C++ Primer, Fifth Edition

Combining Dereference and Increment in a Single Expression

The postfix versions of ++ and -- are used when we want to use the current value of a variable and increment it in a single compound expression.

As one example, we can use postfix increment to write a loop to print the values in a vector up to but not including the first negative value:

auto pbeg = v.begin();// print elements up to the first negative valuewhile (pbeg != v.end() && *beg >= 0)    cout << *pbeg++ << endl; // print the current value and advance pbeg

The expression *pbeg++ is usually confusing to programmers new to both C++ and C. However, because this usage pattern is so ...