c++ - Renaming first and second of a map iterator

Question

Is there any way to rename the first and second accessor functions of a map iterator. I understand they have these names because of the underlying pair which represents the key and value, but I'd like the iterators to be a little more readable. I think this might be possible using an iterator adaptor, but I'm not sure how to implement it.

Please note that I can't use boost.

Example of what I mean:

map<Vertex, Edge> adjacency_list;
for(map<Vertex, Edge>::iterator it = adjacency_list.begin();
    it != adjacency_list.end();
    ++it)
{
    Vertex v = it->first;
    //instead I would like to have it->vertex
}

Answer 1

If you're just concerned about readability you could do something like this:

typedef map<Vertex, Edge> AdjacencyList;
struct adjacency
{
    adjacency(AdjacencyList::iterator& it) 
      : vertex(it->first), edge(it->second) {}
    Vertex& vertex;
    Edge& edge;
};

And then:

Vertex v = adjacency(it).vertex;