Reference
C Library
IOstream Library
Strings library
STL Containers
STL Algorithms
Miscellaneous
STL Algorithms
algorithm:
adjacent_find
binary_search
copy
copy_backward
count
count_if
equal
equal_range
fill
fill_n
find
find_end
find_first_of
find_if
for_each
generate
generate_n
includes
inplace_merge
iter_swap
lexicographical_compare
lower_bound
make_heap
max
max_element
merge
min
min_element
mismatch
next_permutation
nth_element
partial_sort
partial_sort_copy
partition
pop_heap
prev_permutation
push_heap
random_shuffle
remove
remove_copy
remove_copy_if
remove_if
replace
replace_copy
replace_copy_if
replace_if
reverse
reverse_copy
rotate
rotate_copy
search
search_n
set_difference
set_intersection
set_symmetric_difference
set_union
sort
sort_heap
stable_partition
stable_sort
swap
swap_ranges
transform
unique
unique_copy
upper_bound


set_union

function template
<algorithm>
template <class InputIterator1, class InputIterator2, class OutputIterator>
  OutputIterator set_union ( InputIterator1 first1, InputIterator1 last1,
                             InputIterator2 first2, InputIterator2 last2,
                            OutputIterator result );

template <class InputIterator1, class InputIterator2,
          class OutputIterator, class Compare>
  OutputIterator set_union ( InputIterator1 first1, InputIterator1 last1,
                             InputIterator2 first2, InputIterator2 last2,
                             OutputIterator result, Compare comp );

Union of two sorted ranges

Constructs a sorted range beginning in the location pointed by result with the set union of the two sorted ranges [first1,last1) and [first2,last2) as content.

The union of two sets is formed by the elements that are present in either one of the sets, or in both.

The comparison to check for equivalence of values, uses either operator< for the first version, or comp for the second, in order to test this; The value of an element, a, is equivalent to another one, b, when (!a<b && !b<a) or (!comp(a,b) && !comp(b,a)).

For the function to yield the expected result, the elements in the ranges shall be already ordered according to the same strict weak ordering criterion (operator< or comp).

The behavior of this function template is equivalent to:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
template <class InputIterator1, class InputIterator2, class OutputIterator>
  OutputIterator set_union ( InputIterator1 first1, InputIterator1 last1,
                             InputIterator2 first2, InputIterator2 last2,
                             OutputIterator result )
{
  while (true)
  {
    if (*first1<*first2) *result++ = *first1++;
    else if (*first2<*first1) *result++ = *first2++;
    else { *result++ = *first1++; first2++; }
    if (first1==last1) return copy(first2,last2,result);
    if (first2==last2) return copy(first1,last1,result);
  }
}


Parameters

first1, last1
Input iterators to the initial and final positions of the first sequence. The range used is [first1,last1), which contains all the elements between first1 and last1, including the element pointed by first1 but not the element pointed by last1.
first2, last2
Input iterators to the initial and final positions of the second sequence. The range used is [first2,last2).
comp
Comparison function object that, taking two values of the same type than those contained in the range, returns true if the first argument goes before the second argument in the specific strict weak ordering it defines, and false otherwise.

Return value

An iterator to the end of the constructed range.

Example

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
// set_union example
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
int main () {
  int first[] = {5,10,15,20,25};
  int second[] = {50,40,30,20,10};
  vector<int> v(10);                           // 0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0
  vector<int>::iterator it;
  sort (first,first+5);     //  5 10 15 20 25
  sort (second,second+5);   // 10 20 30 40 50
  it=set_union (first, first+5, second, second+5, v.begin());
                                               // 5 10 15 20 25 30 40 50  0  0
  cout << "union has " << int(it - v.begin()) << " elements.\n";
  return 0;
}


Output:
union has 8 elements

Complexity

At most, performs 2*(count1+count2)-1 comparisons or applications of comp (where countX is the distance between firstX and lastX).

See also