how to duplicate cin

Question

I tried to do

auto cin2 = cin;
int a;
cin2 >> a;

But the compiler only gives me not understandable errors:

/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.4.7/../../../../include/c++/4.4.7/bits/ios_base.h: In copy constructor ‘std::basic_ios<char, std::char_traits<char> >::basic_ios(const std::basic_ios<char, std::char_traits<char> >&)’:
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.4.7/../../../../include/c++/4.4.7/bits/ios_base.h:790: error: ‘std::ios_base::ios_base(const std::ios_base&)’ is private
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.4.7/../../../../include/c++/4.4.7/iosfwd:47: error: within this context
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.4.7/../../../../include/c++/4.4.7/iosfwd: In copy constructor ‘std::basic_istream<char, std::char_traits<char> >::basic_istream(const std::basic_istream<char, std::char_traits<char> >&)’:
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.4.7/../../../../include/c++/4.4.7/iosfwd:53: note: synthesized method ‘std::basic_ios<char, std::char_traits<char> >::basic_ios(const std::basic_ios<char, std::char_traits<char> >&)’ first required here
test.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
test.cpp:6: note: synthesized method ‘std::basic_istream<char, std::char_traits<char> >::basic_istream(const std::basic_istream<char, std::char_traits<char> >&)’ first required here

What is the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

The standard class std::istream is not copyable. You can declare a reference to std::cin for example the following way

decltype(auto) cin2 = ( std::cin );
int a;
cin2 >> a;

Or you can write

auto &cin2 = std::cin;

To implement an istream iterator you can use a reference or pointer to the stream.