*bits_per_block, (b+1)*bits_per_block). For each block number b with value bval, the bit (bval >> i) & 1 corresponds to the bit at position (b * bits_per_block + i) in the bitset (where i goes through the range [0, bits_per_block)).
Requires: The type BlockInputIterator must be a model of Input Iterator and its value_type must be the same type as Block.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).

template<typename Char, typename Traits, typename Alloc>
explicit
dynamic_bitset(const std::basic_string<Char,Traits,Alloc>& s,
               typename std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Alloc>::size_type pos = 0,
               typename std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Alloc>::size_type n = std::basic_string<Char,Traits,Alloc>::npos,
               const Allocator& alloc = Allocator()) 
Precondition: pos <= s.size() and the characters used to initialize the bits must be 0 or 1.
Effects: Constructs a bitset from a string of 0's and 1's. The first M bits are initialized to the corresponding characters in s, where M = min(s.size() - pos, n). Note that the highest character position in s, not the lowest, corresponds to the least significant bit. That is, character position pos + M - 1 - i corresponds to bit i. So, for example, dynamic_bitset(string("1101")) is the same as dynamic_bitset(13ul).
Throws: an allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).

Destructor


~dynamic_bitset()
Effects: Releases the memory associated with this bitset and destroys the bitset object itself.
Throws: nothing.

Member Functions


void swap(dynamic_bitset& b);
Effects: The contents of this bitset and bitset b are exchanged.
Postconditions: This bitset is equal to the original b, and b is equal to the previous version of this bitset.
Throws: nothing.
dynamic_bitset& operator=(const dynamic_bitset& x)
Effects: This bitset becomes a copy of the bitset x.
Postconditions: For all i in the range [0,x.size()), (*this)[i] == x[i].
Returns: *this.
Throws: nothing.
(Required by Assignable.)
void resize(size_type num_bits, bool value = false);
Effects: Changes the number of bits of the bitset to num_bits. If num_bits > size() then the bits in the range [0,size()) remain the same, and the bits in [size(),num_bits) are all set to value. If num_bits < size() then the bits in the range [0,num_bits) stay the same (and the remaining bits are discarded).
Postconditions: this->size() == num_bits.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).

void clear()
Effects: The size of the bitset becomes zero.
Throws: nothing.
void push_back(bool value);
Effects: Increases the size of the bitset by one, and sets the value of the new most-significant bit to value.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).

void append(Block value);
Effects: Appends the bits in value to the bitset (appends to the most-significant end). This increases the size of the bitset by bits_per_block. Let s be the old size of the bitset, then for i in the range [0,bits_per_block), the bit at position (s + i) is set to ((value >> i) & 1).
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).

template <typename BlockInputIterator>
void append(BlockInputIterator first, BlockInputIterator last);
Effects: This function provides the same end result as the following code, but is typically more efficient.
for (; first != last; ++first)
  append(*first);
Requires: The BlockInputIterator type must be a model of Input Iterator and the value_type must be the same type as Block.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).

dynamic_bitset& operator&=(const dynamic_bitset& rhs)
Requires: this->size() == rhs.size().
Effects: Bitwise-AND all the bits in rhs with the bits in this bitset. This is equivalent to:
for (size_type i = 0; i != this->size(); ++i)
  (*this)[i] = (*this)[i] & rhs[i];
Returns: *this.
Throws: nothing.
dynamic_bitset& operator|=(const dynamic_bitset& rhs)
Requires: this->size() == rhs.size().
Effects: Bitwise-OR's all the bits in rhs with the bits in this bitset. This is equivalent to:
for (size_type i = 0; i != this->size(); ++i)
  (*this)[i] = (*this)[i] | rhs[i];
Returns: *this.
Throws: nothing.
dynamic_bitset& operator^=(const dynamic_bitset& rhs)
Requires: this->size() == rhs.size().
Effects: Bitwise-XOR's all the bits in rhs with the bits in this bitset. This is equivalent to:
for (size_type i = 0; i != this->size(); ++i)
  (*this)[i] = (*this)[i] ^ rhs[i];
Returns: *this.
Throws: nothing.
dynamic_bitset& operator-=(const dynamic_bitset& rhs)
Requires: this->size() == rhs.size().
Effects: Computes the set difference of this bitset and the rhs bitset. This is equivalent to:
for (size_type i = 0; i != this->size(); ++i)
  (*this)[i] = (*this)[i] && !rhs[i];
Returns: *this.
Throws: nothing.
dynamic_bitset& operator<<=(size_type n)
Effects: Shifts the bits in this bitset to the left by n bits. For each bit in the bitset, the bit at position pos takes on the previous value of the bit at position pos - n, or zero if no such bit exists.
Returns: *this.
Throws: nothing.
dynamic_bitset& operator>>=(size_type n)
Effects: Shifts the bits in this bitset to the right by n bits. For each bit in the bitset, the bit at position pos takes on the previous value of bit pos + n, or zero if no such bit exists.
Returns: *this.
Throws: nothing.
dynamic_bitset operator<<(size_type n) const
Returns: a copy of *this shifted to the left by n bits. For each bit in the returned bitset, the bit at position pos takes on the value of the bit at position pos - n of this bitset, or zero if no such bit exists. Note that the expression b << n is equivalent to constructing a temporary copy of b and then using operator<<=.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).
dynamic_bitset operator>>(size_type n) const
Returns: a copy of *this shifted to the right by n bits. For each bit in the returned bitset, the bit at position pos takes on the value of the bit at position pos + n of this bitset, or zero if no such bit exists. Note that the expression b >> n is equivalent to constructing a temporary copy of b and then using operator>>=.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).
dynamic_bitset& set()
Effects: Sets every bit in this bitset to 1.
Returns: *this
Throws: nothing.
dynamic_bitset& flip()
Effects: Flips the value of every bit in this bitset.
Returns: *this
Throws: nothing.
dynamic_bitset operator~() const
Returns: a copy of *this with all of its bits flipped.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).
dynamic_bitset& reset()
Effects: Clears every bit in this bitset.
Returns: *this
Throws: nothing.
dynamic_bitset& set(size_type n, bool val = true)
Precondition: n < this->size().
Effects: Sets bit n if val is true, and clears bit n if val is false.
Returns: *this
dynamic_bitset& reset(size_type n)
Precondition: n < this->size().
Effects: Clears bit n.
Returns: *this
dynamic_bitset& flip(size_type n)
Precondition: n < this->size().
Effects: Flips bit n.
Returns: *this
size_type size() const
Returns: the number of bits in this bitset.
Throws: nothing.
size_type num_blocks() const
Returns: the number of blocks in this bitset.
Throws: nothing.
size_type count() const
Returns: the number of bits in this bitset that are set.
Throws: nothing.
bool any() const
Returns: true if any bits in this bitset are set, and otherwise returns false.
Throws: nothing.
bool none() const
Returns: true if no bits are set, and otherwise returns false.
Throws: nothing.
bool test(size_type n) const
Precondition: n < this->size().
Returns: true if bit n is set and false is bit n is 0.
reference operator[](size_type n)
Precondition: n < this->size().
Returns: a reference to bit n. Note that reference is a proxy class with an assignment operator and a conversion to bool, which allows you to use operator[] for assignment. That is, you can write both x = b[n] and b[n] = x. However, in many other respects the proxy is not the same as the true reference type bool&.
bool operator[](size_type n) const
Precondition: n < this->size().
Returns: true if bit n is set.
unsigned long to_ulong() const
Returns: An unsigned long integer whose bits corresponds to the bits in this bitset, as long as there are no bits in the bitset that are set to 1 at a position greater than sizeof(unsigned long) * CHAR_BIT. Throws: std::overflow_error if the value of the bitset can not be represented in an unsigned long.
bool is_subset_of(const dynamic_bitset& a) const
Requires: this->size() == a.size()
Returns: true if this bitset is a subset of bitset a. That is, it returns true if, for every bit that is set in this bitset, the corresponding bit in bitset a is also set. Otherwise this function returns false.
Throws: nothing.
bool is_proper_subset_of(const dynamic_bitset& a) const
Requires: this->size() == a.size()
Returns: true if this bitset is a proper subset of bitset a. That is, it returns true if, for every bit that is set in this bitset, the corresponding bit in bitset a is also set and if this->count() < a.count(). Otherwise this function returns false.
Throws: nothing.
bool operator==(const dynamic_bitset& rhs) const
Returns: true if this->size() == rhs.size() and if for all i in the range [0,rhs.size()), (*this)[i] == rhs[i]. Otherwise returns false.
Throws: nothing.
(Required by Equality Comparable.)
bool operator!=(const dynamic_bitset& rhs) const
Returns: !((*this) == rhs)
Throws: nothing.
(Required by Equality Comparable.)
bool operator<(const dynamic_bitset& rhs) const
Returns: true if this bitset is lexicographically less than rhs, and returns false otherwise. (See the description of lexicographical_compare for a definition of lexicographic ordering).
Throws: nothing.
(Required by Less Than Comparable.)
bool operator>(const dynamic_bitset& rhs) const
Returns: !((*this) < rhs || (*this) == rhs)
Throws: nothing.
(Required by Less Than Comparable.)
bool operator<=(const dynamic_bitset& rhs) const
Returns: (*this) < rhs || (*this) == rhs
Throws: nothing.
(Required by Less Than Comparable.)
bool operator>=(const dynamic_bitset& rhs) const
Returns: (*this) > rhs || (*this) == rhs
Throws: nothing.
(Required by Less Than Comparable.)

Non-Member Functions


dynamic_bitset operator&(const dynamic_bitset& a, const dynamic_bitset& b)
Requires: a.size() == b.size()
Returns: A new bitset that is the bitwise-AND of the bitsets a and b. Note that the expression b1 & b2 is equivalent to creating a temporary copy of b1, using operator&=, and returning the temporary copy.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).
dynamic_bitset operator|(const dynamic_bitset& a, const dynamic_bitset& b)
Requires: a.size() == b.size()
Returns: A new bitset that is the bitwise-OR of the bitsets a and b. Note that the expression b1 & b2 is equivalent to creating a temporary copy of b1, using operator&=, and returning the temporary copy.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).
dynamic_bitset operator^(const dynamic_bitset& a, const dynamic_bitset& b)
Requires: a.size() == b.size()
Returns: A new bitset that is the bitwise-XOR of the bitsets a and b. Note that the expression b1 & b2 is equivalent to creating a temporary copy of b1, using operator&=, and returning the temporary copy.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).
dynamic_bitset operator-(const dynamic_bitset& a, const dynamic_bitset& b)
Requires: a.size() == b.size()
Returns: A new bitset that is the set difference of the bitsets a and b. Note that the expression b1 - b2 is equivalent to creating a temporary copy of b1, using operator-=, and returning the temporary copy.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator).
template <typename CharT, typename Alloc>
void to_string(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Allocator>& b,
               std::basic_string<Char,Traits,Alloc>& s)
Effects: Copies a representation of b into the string s. A character in the string is '1' if the corresponding bit is set, and '0' if it is not. Character position i in the string corresponds to bit position b.size() - 1 - i.
Throws: If memory is exhausted, the string will throw an allocation error.
Rationale: This function is not a member function taking zero arguments and returning a string for a couple reasons. First, this version can be slighly more efficient because the string is not copied (due to being passed by value). Second, as a member function, to allow for flexibility with regards to the template parameters of basic_string, the member function would require explicit template parameters. Few C++ programmers are familiar with explicit template parameters, and some C++ compilers do not handle them properly.
template <typename Block, typename Alloc, typename BlockOutputIterator>
void to_block_range(const dynamic_bitset<Block, Alloc>& b, BlockOutputIterator result)
Effects: Writes the bits of the bitset into the iterator result a block at a time. The first block written represents the bits in the position range [0,bits_per_block) in the bitset, the second block written the bits in the range [bits_pre_block,2*bits_per_block), and so on. For each block bval written, the bit (bval >> i) & 1 corresponds to the bit at position (b * bits_per_block + i) in the bitset.
Requires: The type BlockOutputIterator must be a model of Output Iterator and its value_type must be the same type as Block. Further, the size of the output range must be greater or equal b.num_blocks().
template <typename BlockIterator, typename Block, typename Alloc>
void from_block_range(BlockIterator first,
    BlockIterator last, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Alloc>& b)
Effects: Reads blocks from the iterator range into the bitset.
Requires: The type BlockIterator must be a model of Input Iterator and its value_type must be the same type as Block. The size of the iterator range must be less or equal to b.num_blocks().
template <typename Char, typename Traits, typename Block, typename Alloc>
basic_ostream<Char, Traits>&
operator<<(basic_ostream<Char, Traits>& os, const dynamic_bitset<Block, Alloc>& x)
Output a dynamic_bitset to an output stream. This function behaves as if it converts the dynamic_bitset to a string and then writes that string to the output stream. That is, it is equivalent to
std::basic_string<Char, Traits> s;
to_string(x, s):
os << s;
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator). Also will throw std::ios_base::failure if there is a problem writing to the stream.
template <typename Char, typename Traits, typename Block, typename Alloc>
basic_istream<Char,Traits>&
operator>>(basic_istream<Char,Traits>& is, dynamic_bitset<Block, Alloc>& x)
Effects: Extracts a dynamic_bitset from an input stream. This function first skips whitespace, then extracts up to x.size() characters from the input stream. It stops either when it has successfully extracted x.size() characters, or when extraction fails, or when it sees a character that is something other than 1 (in which case it does not extract that character). If extraction is successful, the function then assigns a value to the bitset in the same way as if it were initializing the bitset from a string. So, for example, if the input stream contains the characters "1100abc", it will assign the value 12ul to the bitset, and the next character read from the input stream will be a.
Throws: An allocation error if memory is exhausted (std::bad_alloc if Allocator=std::allocator). Also will throw std::ios_base::failure if there is a problem reading from the stream.

See also

std::bitset, std::vector,

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Boost community for putting in the time to review and accept this library. This library is much better than it ever would have been due to all the suggestions from Boost members. We especially thank Matt Marcus for taking on the task of review manager. Also, a special thanks goes to Gennaro Prota for work on increasing efficiency for many of dynamic_bitset's functions.


Copyright © 2001 Jeremy Siek, Indiana University (jsiek@osl.iu.edu)
Chuck Allison, Senior Editor, C/C++ Users Journal (cda@freshsources.com)