To find the largest or smallest element stored in a vector, you can use the methods std::max_element and std::min_element, respectively. These methods are defined in <algorithm> header. If several elements are equivalent to the greatest (smallest) element, the methods return the iterator to the first such element. Return v.end() for empty vectors.
std::vector<int> v = {5, 2, 8, 10, 9};
int maxElementIndex = std::max_element(v.begin(),v.end()) - v.begin();
int maxElement = *std::max_element(v.begin(), v.end());
int minElementIndex = std::min_element(v.begin(),v.end()) - v.begin();
int minElement = *std::min_element(v.begin(), v.end());
std::cout << "maxElementIndex:" << maxElementIndex << ", maxElement:" << maxElement << '\n';
std::cout << "minElementIndex:" << minElementIndex << ", minElement:" << minElement << '\n';Output:
maxElementIndex:3, maxElement:10
minElementIndex:1, minElement:2
The minimum and maximum element in a vector can be retrieved at the same time by using the method std::minmax_element, which is also defined in <algorithm> header:
std::vector<int> v = {5, 2, 8, 10, 9};
auto minmax = std::minmax_element(v.begin(), v.end());
std::cout << "minimum element: " << *minmax.first << '\n';
std::cout << "maximum element: " << *minmax.second << '\n';Output:
minimum element: 2
maximum element: 10