Finding multiple max elements in a vector C++ - c++

Question

So.. I am trying to find the maximum value of a vector and its position in the vector. I am using a for loop, and it's working fine. My problem is, that if the maximum value appears more than once, I want to know all the positions in which it appears in the vector.. So, how could I manage this?
So far, this is the code I am using: (the vector called v has elements that I read from a file but I will not add that part of the code)
std::vector<double>v;
double maxvalue;
int position=0;
maxvalue = v[0];
for (unsigned int i=0; i<v.size(); i++){
if (v[i]> maxvalue){
maxvalue=v[i];
position= i;
}
}

Answer 1

You could modify your approach to keep a vector of indices where the maximum occurred:
#include <cfloat>
#include <iostream>
#include <utility>
#include <vector>
std::pair<double, std::vector<std::size_t>> FindMaxElements(std::vector<double> const& v)
{
std::vector<std::size_t> indices;
double current_max = -DBL_MAX;
for (std::size_t i = 0; i < v.size(); ++i)
{
if (v[i] > current_max)
{
current_max = v[i];
indices.clear();
}
if (v[i] == current_max)
{
indices.push_back(i);
}
}
return std::make_pair(current_max, indices);
}
int main()
{
auto result = FindMaxElements({1, 4, 7, 2, 7, 3});
std::cout << "max: " << result.first << '\n';
std::cout << "indices: ";
for (auto i : result.second)
std::cout << i << ' ';
}
Output
max: 7
indices: 2 4

Answer 2

Here is a two-pass version using the standard library (whereas it might be cleaner without it):
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
int main()
{
std::vector<double> v {/* fill it*/ };
std::vector<int> pos;
auto it = std::max_element(std::begin(v), std::end(v));
while (it != std::end(v))
{
pos.push_back(std::distance(std::begin(v), it));
it = std::find(std::next(it), std::end(v), *it);
}
//...
}

Answer 3

The function template below, find_maximums(), returns an std::vector<size_t> that contains the positions where the maximums are in the input vector. Note that it returns an empty vector of indexes if the input vector is empty.
template<typename T>
auto find_maximums(const std::vector<T>& v) {
std::vector<size_t> indexes;
for (auto it_max = std::max_element(v.begin(), v.end()); it_max != v.end();
it_max = std::find(it_max+1, v.end(), *it_max))
{
auto index = std::distance(v.begin(), it_max);
indexes.push_back(index);
}
return indexes;
}
As an example of use:
auto main() -> int {
std::vector<int> v = {11, 7, 3, 11, 0, 7, 1, 11, 11};
auto max_indexes = find_maximums(v);
if (max_indexes.empty())
return 1;
std::cout << "max: " << v[max_indexes.front()] << std::endl;
std::cout << "max at positions: ";
for (auto idx: max_indexes)
std::cout << idx << ' ';
std::cout << '\n';
}
It outputs:
max: 11
max at positions: 0 3 7 8

Answer 4

Passing a couple of iterators and a comparator
template <class It,
class Comp = std::less<typename std::iterator_traits<It>::value_type>>
auto max_elements_indices(It first, It last, Comp cmp = Comp{})
{
// This function returns a vector of indices, so to get the maximum, the caller
// should first check if the returned vector is empty and then use one of
// those indices to retrieve the value.
std::vector<std::size_t> indices;
if (first == last)
return indices;
// Using the first element instead of a sentinel value is easier to generalize
indices.push_back(0);
auto value = *first;
for (auto i = std::next(first); i != last; ++i)
{
// The most common case should be an element below the maximum
if ( cmp(*i, value) )
continue;
else
{
if ( cmp(value, *i) )
{
value = *i;
indices.clear();
}
indices.push_back(std::distance(first, i));
}
}
return indices;
}
It is testable here.