What is a Range in C++?

A range in C++ is a concept introduced in C++20, representing a sequence of elements with a beginning and an end, defined by begin() and end() methods. The main difference between iterators and ranges are:

• Iterators: Provide a way to traverse through elements in a container. They act as pointers to elements.
• Ranges: Encompass the entire sequence and provide the begin() and end() methods to obtain iterators.

Here's an example:

1#include <vector>
2#include <iostream>
3
4int main() {
5  std::vector<int> Vector{1, 2, 3};
6  
7  // Range-based for loop
8  for (int x : Vector) { 
9    std::cout << x << ", ";
10  }
11}

11, 2, 3,

In this example, Vector is a range, and the range-based for loop uses it to iterate over the elements.