Why I can't define compare without constant

Question

If I define my compare function like this:

bool compare(Student& a, Student& b)
{
    return a.n < b.n;
}

g++ will complain:

g++ -Wall main.cpp -o main
In file included from /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.5.3/include/g++-v4/algorithm:63:0,
                 from main.cpp:1:
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.5.3/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_algo.h: In function ‘_RandomAccessIterator std::__unguarded_partition(_RandomAccessIterator, _RandomAccessIterator, const _Tp&, _Compare) [with _RandomAccessIterator = __gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<Student*, std::vector<Student> >, _Tp = Student, _Compare = bool (*)(Student&, Student&)]’:
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.5.3/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_algo.h:2261:78:   instantiated from ‘_RandomAccessIterator std::__unguarded_partition_pivot(_RandomAccessIterator, _RandomAccessIterator, _Compare) [with _RandomAccessIterator = __gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<Student*, std::vector<Student> >, _Compare = bool (*)(Student&, Student&)]’
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.5.3/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_algo.h:2302:62:   instantiated from ‘void std::__introsort_loop(_RandomAccessIterator, _RandomAccessIterator, _Size, _Compare) [with _RandomAccessIterator = __gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<Student*, std::vector<Student> >, _Size = long int, _Compare = bool (*)(Student&, Student&)]’
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.5.3/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_algo.h:5250:4:   instantiated from ‘void std::sort(_RAIter, _RAIter, _Compare) [with _RAIter = __gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<Student*, std::vector<Student> >, _Compare = bool (*)(Student&, Student&)]’
main.cpp:38:51:   instantiated from here
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.5.3/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_algo.h:2229:4: error: invalid initialization of reference of type ‘Student&’ from expression of type ‘const Student’
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/4.5.3/include/g++-v4/bits/stl_algo.h:2232:4: error: invalid initialization of reference of type ‘Student&’ from expression of type ‘const Student’

Compilation exited abnormally with code 1 at Mon May 28 08:05:35

But if I define the compare with const type, it will compile and works fine.

And here is all the code:

class Student {
public:
    Student(string);
    string n;

};

bool compare(Student& a, Student& b)
{
    return a.n < b.n;
}

Student::Student(string name) { n = name; }

int main()
{
    Student A = Student("A");
    Student B = Student("B");

    vector<Student> students;
    students.push_back(B);
    students.push_back(A);

    sort(students.begin(), students.end(), compare);

    cout << "After sort" << endl;
    for(vector<Student>::iterator i = students.begin(); i != students.end(); ++i) {
        cout << "Student: " << i->n << endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

Answer 1

In this implementation, std::sort uses

 const _Tp& std::__median(const _Tp&, const _Tp&, const _Tp&, _Compare);

In your case, _Tp is student, and _Compare is compare.

So you basically have

const Student& std::__median(const Student&, const Student&, const Student&, 
                                                   bool (*)(Student&, Student&) )

or similar. Obviously, the callback can't be applied to the parameters are they are converted to const, so the failure.

Make the parameters to your compare method const.