deleting from a Boost MultiIndex

boost, boost-multi-index

Solution

There is no such thing "`erase` function of the multi-index structure". Note that `erase` is a member-function of an index, and its signature may vary depending on the index type.

In particular, ordered and hashed indices have the following overloads of `erase`:

iterator  erase(iterator position);
size_type erase(const key_type& x);
iterator  erase(iterator first,iterator last);

I.e. if `shared_ptr` is a key, you definitely can pass it to `erase` function. Of course, you can call `find` first, get the iterator and pass it to `erase`.

Problem

I have a boost multi-index structure that keeps boost::shared_ptr to instances of a class A. When I use the "find" function of one of the index, I get an iterator "it" from which I can get back the actual pointer through `A* a = it->get();`. How can I delete `a` from the multi-index knowing that the `erase` function of the multi-index structure takes an iterator, not a pointer nor a boost::shared_ptr? The thing is at the point of the program where I want to erase the object, I don't have anymore my initial iterator, only the actual pointer. Thanks

Original source