Because std::vector<bool>
is not a container !
std::vector<T>
‘s iterators usually dereference to a T&
, which you can bind to your own auto&
.
std::vector<bool>
, however, packs its bool
s together inside integers, so you need a proxy to do the bit-masking when accessing them. Thus, its iterators return a Proxy
.
And since the returned Proxy
is an prvalue (a temporary), it cannot bind to an lvalue reference such as auto&
.
The solution : use auto&&
, which will correctly collapse into an lvalue reference if given one, or bind and maintain the temporary alive if it’s given a proxy.