Example ....... This is a simple example of using the transform_iterators class to generate iterators that multiply (or add to) the value returned by dereferencing the iterator. It would be cooler to use lambda library in this example. :: int x[] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 }; const int N = sizeof(x)/sizeof(int); typedef boost::binder1st< std::multiplies > Function; typedef boost::transform_iterator doubling_iterator; doubling_iterator i(x, boost::bind1st(std::multiplies(), 2)), i_end(x + N, boost::bind1st(std::multiplies(), 2)); std::cout << "multiplying the array by 2:" << std::endl; while (i != i_end) std::cout << *i++ << " "; std::cout << std::endl; std::cout << "adding 4 to each element in the array:" << std::endl; std::copy(boost::make_transform_iterator(x, boost::bind1st(std::plus(), 4)), boost::make_transform_iterator(x + N, boost::bind1st(std::plus(), 4)), std::ostream_iterator(std::cout, " ")); std::cout << std::endl; The output is:: multiplying the array by 2: 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 adding 4 to each element in the array: 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 The source code for this example can be found `here`__. __ ../example/transform_iterator_example.cpp