Dear Boosters Suppose you have a matrix represented raw-wise with a vector< vector <float > > and you want to iterate over the coloumns. Easy with the projection adaptor. But life is never so easy. My matrix is represented raw wise by a map and I need the same kind of iterator. There is no way I can get my code to compile. I think the problem is that vector iterators return values, map iterators retun pairs (that is, references to the above). And this seems not only to doom my attempt at defining this n-th dim projection iterator, but even more so and fundamentally, it seem to preclude my ultimate goal of defining a projection for any container1 > where container2 two is random access. Any help would be appreciated and if I make it to the larger goal, I will return it to the community. Thanks Antonio Header #ifndef GRAPH_H #define GRAPH_H #include #include <vector> #include <iostream> #include <iterator> #include <algorithm> #include //typedef pair graph_element; typedef vector<float> graph_element; template <int index> struct select_component { typedef pair < long, graph_element > argument_type; typedef float result_type; const float & operator()(const graph_element & r) const { return r.second[index]; } float & operator()(graph_element & r) const { return r.second[index]; } }; #endif Would be test code #include "graph.h" #include <map> #include<vector> int main(int, char*[]) { typedef map < long, graph_element > graph; graph aGraph; aGraph[0].push_back(0.00); aGraph[0].push_back(0.01); aGraph[0].push_back(0.02); aGraph[1].push_back(0.10); aGraph[1].push_back(0.11); aGraph[1].push_back(0.12); aGraph[2].push_back(0.20); aGraph[2].push_back(0.21); aGraph[2].push_back(0.22); aGraph[3].push_back(0.30); aGraph[3].push_back(0.31); aGraph[3].push_back(0.32); boost::projection_iterator_generator < select_component < 0 >, graph::iterator >::type graph_first(aGraph.begin()), graph_last(aGraph.end()); copy(graph_first, graph_last, ostream_iterator<float>(cout, "\n")); cout << endl; } Post-modern error message cd /home/apicco/src/analysis/transcriptome/transmap/ g++ -g -I/home/apicco/install/boost_1_28_0 -o graph-test graph-test.C /home/apicco/install/boost_1_28_0/boost/iterator_adaptors.hpp: In method `typename IteratorAdaptor::reference boost::projection_iterator_policies<AdaptableUnaryFunction>::dereferen ce (const IteratorAdaptor &) const [with IteratorAdaptor = boost::iterator_adaptor<_Rb_tree_iterator, pair &, pair *>, boost::projection_iterator_policies >, float, float &, float *, boost::detail::default_argument, boost::detail::default_argument>, AdaptableUnaryFunction = select_component<0>]': /home/apicco/install/boost_1_28_0/boost/iterator_adaptors.hpp:867: instantiated from `boost::iterator_adaptor::operator* () const [with Base = _Rb_tree_iterator, pair &, pair *>, Policies = boost::projection_iterator_policies >, Value = float, Reference = float &, Pointer = float *, Category = boost::detail::default_argument, Distance = boost::detail::default_argument]' /usr/include/g++-3/stl_algobase.h:129: instantiated from `__copy (_InputIter, _InputIter, _OutputIter, input_iterator_tag, _Distance *) [with _InputIter = boost::iterator_adaptor<_Rb_tree_iterator, pair &, pair *>, boost::projection_iterator_policies >, float, float &, float *, boost::detail::default_argument, boost::detail::default_argument>, _OutputIter = ostream_iterator<float>, _Distance = ptrdiff_t]' /usr/include/g++-3/stl_algobase.h:161: instantiated from `__copy_dispatch<_InputIter, _OutputIter, _BoolType>::copy (_InputIter, _InputIter, _OutputIter) [with _InputIter = boost::iterator_adaptor<_Rb_tree_iterator, pair &, pair *>, boost::projection_iterator_policies >, float, float &, float *, boost::detail::default_argument, boost::detail::default_argument>, _OutputIter = ostream_iterator<float>, _BoolType = __true_type]' /usr/include/g++-3/stl_algobase.h:188: instantiated from `copy (_InputIter, _InputIter, _OutputIter) [with _InputIter = boost::iterator_adaptor<_Rb_tree_iterator, pair &, pair *>, boost::projection_iterator_policies >, float, float &, float *, boost::detail::default_argument, boost::detail::default_argument>, _OutputIter = ostream_iterator<float>]' graph-test.C:30: instantiated from here /home/apicco/install/boost_1_28_0/boost/iterator_adaptors.hpp:1247: no match for call to `(const select_component<0>) (pair &)' graph.h:19: candidates are: const float &select_component<index>::operator() (const graph_element &) const [with int index = 0] graph.h:22: float &select_component<index>::operator () (graph_element &) const [with int index = 0] Compilation exited abnormally with code 1 at Tue Sep 24 11:14:11