In this article, we will discuss different ways to compare two vectors in C++.
Comparing two vectors using operator ==
std::vector provides an equality comparison operator==, it can be used to compare the contents of two vectors. For each element in the vector it will call operator == on the elements for comparisons.
Let’s see how to do that,
Suppose we have 2 vectors of int i.e.
std::vector<int> vecOfNums1 { 1, 4, 5, 22, 33, 2, 11, 89, 49 }; std::vector<int> vecOfNums2 { 1, 4, 5, 22, 33, 2, 11, 89, 49 };
Let’s compare 2 vector using operator == i.e.
/* * Comparing vectors using operator == */ if (vecOfNums1 == vecOfNums2) { std::cout << "matched" << std::endl; }
If contents of vectors are equal than it will return true else false.
Using operator == for comparing vectors has two limitations i.e.
- It will compare all the elements in vector, we can not compare the sub sections of vectors using it.
- It will compare all the elements in vector, by calling operator == on each element. You can not use custom comparators with it.
As operator == provides limited functionality for comparing two vectors. Therefore, std::equals() comes to rescue.
The complete example is as follows,
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#include <iostream> #include <vector> int main() { std::vector<int> vecOfNums1 { 1, 4, 5, 22, 33, 2, 11, 89, 49 }; std::vector<int> vecOfNums2 { 1, 4, 5, 22, 33, 2, 11, 89, 49 }; /* * Comparing vectors using operator == */ if (vecOfNums1 == vecOfNums2) { std::cout << "matched" << std::endl; } return 0; }
Output:
matched
Comparing two vectors using STL Algorithm std::equal()
STL Algorithms provide two over loaded versions of equal()
bool equal (InputIterator1 first1, InputIterator1 last1, InputIterator2 first2);
It accepts two ranges and compare all the elements in range 1 i.e. [first1, last1) with all the elements in range 2 starting at first2.
It returns true if all the range1 is equal to all the elements in range2.
Let’s use this,
Compare all elements in two vectors using std::equal()
#include <iostream> #include <vector> #include <algorithm> int main() { std::vector<int> vecOfNums1 { 1, 4, 5, 22, 33, 2, 11, 89, 49 }; std::vector<int> vecOfNums2 { 1, 4, 5, 22, 33, 2, 11, 89, 49 }; // Compare all the elements of two vectors bool result = std::equal( vecOfNums1.begin(), vecOfNums1.end(), vecOfNums2.begin()); if (result) { std::cout << "Both vectors are equal" << std::endl; } return 0; }
Partial comparison of two vectors using equals()
#include <iostream> #include <vector> #include <algorithm> int main() { /* * Partial comparison of two vectors using equals() */ std::vector<int> vec1{ 1, 4, 5, 22, 33, 2, 11, 89, 49 }; std::vector<int> vec2{ 5, 22, 33}; // Compare 3 elements of vec2 with // 3 elements in vec1 atrting at index 2. auto result = std::equal( vec2.begin(), vec2.end(), vec1.begin() + 2); if (result) std::cout << "vec1 contains vec2 at position 2 \n"; return 0; }
Related Tutorials of C++ Vector
Comparing two vectors with custom comparators
Other over loaded version of std::equals() is as follows,
bool equal (InputIterator1 first1, InputIterator1 last1, InputIterator2 first2, BinaryPredicate pred);
It compares all the elements in range 1 and range 2 using given binary predicate i.e. comparator.
Let’s see how to use this,
Suppose we have two vectors of strings i.e.
//Two vectors of strings std::vector<std::string> vecOfStr1{ "Hi" , "hello" , "There" , "From" }; std::vector<std::string> vecOfStr2{ "HI" , "HELLO" , "THERE" , "FROM" };
Now let’s compare two vectors of strings in case insensitive manner by passing a custom comparator in equals() i.e.
Comparator :
// Comparator to compare two strings in case insensitive manner COMPARATOR comparatorObj = [](STRING_REF left, STRING_REF right){ // Lambda function to compare 2 strings // in case insensitive manner return std::equal( left.begin(), left.end(), right.begin(), [](const char & l, const char & r) { return (::toupper(l) == ::toupper(r)); }); };
Comparing 2 vectors using std::equals() and comparator i.e.
// Compare two vectors of strings in // case insensitive manner auto result = std::equal( vecOfStr1.begin(), vecOfStr1.end(), vecOfStr2.begin(), comparatorObj); if (result) std::cout << "Both vectors are equal" << std::endl; else std::cout << "Both vectors are not equal" << std::endl;
Output:
Both vectors are equal
The Complete example is as follows,
#include <iostream> #include <vector> #include <algorithm> #include <functional> #include <string> typedef const std::string& STRING_REF; typedef std::function< bool (STRING_REF, STRING_REF) > COMPARATOR; int main() { //Two vectors of strings std::vector<std::string> vecOfStr1{ "Hi" , "hello" , "There" , "From" }; std::vector<std::string> vecOfStr2{ "HI" , "HELLO" , "THERE" , "FROM" }; // Comparator to compare two strings in case insensitive manner COMPARATOR comparatorObj = [](STRING_REF left, STRING_REF right){ // Lambda function to compare 2 strings // in case insensitive manner return std::equal( left.begin(), left.end(), right.begin(), [](const char & l, const char & r) { return (::toupper(l) == ::toupper(r)); }); }; // Compare two vectors of strings in // case insensitive manner auto result = std::equal( vecOfStr1.begin(), vecOfStr1.end(), vecOfStr2.begin(), comparatorObj); if (result) std::cout << "Both vectors are equal" << std::endl; else std::cout << "Both vectors are not equal" << std::endl; return 0; }
Output
Both vectors are equal
Summary
We learned how to compare two vectors in C++.
Does this method cover two dimensional vectors? a vector of vectors?
vector < vector > vector1;
vector < vector > vector2;
equal(vector1.begin(), vector1.end(), vector2.begin());