std::set_difference

 

C++

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Named requirements

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Diagnostics library

Utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Input/output library

Localizations library

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Filesystem library (C++17)

Technical Specifications

 

Algorithm library

Constrained algorithms and algorithms on ranges (C++20)
Concepts and utilities: std::Sortable, std::projected, ...
Constrained algorithms: std::ranges::copy, std::ranges::sort, ...
Execution policies (C++17)
is_execution_policy	execution::seqexecution::parexecution::par_unseqexecution::unseq (C++20)	execution::sequenced_policyexecution::parallel_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced (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	findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of	search search_n lexicographical_compare lexicographical_compare_3way (C++20)
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)
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) destroy (C++17)	uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17) destroy_n (C++17)
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) compare_3way (C++20)
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)	partial_sum inclusive_scan (C++17) exclusive_scan (C++17)	transform_inclusive_scan (C++17) transform_exclusive_scan (C++17)
C library
qsort	bsearch

 

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

Copies the elements from the sorted range [first1, last1) which are not found in the sorted range [first2, last2) to the range beginning at d_first.

The resulting range is also sorted. Equivalent elements are treated individually, that is, if some element is found m times in [first1, last1) and n times in [first2, last2), it will be copied to d_first exactly std::max(m-n, 0) times. The resulting range cannot overlap with either of the input ranges.

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. This overload only participates in overload resolution if std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true

Parameters

first1, last1	-	the range of elements to examine
first2, last2	-	the range of elements to search for
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.
- OutputIt must meet the requirements of LegacyOutputIterator.
- ForwardIt1, ForwardIt2, ForwardIt3 must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.

Return value

Iterator past the end of the constructed range.

Complexity

At most 2·(N₁+N₂-1) comparisons, where N₁ = std::distance(first1, last1) and N₂ = std::distance(first2, last2).

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.

Possible implementation

First version
template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt> OutputIt set_difference(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first) { while (first1 != last1) { if (first2 == last2) return std::copy(first1, last1, d_first);   if (*first1 < *first2) { *d_first++ = *first1++; } else { if (! (*first2 < *first1)) { ++first1; } ++first2; } } return d_first; }
Second version
template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare> OutputIt set_difference( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first, Compare comp) { while (first1 != last1) { if (first2 == last2) return std::copy(first1, last1, d_first);   if (comp(*first1, *first2)) { *d_first++ = *first1++; } else { if (!comp(*first2, *first1)) { ++first1; } ++first2; } } return d_first; }

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
#include <iterator>
 
int main() {
    std::vector<int> v1 {1, 2, 5, 5, 5, 9};
    std::vector<int> v2 {2, 5, 7};
    std::vector<int> diff;
 
    std::set_difference(v1.begin(), v1.end(), v2.begin(), v2.end(), 
                        std::inserter(diff, diff.begin()));
 
    for (auto i : v1) std::cout << i << ' ';
    std::cout << "minus ";
    for (auto i : v2) std::cout << i << ' ';
    std::cout << "is: ";
 
    for (auto i : diff) std::cout << i << ' ';
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Output:

1 2 5 5 5 9 minus 2 5 7 is: 1 5 5 9

See also

includes	returns true if one set is a subset of another (function template)
set_symmetric_difference	computes the symmetric difference between two sets (function template)