Finding an element in std::vector

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The function std::find, defined in the <algorithm> header, can be used to find an element in a std::vector.

std::find uses the operator== to compare elements for equality. It returns an iterator to the first element in the range that compares equal to the value.

If the element in question is not found, std::find returns std::vector::end (or std::vector::cend if the vector is const).

static const int arr[] = {5, 4, 3, 2, 1};
std::vector<int> v (arr, arr + sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]) );

std::vector<int>::iterator it = std::find(v.begin(), v.end(), 4);
std::vector<int>::difference_type index = std::distance(v.begin(), it);
// `it` points to the second element of the vector, `index` is 1

std::vector<int>::iterator missing = std::find(v.begin(), v.end(), 10);
std::vector<int>::difference_type index_missing = std::distance(v.begin(), missing);
// `missing` is v.end(), `index_missing` is 5 (ie. size of the vector)
std::vector<int> v { 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 };

auto it = std::find(v.begin(), v.end(), 4);
auto index = std::distance(v.begin(), it);
// `it` points to the second element of the vector, `index` is 1

auto missing = std::find(v.begin(), v.end(), 10);
auto index_missing = std::distance(v.begin(), missing);
// `missing` is v.end(), `index_missing` is 5 (ie. size of the vector)

If you need to perform many searches in a large vector, then you may want to consider sorting the vector first, before using the binary_search algorithm.

To find the first element in a vector that satisfies a condition, std::find_if can be used. In addition to the two parameters given to std::find, std::find_if accepts a third argument which is a function object or function pointer to a predicate function. The predicate should accept an element from the container as an argument and return a value convertible to bool, without modifying the container:

bool isEven(int val) {
    return (val % 2 == 0); 
}

struct moreThan {
    moreThan(int limit) : _limit(limit) {}
    
    bool operator()(int val) {
        return val > _limit;
    }
    
    int _limit;
};

static const int arr[] = {1, 3, 7, 8};
std::vector<int> v (arr, arr + sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]) );
    
std::vector<int>::iterator it = std::find_if(v.begin(), v.end(), isEven);
// `it` points to 8, the first even element

std::vector<int>::iterator missing = std::find_if(v.begin(), v.end(), moreThan(10));
// `missing` is v.end(), as no element is greater than 10
// find the first value that is even
std::vector<int> v = {1, 3, 7, 8};
auto it = std::find_if(v.begin(), v.end(), [](int val){return val % 2 == 0;});
// `it` points to 8, the first even element

auto missing = std::find_if(v.begin(), v.end(), [](int val){return val > 10;});
// `missing` is v.end(), as no element is greater than 10

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std::vector:
* Finding an element in std::vector

Table Of Contents
8 Arrays
11 Loops
23 std::vector
39 Streams
51 Unions
56 Lambdas
60 SFINAE
62 RAII
67 Sorting
84 RTTI
87 Scopes
104 Profiling
107 Recursion
117 Iteration
125 Alignment
134 Semaphore
136 Debugging
139 Mutexes
142 decltype