C++ Usage of set, iterator, find line where duplicate was found - c++

Question

The program adds different strings to a set. The iterator checks the set for a certain string, what i want to achieve is to get the line where the iterator finds this certain string. Is it possible to get this with a set or do i have to create a vector? The reason i use sets is because i also want not to have duplicates in the end. It is a bit confusing i know, i hope you'll understand.
Edit: i want to get the line number of the original element already existing in the set, if a duplicate is found
#include <iostream>
#include <set>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <atlstr.h>
#include <sstream>
using namespace std;
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
set<string> test;
set<string>::iterator it;
vector<int> crossproduct(9, 0);
for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++)
{
crossproduct[i] = i+1;
}
crossproduct[6] = 1;
crossproduct[7] = 2;
crossproduct[8] = 3;
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
ostringstream cp; cp.precision(1); cp << fixed;
ostringstream cp1; cp1.precision(1); cp1 << fixed;
ostringstream cp2; cp2.precision(1); cp2 << fixed;
cp << crossproduct[i*3];
cp1 << crossproduct[i*3+1];
cp2 << crossproduct[i*3+2];
string cps(cp.str());
string cps1(cp1.str());
string cps2(cp2.str());
string cpstot = cps + " " + cps1 + " " + cps2;
cout << "cpstot: " << cpstot << endl;
it = test.find(cpstot);
if (it != test.end())
{
//Display here the line where "1 2 3" was found
cout << "i: " << i << endl;
}
test.insert(cpstot);
}
set<string>::iterator it2;
for (it2 = test.begin(); it2 != test.end(); ++it2)
{
cout << *it2 << endl;
}
cin.get();
return 0;
}

Answer 1

"Line number" is not very meaningful to a std::set<string>,
because as you add more strings to the set you may change the
order in which the existing strings are iterated through
(which is about as much of a "line number" as the set::set template
itself will give you).
Here's an alternative that may work better:
std::map<std::string, int> test.
The way you use this is you keep a "line counter" n somewhere.
Each time you need to put a new string cpstot in your set,
you have code like this:
std::map<std::string>::iterator it = test.find(cpstot);
if (it == test.end())
{
test[cpstot] = n;
// alternatively, test.insert(std::pair<std::string, int>(cpstot, n))
++n;
}
else
{
// this prints out the integer that was associated with cpstot in the map
std::cout << "i: " << it->second;
// Notice that we don't try to insert cpstot into the map in this case.
// It's already there, and we don't want to change its "line number",
// so there is nothing good we can accomplish by an insertion.
// It's a waste of effort to even try.
}
If you set n = 0 before you started putting any strings in test then
(and don't mess with the value of n in any other way)
then you will end up with strings at "line numbers" 0, 1, 2, etc.
in test and n will be the number of strings stored in test.
By the way, neither std::map<std::string, int>::iterator nor
std::set<std::string>::iterator is guaranteed to iterate through
the strings in the sequence in which they were first inserted.
Instead, what you'll get is the strings in whatever order the
template's comparison object puts the string values.
(I think by default you get them back in lexicographic order,
that is, "alphabetized".)
But when you store the original "line number" of each string in
std::map<std::string, int> test, when you are ready to
print out the list of strings you can copy the string-integer pairs
from test to a new object, std::map<int, std::string> output_sequence,
and now (assuming you do not override the default comparison object)
when you iterate through output_sequence you will get its
contents sorted by line number.
(You will then probably want to get the string
from the second field of the iterator.)