min_element()

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Algorithm that finds the minimum value in a range

#include <algorithm>

namespace std {
  template <class ForwardIterator>
  ForwardIterator
  min_element(ForwardIterator start, ForwardIterator finish);

  template <class ForwardIterator, class Compare>
  InputIterator
  min_element(ForwardIterator start, ForwardIterator finish,
              Compare comp);
}

The min_element() algorithm returns an iterator that denotes the minimum element in a sequence. If the sequence contains more than one copy of the minimum element, the iterator points to the first occurrence of the element. In the second version of the function, the argument comp defines a comparison function object to be used in place of operator<().

Algorithm min_element() returns the first iterator i in the range [start, finish) such that for any iterator j in the same range, either of the following conditions hold:

!(*j < *i)

or

comp(*j, *i) == false.

min_element() performs exactly max((finish - start) - 1, 0) applications of the corresponding comparisons.

//
//  max_elem.cpp
//

#include <algorithm>    // for max_element
#include <functional>   // for less
#include <iostream>     // for cout, endl
#include <vector>       // for vector


int main ()
{
    typedef std::vector<int, std::allocator<int> > Vector;
    typedef Vector::iterator                       Iterator;

    const Vector::value_type d1[] = { 1, 3, 5, 32, 64 };                
    // Set up vector.
    Vector v1(d1 + 0, d1 + sizeof d1 / sizeof *d1);  

    // Find the largest element in the vector.
    Iterator it1 = std::max_element (v1.begin(), v1.end());

    // Find the largest element in the range from
    // the beginning of the vector to the 2nd to last.
    Iterator it2 = std::max_element (v1.begin(), v1.end() - 1,
                                     std::less<int>());

    // Find the smallest element.
    Iterator it3 = std::min_element (v1.begin(), v1.end());

    // Find the smallest value in the range from
    // the beginning of the vector plus 1 to the end.
    Iterator it4 = std::min_element (v1.begin() + 1, v1.end(),
                                     std::less<int>());

    std::cout << *it1 << " " << *it2 << " "
              << *it3 << " " << *it4 << std::endl;

    return 0;
}


Program Files:

64 32 1 3

max(), max_element(), min()

ISO/IEC 14882:1998 -- International Standard for Information Systems -- Programming Language C++, Section 25.3.7