Dear Experts, I have some code which currently uses a std::vector of pointers, and I'm investigating whether I can make it more concise, exception-safe, or otherwise better using a ptr_vector. But I can't see a good way to replace the following code, which shifts part of the vector by one place, deleting one pointee and creating a new one at the other end: struct LargeThing { .... }; std::vector<LargeThing*> v; void shift(int start, int end) { delete v[start]; for (int i=start; i<end; ++i) { // or use a std::algorithm v[i]=v[i+1]; } v[end] = new LargeThing; } With a ptr_vector, I think that I could do something like struct LargeThing { .... }; boost::ptr_vector<LargeThing> v; void shift(int start, int end) { v.release(v.begin()+start); // or should that be erase() ? v.insert(v.begin()+end-1, new LargeThing); } But this has complexity O(v.length()), because v.release() has to move all elements beyond start, while my current code has complexity O(end-start), because it doesn't touch the elements beyond end. Is there some better way to accomplish this? Maybe transfer() can be used? Or something involving swap()? Thanks for any suggestions. Phil.