Not all containers I use have a (begin, end) constructor: #include <boost/range.hpp> #include <algorithm> #include <boost/numeric/ublas/vector.hpp> #include <boost/multi_array.hpp> #include <pyublas/numpy.hpp> namespace detail { template<typename cont_t, typename range> struct construct_from_range_impl { cont_t operator() (range const& r) { return cont_t (boost::begin (r), boost::end (r)); } }; template<typename T, typename range> struct construct_from_range_impl<boost::numeric::ublas::vector<T>, range> { typedef typename boost::numeric::ublas::vector<T> ret_t; ret_t operator() (range const& r) { ret_t v (boost::size (r)); std::copy (boost::begin (r), boost::end (r), v.begin()); return v; } }; template<typename T, typename range> struct construct_from_range_impl<boost::multi_array<T,1>, range> { typedef typename boost::multi_array<T,1> ret_t; ret_t operator() (range const& r) { ret_t v (r); return v; } }; template<typename T, typename range> struct construct_from_range_impl<pyublas::numpy_vector<T>, range> { typedef typename pyublas::numpy_vector<T> ret_t; ret_t operator() (range const& r) { ret_t v (r); return v; } }; } template<typename cont_t, typename range> cont_t inline construct_from_range (range const& r) { return detail::construct_from_range_impl<cont_t,range>() (r); }