Sorting vector of instances - c++

Question

I am currently taking a coding class at university and they have VERY specific requirements for the homework assignments.
For this week we have a class called Npt that represents a Nobel Prize winner. This class contains, amongst other things, the Name, the year of the prize and the field of the winner.
Now we should make another class, Nobelpreise, that contains a container for instances of said Nobel prize winner class. We are supposed to sort the elements of that container by the year of the Nobel Prize.
I wasn't able to use the std::sort function with a custom comparator correctly. This is what my code roughly looks like:
class Nobelpreise
{
private:
int numb;
vector<Npt> xx;
public:
Nobelpreise(){numb=0;}
void add(Npt &n1){xx.push_back(n1);numb++;return;}
Npt get_nobel(int i) {return xx[i];}
vector<Npt> get_xx() {return xx;}
int get_numb(){return numb;}
~Nobelpreise(){}
bool mycomp(Npt N1, Npt N2) {return (N1.get_jverl()<N2.get_jverl());}
};
The method get_jverl() comes from the Npt class and just returns the year.
Now the sort function always gives back an error saying that:
sort(Npl.get_xx().begin(), Npl.get_xx().end(), Npl.mycomp)
requires two arguments. Shouldn’t they be provided by the sort function?
I have also tried to overload the < operator which does not seem to work either.
edit1: added end() and removed the () from Npl.mycomp
edit2: we are required to make the comparator function a member of the class

Answer 1

Make your method mycomp static, and write a method which does the sort job.
class Nobelpreise
{
private:
int numb;
vector<Npt> xx;
public:
Nobelpreise(){numb=0;}
~Nobelpreise(){}
vector<Npt>& get_xx() {return xx;}
static bool mycomp( const Npt &N1, const Npt &N2 ) { return N1.get_jverl() < N2.get_jverl(); }
//^^^^^^
void Sort() { std::sort( xx.begin(), xx.end(), &mycomp ); }
};
The method Npt::get_jverl has to be const
returntype get_jverl() const { return ...; }
If you do the sorting outside your class note that you have to return a reference to your vector in your method: vector<Npt>& get_xx() {return xx;}
sort(Npl.get_xx().begin(), Npl.get_xx().end(), &Nobelpreise::mycomp)

Answer 2

Firstly, we'll fix the error that you're fetching two instances of the list:
sort(Npl.get_xx().begin(), Npl.get_xx().end, Npl.mycomp());
Replace with
auto v = Npl.get_xx();
std::sort(v.begin(), v.end(), Npl.mycomp());
I've added () to v.end, too, as we want to call it. However, we don't mean to call Npl::mycomp() here - std::sort wants to receive a function, not the return value:
auto v = Npl.get_xx();
std::sort(v.begin(), v.end(), Npl::mycomp);
This still won't work, as Npl::mycomp is an instance method, and std::sort won't call it with an object pointer for this. As it's implementation doesn't use this, it can be made a static method. Better still, it doesn't use any of the private members, so can be made a free function, outside of any class:
// I've renamed this to say what it does
bool year_precedes(const Npt& a, const Npt& b) {
return a.get_jverl() < b.get_jverl();
}
class Nobelpreise; // make the full declaration available
// for the following to compile
// I've made this a nonmember, too, as it only uses public methods
vector<Npt> sorted_prizes(const Nobelpreise& p)
{
auto v = p.get_xx();
std::sort(v.begin(), v.end(), year_precedes);
return v;
}
That should be enough to help you on your way.

Answer 3

You didn't say which version of C++, but assuming C++11 here's a more modern approach (compared to the two answers that are already here). Your requirements don't mention needing the comparator for anything else, so rather than write a comparator, you can do this:
std::sort(Npl.get_xx().begin(), Npl.get_xx().end(), [](const Npt& lhs, const Npt& rhs) {
return lhs.get_jverl() < rhs.get_jverl()
});
You could put this code in the Sort method of the Nobelpreise class as Rabbid suggests.
Compared to the other approaches here, I'd argue it makes the code more readable as you can see inline what is being compared, instead of having to jump to a new function just to read one more line of code (assuming of course that function is not being used anywhere else). It also makes the code faster because you are passing a lambda rather than a function pointer, but you shouldn't necessarily worry about that at this stage.