C++ has changed a lot since I was first learned about it in college, so I’m going to do a series of posts outlining some of those changes as they come up for me. First off: range-based for-loops using auto type-inference. Here’s the TL;DR:

• Use auto i when you want to work with copies of the array items
• Use auto &i when you want to work with the original items and maybe modify them place
• Use auto const &i when you want to work with the original items and not modify them

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    // basic 10-element integer array
    int arr[10] = {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};

    // range based for loop to iterate over the array
    // access of arr by value declared as a specific type
    for (int i: arr)
    {
        cout << i << " ";
    }
    cout << endl;

    // access of arr by value using type-inference
    for (auto i: arr)
    {
        cout << i << " ";
    }
    cout << endl;

    // type-inference and access by reference
    // used when modifying arr in-place
    for (auto &i: arr)
    {
        cout << i << " ";
    }
    cout << endl;

    // type-inference and access by reference
    // used when not modifying in-place
    for (auto const &i: arr)
    {
        cout << i << " ";
    }
    cout << endl;
}

Compile as:

$ g++ --std=c++14 -o range-based-for-loop range-based-for-loop.cpp