C++ vector iterator: erase() last item crash

c++, crash, erase, iterator

Solution

The usual idiom is

for (std::vector<gdf::Entity>::iterator it = brickWall.begin(); it != brickWall.end(); /*note nothing here*/) 
{
    if (it->getRect().intersects(ballMother.getRect())) {
        it->rect.setFillColor(sf::Color::Red);
        it = brickWall.erase(it);
    }
    else {
        it->rect.setFillColor(it->colour);                
        ++it;
    }
}

otherwise you will be skipping elements, as well as eventually crash by going past the end.

Problem

The following code checks if a ball overlaps with a brick. The brick is highlighted and erased from the list if the overlap occurs. I am experiencing a core dump when erasing only the last item in the vector brickWall. Commenting the erase() line, the code seems to work well. After looking through similar issues on forums, I believed I was iterating through and erasing the items in the vector properly, but I suspect it may not be the case. Any suggestions on this code would be much appreciated! ``` void Game::updateEntities() { ballMother.update(); for (std::vector<gdf::Entity>::iterator it = brickWall.begin(); it != brickWall.end(); ++it) { if (it->getRect().intersects(ballMother.getRect())) { it->rect.setFillColor(sf::Color::Red); it = brickWall.erase(it); } else { it->rect.setFillColor(it->colour); } } } ```

Original source