std::set_union

 

C++

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Algorithm library

Constrained algorithms and algorithms on ranges (C++20)
Constrained algorithms, e.g. ranges::copy, ranges::sort, ...
Execution policies (C++17)
is_execution_policy (C++17)	execution::seqexecution::parexecution::par_unseqexecution::unseq (C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++20)	execution::sequenced_policyexecution::parallel_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced (C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++20)
Non-modifying sequence operations
all_ofany_ofnone_of (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) for_each for_each_n (C++17)	countcount_if mismatch equal adjacent_find	search search_n lexicographical_compare lexicographical_compare_three_way (C++20)	findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of
Modifying sequence operations
copycopy_if (C++11) copy_n (C++11) copy_backward move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) shift_leftshift_right (C++20)(C++20) transform	fill fill_n generate generate_n swap iter_swap swap_ranges sample (C++17)	removeremove_if replacereplace_if reverse rotate unique random_shuffle (until C++17)	remove_copyremove_copy_if replace_copyreplace_copy_if reverse_copy rotate_copy unique_copy shuffle (C++11)
Partitioning operations
is_partitioned (C++11) partition_point (C++11)	partition partition_copy (C++11)	stable_partition
Sorting operations
is_sorted (C++11) is_sorted_until (C++11)	sort stable_sort	partial_sort partial_sort_copy	nth_element
Binary search operations
lower_bound	upper_bound	binary_search	equal_range
Set operations (on sorted ranges)
merge inplace_merge	set_difference set_intersection	set_symmetric_difference set_union	includes
Heap operations
is_heap (C++11) is_heap_until (C++11)	make_heap sort_heap	push_heap pop_heap
Minimum/maximum operations
max max_element	min min_element	minmax (C++11) minmax_element (C++11)	clamp (C++17)
Permutations
is_permutation (C++11)	next_permutation	prev_permutation
Numeric operations
iota (C++11) inner_product adjacent_difference	accumulate reduce (C++17) transform_reduce (C++17)	transform_inclusive_scan (C++17) transform_exclusive_scan (C++17)	partial_sum inclusive_scan (C++17) exclusive_scan (C++17)
Operations on uninitialized storage
uninitialized_copy uninitialized_move (C++17) uninitialized_fill	uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_fill_n	uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17)	destroy (C++17) destroy_n (C++17) destroy_at (C++17) construct_at (C++20)
C library
qsort	bsearch

 

Defined in header <algorithm>
	(1)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt > OutputIt set_union( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,                     InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first );			(until C++20)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt > constexpr OutputIt set_union( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,                               InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2,                               OutputIt d_first );			(since C++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt1,           class ForwardIt2, class ForwardIt3 > ForwardIt3 set_union( ExecutionPolicy&& policy,                       ForwardIt1 first1, ForwardIt1 last1,                       ForwardIt2 first2, ForwardIt2 last2, ForwardIt3 d_first );		(2)	(since C++17)
		(3)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare > OutputIt set_union( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,                     InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2,                     OutputIt d_first, Compare comp );				(until C++20)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare > constexpr OutputIt set_union( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,                               InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2,                               OutputIt d_first, Compare comp );				(since C++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt1,           class ForwardIt2, class ForwardIt3, class Compare > ForwardIt3 set_union( ExecutionPolicy&& policy,                       ForwardIt1 first1, ForwardIt1 last1,                       ForwardIt2 first2, ForwardIt2 last2,                       ForwardIt3 d_first, Compare comp );			(4)	(since C++17)

Constructs a sorted union beginning at d_first consisting of the set of elements present in one or both sorted ranges [first1, last1) and [first2, last2).

If [first1, last1) contains m elements that are equivalent to each other and [first2, last2) contains n elements that are equivalent to them, then all m elements will be copied from [first1, last1) to the output range, preserving order, and then the final std::max(n - m, 0) elements will be copied from [first2, last2) to the output range, also preserving order.

1) Elements are compared using operator< and the ranges must be sorted with respect to the same.

3) Elements are compared using the given binary comparison function comp and the ranges must be sorted with respect to the same.

2,4) Same as (1,3), but executed according to policy. These overloads do not participate in overload resolution unless

std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true.	(until C++20)
std::is_execution_policy_v<std::remove_cvref_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true.	(since C++20)

If either of the input ranges is not sorted (using operator< or comp, respectively) or overlaps with the output range, the behavior is undefined.

Parameters

first1, last1	-	the first input sorted range
first2, last2	-	the second input sorted range
d_first	-	the beginning of the output range
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
comp	-	comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the requirements of Compare) which returns ​true if the first argument is less than (i.e. is ordered before) the second. The signature of the comparison function should be equivalent to the following: bool cmp(const Type1 &a, const Type2 &b); While the signature does not need to have const&, the function must not modify the objects passed to it and must be able to accept all values of type (possibly const) Type1 and Type2 regardless of value category (thus, Type1& is not allowed, nor is Type1 unless for Type1 a move is equivalent to a copy (since C++11)). The types Type1 and Type2 must be such that objects of types InputIt1 and InputIt2 can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to both Type1 and Type2. ​
Type requirements
- InputIt1, InputIt2 must meet the requirements of LegacyInputIterator.
- ForwardIt1, ForwardIt2, ForwardIt3 must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.
- OutputIt must meet the requirements of LegacyOutputIterator.

Return value

Iterator past the end of the constructed range.

Complexity

Given M and N as std::distance(first1, last1) and std::distance(first2, last2) respectively:

1,2) at most 2·(M + N) - 1 comparisons using operator<

3,4) at most 2·(M + N) - 1 applications of the predicate p

Exceptions

The overloads with a template parameter named ExecutionPolicy report errors as follows:

• If execution of a function invoked as part of the algorithm throws an exception and ExecutionPolicy is one of the standard policies, std::terminate is called. For any other ExecutionPolicy, the behavior is implementation-defined.
• If the algorithm fails to allocate memory, std::bad_alloc is thrown.

Notes

This algorithm performs a similar task as std::merge does. Both consume two sorted input ranges and produce a sorted output with elements from both inputs. The difference between these two algorithms is with handling values from both input ranges which compare equivalent (see notes on LessThanComparable). If any equivalent values appeared n times in the first range and m times in the second, std::merge would output all n + m occurrences whereas std::set_union would output std::max(n, m) ones only. So std::merge outputs exactly std::distance(first1, last1) + std::distance(first2, last2) values and std::set_union may produce fewer.

Possible implementation

set_union (1)
template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt> OutputIt set_union(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first) { for (; first1 != last1; ++d_first) { if (first2 == last2) return std::copy(first1, last1, d_first);   if (*first2 < *first1) *d_first = *first2++; else { *d_first = *first1; if (!(*first1 < *first2)) ++first2; ++first1; } } return std::copy(first2, last2, d_first); }
set_union (3)
template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare> OutputIt set_union(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first, Compare comp) { for (; first1 != last1; ++d_first) { if (first2 == last2) // Finished range 2, include the rest of range 1: return std::copy(first1, last1, d_first);   if (comp(*first2, *first1)) *d_first = *first2++; else { *d_first = *first1; if (!comp(*first1, *first2)) // Equivalent => don't need to include *first2. ++first2; ++first1; } } // Finished range 1, include the rest of range 2: return std::copy(first2, last2, d_first); }

Example

Example with vectors:

Run this code

#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
 
int main()
{
    {
        std::vector<int> v1 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}; 
        std::vector<int> v2 = {      3, 4, 5, 6, 7}; 
        std::vector<int> dest1;
 
        std::set_union(v1.begin(), v1.end(),
                       v2.begin(), v2.end(),                  
                       std::back_inserter(dest1));
 
        for (const auto &i : dest1)
            std::cout << i << ' ';
        std::cout << '\n';
    }
 
    {
        std::vector<int> v1 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5}; 
        std::vector<int> v2 = {      3, 4, 5, 6, 7}; 
        std::vector<int> dest1;
 
        std::set_union(v1.begin(), v1.end(),
                       v2.begin(), v2.end(),                  
                       std::back_inserter(dest1));
 
        for (const auto &i : dest1)
            std::cout << i << ' ';
        std::cout << '\n';
    }
}

Output:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
1 2 3 4 5 5 5 6 7

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 291	C++98	it was unspecified how to handle equivalent elements in the input ranges	specified

See also

includes	returns true if one sequence is a subsequence of another (function template)
merge	merges two sorted ranges (function template)
set_difference	computes the difference between two sets (function template)
set_intersection	computes the intersection of two sets (function template)
set_symmetric_difference	computes the symmetric difference between two sets (function template)
ranges::set_union (C++20)	computes the union of two sets (niebloid)