Exam ques regarding iterators and generic functions - c++

I'm attempting to solve the below exam question but I'm having difficulties with it.
Write a C++ function find_elem that takes two iterators first and last
of some sequence of elements of type T and an object obj of type T. It
returns the iterator to the first occurrence of obj in the range
(first, last), or the iterator last if obj is not in the sequence.
(35%)
NOTE: first & last are not necessarily the same as what is returned by
a container’s begin() and end() methods! The only thing we suppose is
that the container is some sort of a sequence (e.g., vector, list,
etc.) and that first is an iterator which points to an element which
comes before the one pointed to by last. You must not dereference last
because it might be the result of end()!
Here's my attempt
template<typename Iter, typename Obj>
Iter find_element(Iter iter1, Iter iter2, Obj &obj){
for(p = iter1; p != iter2; p++){
if((*p) == obj){
return p;
}
return iter2;
}
}
Is this attempt correct? Is the return type suitable for the function or have I got the wrong idea?

Yes, your code is correct. I would perhaps only change Obj &obj to Obj const &obj.
And you ought to have declared p.
More nitpicking: with generic iterators usually the form ++p is preferred.
My variant (basically the same):
template<typename Iter, typename Obj>
Iter find_element(Iter iter1, Iter iter2, Obj const &obj)
{
for(; iter1 != iter2; ++iter1)
{
if(*iter1 == obj)
break;
}
return iter1;
}

Related

iterator as function input in C++?

I have problem in the following simple code:
void foo (vector<int>:: iterator it, vector<int> n)
{
vector<int>:: iterator it2 = it +1;
while (it2!=n.end())
{
cout<<*it2<<endl;
it2++;
}
}
main()
{
vector<int> m{1,2,3,4};
vector<int>:: iterator it = m.begin();
foo (it, m);
}
I expected to have 2, 3 and 4 in the Terminal, but I got some stupid results in output. Is it basically possible to use iterators as functions' input? What is wrong in this piece of code? and How can I make it correct?
You pass vector<int> n as a copy. Thus your it2 points to a different vector (the one that was created in main). Your check it2!=n.end() is invalid since it2 is an iterator to another vector.
Passing n by reference is one solution. Other would be passing the end iterator instead of vector.
To pass your vector as a const reference:
void foo (vector<int>:: iterator it, const vector<int>& n)
To pass an end iterator:
void foo (vector<int>::iterator it, vector<int>::iterator end)
{
...
while ( it2 != end )
...
}
You have two problems: one is that you're passing a copy of your vector argument, as Satus and yeputons already pointed out.
The second problem is that the first line of foo is already illegal if the argument is empty. That is, even the trivial fix
void foo (vector<int>:: iterator it, vector<int> &n)
{
vector<int>:: iterator it2 = it +1;
is wrong if it == n.end().
The correct design is the one used for all the library algorithms, and for the same reason: that it can correctly express empty ranges.
void foo (vector<int>::iterator begin, vector<int>::iterator end)
{
if (begin == end) return;
for (auto i = begin; i != end; ++i)
{
cout<<*i<<endl;
}
}
Your weird skipping-the-first-element design makes it a bit ugly still, a nicer approach is to have some utility help skip the first element, and then use copy:
template <typename Iterator>
Iterator try_advance(Iterator i, int count, Iterator end)
{
for (; count-- > 0 && i != end; ++i)
;
return i;
}
void foo (vector<int>::iterator begin, vector<int>::iterator end)
{
// skip first element of a non-empty range
// leave an empty range un-damaged
begin = try_advance(begin, 1, end);
std::copy(begin, end, std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, '\n'));
}
Yes, it's possible. But mind that iterators are tied to their container.
Second parameter of your function is copy-constructed from argument, i.e. vector<int> n is a copy of vector<int> m defined in main. So, your function tries to compare iterator with another iterator (.end()) from a different container. You'd better pass both begin/end iteratos instead of container.

Check if iterator to std::map points to second last element

I'm (forward) iterating over a std::map and would like to find if the iterator points to the second last element. I can't seem to find how to do that anywhere.
I've got:
bool
isSecondLastFile(const TDateFileInfoMap::const_iterator &tsFile)
{
TDateFileInfoMap::reverse_iterator secondLastIt = mFileInfoMap.rbegin() + 1;
return (tsFile == secondLastIt);
}
Where TDateFileInfoMap is std::map
I'm getting:
error: no match for ‘operator==’ in ‘tsFile == secondLastIt’
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-redhat-linux/4.4.7/../../../../include/c++/4.4.7/bits/stl_tree.h:287: note: candidates are: bool std::_Rb_tree_const_iterator<_Tp>::operator==(const std::_Rb_tree_const_iterator<_Tp>&) const [with _Tp = std::pair<const long int, TFileInfo>]
Does that mean I can't compare the forward and reverse iterator?
How do I figure out if the forward iterator is pointing at the second last element?
std::map's iterator type is BidirectionalIterator. Just decrement the end iterator twice--first to get the last element since m.end() returns an iterator at the after the end position, and then again to get the second-last element:
auto penultimate = std::prev(m.end(), 2);
Then you can simply check for equality with the resultant iterator:
auto it = m.begin();
it == penultimate;
see it live on Coliru
Naturally, you should check that the map has two elements first if it's not guaranteed by other logic in your program.
Does that mean I can't compare the forward and reverse iterator?
Yes you can't compare them directly.
You can use base() to get the underlying base iterator.
Returns the underlying base iterator. That is
std::reverse_iterator(it).base() == it.
The base iterator refers to the element that is next (from the
std::reverse_iterator::iterator_type perspective) to the element the
reverse_iterator is currently pointing to. That is &*(rit.base() - 1) == &*rit.
e.g.
return (tsFile == (++secondLastIt).base());
BTW: mFileInfoMap.rbegin() + 1 won't compile since the iterator of std::map is not RandomAccessIterator. You might write:
TDateFileInfoMap::reverse_iterator secondLastIt = mFileInfoMap.rbegin();
++secondLastIt;
Note that we're not checking whether the map is empty or has only one element.
A simple solution for forward iterators:
template <typename ForwardIterator>
inline bool isNthLast(std::size_t n, ForwardIterator pos, ForwardIterator last) {
for( ;; --n, ++pos) {
if(n == 0)
return (pos == last);
if(pos == last)
return false;
}
}
bool isSecondLastFile(TDateFileInfoMap::const_iterator sFile) {
return isNthLast(2, sFile, mFileInfoMap.end());
}
Let's say you have a set with name s.
s= {s1,s2,...,sN-1, sN}
Now to iterate from s1.. to sN-1 (which is second last element) we will use STL functions, s.begin() and s.end().
end = s.end(); //end points to end
end--// end points to sN
Now in the for loop when itr (starts from the beginning of set) becomes equal to sN the loop will break, and you will get s1,s2,..sN-1 inside the loop.
map<int,int> s;
// to iterate till fixed range in map
auto end =s.end();
end--; // end to second last;
for(auto itr = s.begin(); itr!=end;itr++){
// do your operation
}

Generic Templates in C++

I don't understand the answers to the following questions:
Write a C++ function find_elem that takes two iterators first and last of some
sequence of elements of type T and an object obj of type T. It returns the iterator to the first occurrence of obj in the range [first, last), or the iterator last if obj is not in the sequence.
This was the answer
template <typename It, typename T>
It find_elem(It first, It last, const T & obj) {
while (first != last && (*first) != obj) // I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS LINE
++first;
return first;
}
I dont understand the following line while (first != last && (*first) != obj). Why is it (*first != obj) when the questions asks you to return the iterator with the first instance of obj. I also don't get the following line ++first as in why you are incrementing the iterator first
The ++first is executed by the while loop.
I would write use { } here to make it clearer:
while (first!=last && (*first)!=obj) {
++first;
}
So, the while loop checks if (*first)==obj. If not, then it moves to the next element in the list using ++first, which increments the iterator. Then it ends either when first==last (meaning that we have gone through the entire list), or when (*first)==obj, meaning that we found what we were looking for.
A copy of first is passed to the function. This means that the function can safely modify the variable by using it also to iterate the sequence.
It's just a concise alternative for the following code:
template <typename It, typename T>
It find_elem(It first, It last, const T & obj) {
It iterator = first;
while (iterator != last && (*iterator) != obj)
++iterator;
return iterator;
}
By the way... "generic templates" sounds strange, because templates are always generic. I suppose template template parameters could be called "generic templates", though.

remove_if equivalent for std::map

I was trying to erase a range of elements from map based on particular condition. How do I do it using STL algorithms?
Initially I thought of using remove_if but it is not possible as remove_if does not work for associative container.
Is there any "remove_if" equivalent algorithm which works for map ?
As a simple option, I thought of looping through the map and erase. But is looping through the map and erasing a safe option?(as iterators get invalid after erase)
I used following example:
bool predicate(const std::pair<int,std::string>& x)
{
return x.first > 2;
}
int main(void)
{
std::map<int, std::string> aMap;
aMap[2] = "two";
aMap[3] = "three";
aMap[4] = "four";
aMap[5] = "five";
aMap[6] = "six";
// does not work, an error
// std::remove_if(aMap.begin(), aMap.end(), predicate);
std::map<int, std::string>::iterator iter = aMap.begin();
std::map<int, std::string>::iterator endIter = aMap.end();
for(; iter != endIter; ++iter)
{
if(Some Condition)
{
// is it safe ?
aMap.erase(iter++);
}
}
return 0;
}
Almost.
for(; iter != endIter; ) {
if (Some Condition) {
iter = aMap.erase(iter);
} else {
++iter;
}
}
What you had originally would increment the iterator twice if you did erase an element from it; you could potentially skip over elements that needed to be erased.
This is a common algorithm I've seen used and documented in many places.
[EDIT] You are correct that iterators are invalidated after an erase, but only iterators referencing the element that is erased, other iterators are still valid. Hence using iter++ in the erase() call.
erase_if for std::map (and other containers)
I use the following template for this very thing.
namespace stuff {
template< typename ContainerT, typename PredicateT >
void erase_if( ContainerT& items, const PredicateT& predicate ) {
for( auto it = items.begin(); it != items.end(); ) {
if( predicate(*it) ) it = items.erase(it);
else ++it;
}
}
}
This won't return anything, but it will remove the items from the std::map.
Usage example:
// 'container' could be a std::map
// 'item_type' is what you might store in your container
using stuff::erase_if;
erase_if(container, []( item_type& item ) {
return /* insert appropriate test */;
});
Second example (allows you to pass in a test value):
// 'test_value' is value that you might inject into your predicate.
// 'property' is just used to provide a stand-in test
using stuff::erase_if;
int test_value = 4; // or use whatever appropriate type and value
erase_if(container, [&test_value]( item_type& item ) {
return item.property < test_value; // or whatever appropriate test
});
Now, std::experimental::erase_if is available in header <experimental/map>.
See: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/experimental/map/erase_if
Here is some elegant solution.
for (auto it = map.begin(); it != map.end();)
{
(SomeCondition) ? map.erase(it++) : (++it);
}
For those on C++20 there are built-in std::erase_if functions for map and unordered_map:
std::unordered_map<int, char> data {{1, 'a'},{2, 'b'},{3, 'c'},{4, 'd'},
{5, 'e'},{4, 'f'},{5, 'g'},{5, 'g'}};
const auto count = std::erase_if(data, [](const auto& item) {
auto const& [key, value] = item;
return (key & 1) == 1;
});
I got this documentation from the excellent SGI STL reference:
Map has the important property that
inserting a new element into a map
does not invalidate iterators that
point to existing elements. Erasing an
element from a map also does not
invalidate any iterators, except, of
course, for iterators that actually
point to the element that is being
erased.
So, the iterator you have which is pointing at the element to be erased will of course be invalidated. Do something like this:
if (some condition)
{
iterator here=iter++;
aMap.erase(here)
}
The original code has only one issue:
for(; iter != endIter; ++iter)
{
if(Some Condition)
{
// is it safe ?
aMap.erase(iter++);
}
}
Here the iter is incremented once in the for loop and another time in erase, which will probably end up in some infinite loop.
From the bottom notes of:
http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/PairAssociativeContainer.html
a Pair Associative Container cannot provide mutable iterators (as defined in the Trivial Iterator requirements), because the value type of a mutable iterator must be Assignable, and pair is not Assignable. However, a Pair Associative Container can provide iterators that are not completely constant: iterators such that the expression (*i).second = d is valid.
First
Map has the important property that inserting a new element into a map does not invalidate iterators that point to existing elements. Erasing an element from a map also does not invalidate any iterators, except, of course, for iterators that actually point to the element that is being erased.
Second, the following code is good
for(; iter != endIter; )
{
if(Some Condition)
{
aMap.erase(iter++);
}
else
{
++iter;
}
}
When calling a function, the parameters are evaluated before the call to that function.
So when iter++ is evaluated before the call to erase, the ++ operator of the iterator will return the current item and will point to the next item after the call.
IMHO there is no remove_if() equivalent.
You can't reorder a map.
So remove_if() can not put your pairs of interest at the end on which you can call erase().
Based on Iron Savior's answer For those that would like to provide a range more along the lines of std functional taking iterators.
template< typename ContainerT, class FwdIt, class Pr >
void erase_if(ContainerT& items, FwdIt it, FwdIt Last, Pr Pred) {
for (; it != Last; ) {
if (Pred(*it)) it = items.erase(it);
else ++it;
}
}
Curious if there is some way to lose the ContainerT items and get that from the iterator.
Steve Folly's answer I feel the more efficient.
Here is another easy-but-less efficient solution:
The solution uses remove_copy_if to copy the values we want into a new container, then swaps the contents of the original container with those of the new one:
std::map<int, std::string> aMap;
...
//Temporary map to hold the unremoved elements
std::map<int, std::string> aTempMap;
//copy unremoved values from aMap to aTempMap
std::remove_copy_if(aMap.begin(), aMap.end(),
inserter(aTempMap, aTempMap.end()),
predicate);
//Swap the contents of aMap and aTempMap
aMap.swap(aTempMap);
If you want to erase all elements with key greater than 2, then the best way is
map.erase(map.upper_bound(2), map.end());
Works only for ranges though, not for any predicate.
I use like this
std::map<int, std::string> users;
for(auto it = users.begin(); it <= users.end()) {
if(<condition>){
it = users.erase(it);
} else {
++it;
}
}

Erasing items from an STL list

I want to make a function which moves items from one STL list to another if they match a certain condition.
This code is not the way to do it. The iterator will most likely be invalidated by the erase() function and cause a problem:
for(std::list<MyClass>::iterator it = myList.begin(); it != myList.end(); it++)
{
if(myCondition(*it))
{
myOtherList.push_back(*it);
myList.erase(it);
}
}
So can anyone suggest a better way to do this ?
Erase returns an iterator pointing to the element after the erased one:
std::list<MyClass>::iterator it = myList.begin();
while (it != myList.end())
{
if(myCondition(*it))
{
myOtherList.push_back(*it);
it = myList.erase(it);
}
else
{
++it;
}
}
STL lists have an interesting feature: the splice() method lets you destructively move elements from one list to another.
splice() operates in constant time, and doesn't copy the elements or perform any free store allocations/deallocations. Note that both lists must be of the same type, and they must be separate list instances (not two references to the same list).
Here's an example of how you could use splice():
for(std::list<MyClass>::iterator it = myList.begin(); it != myList.end(); ) {
if(myCondition(*it)) {
std::list<MyClass>::iterator oldIt = it++;
myOtherList.splice(myOtherList.end(), myList, oldIt);
} else {
++it;
}
}
Solution 1
template<typename Fwd, typename Out, typename Operation>
Fwd move_if(Fwd first, Fwd last, Out result, Operation op)
{
Fwd swap_pos = first;
for( ; first != last; ++first ) {
if( !op(*first) ) *swap_pos++ = *first;
else *result++ = *first;
}
return swap_pos;
}
The idea is simple. What you want to do is remove elements from one container and place them in another if a predicate is true. So take the code of the std::remove() algorithm, which already does the remove part, and adapt it to your extra needs. In the code above I added the else line to copy the element when the predicate is true.
Notice that because we use the std::remove() code, the algorithm doesn't actually shrink the input container. It does return the updated end iterator of the input container though, so you can just use that and disregard the extra elements. Use the erase-remove idiom if you really want to shrink the input container.
Solution 2
template<typename Bidi, typename Out, typename Operation>
Bidi move_if(Bidi first, Bidi last, Out result, Operation op)
{
Bidi new_end = partition(first, last, not1(op));
copy(new_end, last, result);
return new_end;
}
The second approach uses the STL to implement the algorithm. I personally find it more readable than the first solution, but it has two drawbacks: First, it requires the more-powerful bidirectional iterators for the input container, rather than the forward iterators we used in the first solution. Second, and this is may or may not be an issue for you, the containers are not guaranteed to have the same ordering as before the call to std::partition(). If you wish to maintain the ordering, replace that call with a call to std::stable_partition(). std::stable_partition() might be slightly slower, but it has the same runtime complexity as std::partition().
Either Way: Calling the Function
list<int>::iterator p = move_if(l1.begin(), l1.end(),
back_inserter(l2),
bind2nd(less<int>(), 3));
Final Remarks
While writing the code I encountered a dilemma: what should the move_if() algorithm return? On the one hand the algorithm should return an iterator pointing to the new end position of the input container, so the caller can use the erase-remove idiom to shrink the container. But on the other hand the algorithm should return the position of the end of the result container, because otherwise it could be expensive for the caller to find it. In the first solution the result iterator points to this position when the algorithm ends, while in the second solution it is the iterator returned by std::copy() that points to this position. I could return a pair of iterators, but for the sake of making things simple I just return one of the iterators.
std::list<MyClass>::iterator endMatching =
partition(myList.begin(), myList.end(), myCondition);
myOtherList.splice(myOtherList.begin(), myList, endMatching, myList.end());
Note that partition() gives you enough to discriminate matching objects from non matching ones.
(list::splice() is cheap however)
See the following code on a concrete case inspired from
Now to remove elements that match a predicate?
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <list>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>
using namespace std;
class CPred : public unary_function<string, bool>
{
public:
CPred(const string& arString)
:mString(arString)
{
}
bool operator()(const string& arString) const
{
return (arString.find(mString) == std::string::npos);
}
private:
string mString;
};
int main()
{
list<string> Strings;
Strings.push_back("213");
Strings.push_back("145");
Strings.push_back("ABC");
Strings.push_back("167");
Strings.push_back("DEF");
cout << "Original list" << endl;
copy(Strings.begin(), Strings.end(),ostream_iterator<string>(cout,"\n"));
CPred Pred("1");
// Linear. Exactly last - first applications of pred, and at most (last - first)/2 swaps.
list<string>::iterator end1 =
partition(Strings.begin(), Strings.end(), Pred);
list<string> NotMatching;
// This function is constant time.
NotMatching.splice(NotMatching.begin(),Strings, Strings.begin(), end1);
cout << "Elements matching with 1" << endl;
copy(Strings.begin(), Strings.end(), ostream_iterator<string>(cout,"\n"));
cout << "Elements not matching with 1" << endl;
copy(NotMatching.begin(), NotMatching.end(), ostream_iterator<string>(cout,"\n"));
return 0;
}
Another attempt:
for(std::list<MyClass>::iterator it = myList.begin(); it != myList.end; ) {
std::list<MyClass>::iterator eraseiter = it;
++it;
if(myCondition(*eraseiter)) {
myOtherList.push_back(*eraseiter);
myList.erase(eraseiter);
}
}
template <typename ForwardIterator, typename OutputIterator, typename Predicate>
void splice_if(ForwardIterator begin, ForwardIterator end, OutputIterator out, Predicate pred)
{
ForwardIterator it = begin;
while( it != end )
{
if( pred(*it) )
{
*begin++ = *out++ = *it;
}
++it;
}
return begin;
}
myList.erase(
splice_if( myList.begin(), myList.end(), back_inserter(myOutputList),
myCondition
),
myList.end()
)