STL iterator invalidation rules, succinctly

http://www.martinbroadhurst.com/iterator-invalidation-rules-for-c-containers.html has concise explanations. Specifically,

• list insertions don’t invalidate any iterator. I feel iterator is a pointer to a node.
• tree insertions don’t invalidate any iterator. Same reason as list.
• for erasure from lists or trees, only the iterator to the erased node is invalidated.

Now for vector:

• vector insertion invalidates any iterator positioned somewhere after the insertion point. If reallocation happens due to exceeding vector.capacity() then all invalidated

Who cares?

1. in projects, we always check the documentation
2. in coding interviews, we can save precious time if we remember these rules
3. in QQ interviews, I have never received such a knowledge question. I think interviewers don’t consider this very “deep”, but we could possibly impress some interviews.