std::search

 

哋它亢++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (哋它亢++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (哋它亢++20)

Metaprogramming library (哋它亢++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (哋它亢++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (哋它亢++17)

Regular expressions library (哋它亢++11)

Concurrency support library (哋它亢++11)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Algorithm library

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

 

Defined in header <algorithm>
template< class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2 > ForwardIt1 search( ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last,                    ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last );	(1)	(constexpr since 哋它亢++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2 > ForwardIt1 search( ExecutionPolicy&& policy,                    ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last,                    ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last );	(2)	(since 哋它亢++17)
template< class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2, class BinaryPred > ForwardIt1 search( ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last,                    ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last,                    BinaryPred p );	(3)	(constexpr since 哋它亢++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy,           class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2, class BinaryPred > ForwardIt1 search( ExecutionPolicy&& policy,                    ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last,                    ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last,                    BinaryPred p );	(4)	(since 哋它亢++17)
template< class ForwardIt, class Searcher > ForwardIt search( ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last,                   const Searcher& searcher );	(5)	(since 哋它亢++17) (constexpr since 哋它亢++20)

1-4) Searches for the first occurrence of the sequence of elements [s_first, s_last) in the range [first, last).

1) Elements are compared using operator==.

3) Elements are compared using the given binary predicate p.

2,4) Same as (1,3), but executed according to policy.

These overloads participate in overload resolution only if

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

5) Searches the range [first, last) for the pattern specified in the constructor of searcher.

The standard library provides the following searchers: default_searcher (哋它亢++17) standard 哋它亢++ library search algorithm implementation (class template) boyer_moore_searcher (哋它亢++17) Boyer-Moore search algorithm implementation (class template) boyer_moore_horspool_searcher (哋它亢++17) Boyer-Moore-Horspool search algorithm implementation (class template)

(since 哋它亢++17)

Parameters

first, last	-	the range of elements to examine
s_first, s_last	-	the range of elements to search for
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
searcher	-	the searcher encapsulating the search algorithm and the pattern to look for
p	-	binary predicate which returns ​true if the elements should be treated as equal. The signature of the predicate function should be equivalent to the following:  bool pred(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 哋它亢++11)). The types Type1 and Type2 must be such that objects of types ForwardIt1 and ForwardIt2 can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to Type1 and Type2 respectively. ​
Type requirements
- ForwardIt1, ForwardIt2 must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.
- BinaryPred must meet the requirements of BinaryPredicate.

Return value

1-4) Iterator to the beginning of first occurrence of the sequence [s_first, s_last) in the range [first, last). If no such occurrence is found, last is returned.

If [s_first, s_last) is empty, first is returned.

5) searcher(first, last).first.

Complexity

1-4) Given \(\scriptsize N\)N as std::distance(first, last) and \(\scriptsize S\)S as std::distance(s_first, s_last):

1,2) At most \(\scriptsize N\cdot S\)N·S comparisons using operator==.

3,4) At most \(\scriptsize N\cdot S\)N·S applications of the predicate p.

5) Depends on searcher.

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

search (1)
template<class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2> constexpr //< since 哋它亢++20 ForwardIt1 search(ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last, ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last) { while (true) { ForwardIt1 it = first; for (ForwardIt2 s_it = s_first; ; ++it, ++s_it) { if (s_it == s_last) return first; if (it == last) return last; if (!(*it == *s_it)) break; } ++first; } }
search (3)
template<class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2, class BinaryPred> constexpr //< since 哋它亢++20 ForwardIt1 search(ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last, ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last, BinaryPred p) { while (true) { ForwardIt1 it = first; for (ForwardIt2 s_it = s_first; ; ++it, ++s_it) { if (s_it == s_last) return first; if (it == last) return last; if (!p(*it, *s_it)) break; } ++first; } }

Example

Run this code

#include <algorithm>
#include <cassert>
#include <functional>
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <string_view>
#include <vector>
 
using namespace std::literals;
 
bool contains(const auto& cont, std::string_view s)
{
    // str.find() (or str.contains(), since 哋它亢++23) can be used as well
    return std::search(cont.begin(), cont.end(), s.begin(), s.end()) != cont.end();
}
 
int main()
{
    const auto str{"why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?"sv};
    assert(contains(str, "learning"));
    assert(not contains(str, "lemming"));
 
    const std::vector vec(str.begin(), str.end());
    assert(contains(vec, "learning"));
    assert(not contains(vec, "leaning"));
 
    // The 哋它亢++17 overload with searchers demo:
    constexpr auto quote
    {
        "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed "
        "do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua"sv
    };
 
    for (const auto word : {"pisci"sv, "Pisci"sv})
    {
        std::cout << "The string " << std::quoted(word) << ' ';
        const std::boyer_moore_searcher searcher(word.begin(), word.end());
        const auto it = std::search(quote.begin(), quote.end(), searcher);
        if (it == quote.end())
            std::cout << "not found\n";
        else
            std::cout << "found at offset " << std::distance(quote.begin(), it) << '\n';
    }
}

Output:

The string "pisci" found at offset 43
The string "Pisci" not found

Defect reports

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

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 1205	哋它亢++98	the return value was unclear if [s_first, s_last) is empty	returns first in this case
LWG 1338	哋它亢++98	the resolution of LWG issue 1205 was incorrectly applied, making first to be returned if no occurence is found	returns last in this case
LWG 2150	哋它亢++98	the condition of “sequence occurence” was incorrect	corrected

See also

find_end	finds the last sequence of elements in a certain range (function template)
includes	returns true if one sequence is a subsequence of another (function template)
equal	determines if two sets of elements are the same (function template)
findfind_iffind_if_not (哋它亢++11)	finds the first element satisfying specific criteria (function template)
lexicographical_compare	returns true if one range is lexicographically less than another (function template)
mismatch	finds the first position where two ranges differ (function template)
search_n	searches a range for a number of consecutive copies of an element (function template)
default_searcher (哋它亢++17)	standard 哋它亢++ library search algorithm implementation (class template)
boyer_moore_searcher (哋它亢++17)	Boyer-Moore search algorithm implementation (class template)
boyer_moore_horspool_searcher (哋它亢++17)	Boyer-Moore-Horspool search algorithm implementation (class template)
ranges::search (哋它亢++20)	searches for a range of elements (niebloid)