Is there a C# equivalent to the STL output iterator?

Question

I'm looking for some type of iterator/enumerator that can write to the backing collection. As I understand it c# enumerators are read-only.

Answer 1

There's nothing already existing in C# to do such a thing.

You're right IEnumerator's Current property is defined as a getter only.

You'd need to write a new class and/or interface to support such a thing.

interface IOutputable<T> {
  IOutputer<T> GetOutputer();
  }

interface IOutputer<T> {

  T Current { set; }

  bool MoveNext();
  void Reset();
  }

Answer 2

AFAIK an output iterator is a way to create a sequence of objects. There's a myriad of ways to do that in C#. For example, using a Stack. Instead of doing a C++ style increment/assign operation you'd do a push:

var sequence = new Stack<int>();
sequence.Push( 1 );
sequence.Push( 2 );

Unless you have a very specific application for it, there's probably no benefit in trying to emulate output iterators in C#.

Answer 3

Depending on what you're trying to do, a yield return might do what you're looking for as well.