forward_circular_buffer

A header-only C++ 23 container providing a circular buffer where begin() points to the oldest written element and end() to the newest.

Table of Contents

• General Information
• Technologies Used
• Features
• Setup
• Usage
• Project Status
• Room for Improvement
• Acknowledgements
• License

General Information

• forward_circular_buffer is a fixed-size circular buffer implementation using std::array as storage.
• Iteration order starts from the oldest element and proceeds forward to the newest.
• It provides contiguous-style iterators, random access, and STL-like semantics (begin, end, rbegin, etc.).

Technologies Used

• C++ 23
• STL (std::array, std::iterator, std::construct_at, std::destroy_at)
• Custom runtime assertions via stdfunc::assert

Features

• Fixed-capacity, compile-time sized circular buffer (N elements)
• Iteration order: oldest - newest
• begin(), end(), rbegin(), rend() with full iterator support
• STL-like interface (push_back, emplace_back, pop_back, front, back, clear, fill)
• Compile-time safety via concepts and assertions
• Works with trivially or non-trivially constructible types
• Header-only - no linking required

Setup

There are no external dependencies other than the C++ 23 standard library and stdfunc for assertions.

To use it:

#include "forward_circular_buffer.hpp"

See config.sh for what to include.

Usage

#include <print>

#include "forward_circular_buffer.hpp"

auto main() -> int {
    fcb::forwardCircularBuffer_t< int, 5 > l_buffer;

    l_buffer.push_back( 1 );
    l_buffer.push_back( 2 );
    l_buffer.push_back( 3 );

    for (auto _value : l_buffer) {
        std::print( "{} ", _value ); // Output: 1 2 3
    }

    l_buffer.pop_back(); // Removes 3
    l_buffer.push_back( 4 );
    l_buffer.push_back( 5 );

    for (auto _value : l_buffer) {
        std::print( "{} ", _value ); // Output: 1 2 4 5
    }

    return ( EXIT_SUCCESS );
}

begin() returns the oldest written element, and end() refers to current write position. front() and back() give the oldest and most recently written elements respectively.

Project Status

Project is: in progress.

Room for Improvement

To do:

• Add erase() and insert() operations
• Implement begin(), end()

Acknowledgements

• This project was based on std::array and std::vector.

License

This project is open source and available under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0.