[#BloombergLP-bdlc-operator_minus-08]
= xref:BloombergLP.adoc[BloombergLP]::xref:BloombergLP/bdlc.adoc[bdlc]::operator&hyphen;
:relfileprefix: ../../
:mrdocs:

Return the number of elements between the specified `lhs` and `rhs` as a signed value&period; The behavior is undefined unless `lhs` and `rhs` reference the same array&period; Note that the return value is positive when a positive number of `rhs&plus;&plus;` invocations would result in `lhs &equals;&equals; rhs`, and negative when a positive number of `rhs&hyphen;&hyphen;` invocations would result in `lhs &equals;&equals; rhs`&period;

== Synopsis

Declared in `&lt;bdlc&lowbar;compactedarray&period;h&gt;`

[source,cpp,subs="verbatim,replacements,macros,-callouts"]
----
template&lt;class TYPE&gt;
std::ptrdiff&lowbar;t
operator&hyphen;(
    xref:BloombergLP/bdlc/CompactedArray_ConstIterator.adoc[CompactedArray&lowbar;ConstIterator&lt;TYPE&gt;] const& lhs,
    xref:BloombergLP/bdlc/CompactedArray_ConstIterator.adoc[CompactedArray&lowbar;ConstIterator&lt;TYPE&gt;] const& rhs);
----


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