How to copy all Values from a Map to a Vector in C++

In this article we will discuss how to fetch all values from a map and put them in vector.

Suppose we have a map of words and their frequency count i.e.

// Map of string & int
// To store the frequency count of words
std::map<std::string, int> wordMap = { { "is", 6 }, { "the", 5 },
		{ "hat", 9 }, { "at", 6 }, { "of", 2 }, { "hello", 1 } };

Now let’s fetch all values from this map in a vector of int i.e.

6 , 9 , 1 , 6 , 2 , 5

Copy all values from a map to vector using Range Based for Loop

 /*** Copy all value fields from map to a vector using Range Based For Loop ***/
 for(auto elem : wordMap)
	 vecOfValues.push_back(elem.second);

Copy all values from a map to vector using for_each() & Lambda function

// Vector of int to store values
 std::vector<int> vecOfValues;
 vecOfValues.reserve(wordMap.size());

/*** Copy all value fields from map to a vector using Lambda function ***/
std::for_each(wordMap.begin(), wordMap.end(),  [&](std::pair<const std::string, int>  & element){
													vecOfValues.push_back(element.second);
												});

Iterate over each entry in map and call lambda function on each entry. Which will put second field from given pair to the vector.

Copy all values from a map to vector using transform() and lambda function

// Vector of int to store values
std::vector<int> vecOfValues2;
vecOfValues2.reserve(wordMap.size());

/*** Copy all value fields from map to a vector using transform() & Lambda function ***/
std::transform (wordMap.begin(), wordMap.end(),back_inserter(vecOfValues2), [] (std::pair<std::string, int> const & pair)
																				{
																					return pair.second;
																				});

std::transform will iterate over each entry in map and call given lambda function on it. Then pass the result returned by it to the vector’s back_inserter.

Copy all values from a map to vector using transform() & function pointer

We can also call the std::transform() with a function pointer i.e. let’s create a template function that returns second value from a given pair i.e.

/*
 * Template function that returns 2nd Value from a pair
 */
template <typename K, typename V>
V getSecond(std::pair<K, V> const & pair)
{
	return pair.second;
}

Now use this template function instead of lambda function in std::transform() to copy all values to vector i.e.

// Vector of int to store values
std::vector<int> vecOfValues3;
vecOfValues3.reserve(wordMap.size());

/*** Copy all values from a map to vector using transform() & function pointer ***/
std::transform (wordMap.begin(), wordMap.end(),back_inserter(vecOfValues3), &getSecond<std::string, int>);

Complete example is as follows,

#include <iostream>
#include <map>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
#include <utility>
#include <functional>

/*
 * Template function that returns 2nd Value from a pair
 */
template <typename K, typename V>
V getSecond(std::pair<K, V> const & pair)
{
	return pair.second;
}

int main() {

	// Map of string & int
	// To store the frequency count of words
	std::map<std::string, int> wordMap = { { "is", 6 }, { "the", 5 },
			{ "hat", 9 }, { "at", 6 }, { "of", 2 }, { "hello", 1 } };

	/*
	 * Copy all Values from a Map to a Vector using different techniques
	 */

	// Vector of int to store values
	 std::vector<int> vecOfValues;
	 vecOfValues.reserve(wordMap.size());

	 /*** Copy all value fields from map to a vector using Range Based For Loop ***/
	 for(auto elem : wordMap)
		 vecOfValues.push_back(elem.second);

	 // Print contents of vector
	std::copy(vecOfValues.begin(), vecOfValues.end(), std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " , ") );
	std::cout<<std::endl;

	// Clear the vector
	vecOfValues.clear();

	/*** Copy all value fields from map to a vector using Lambda function ***/
	std::for_each(wordMap.begin(), wordMap.end(),  [&](std::pair<const std::string, int>  & element){
														vecOfValues.push_back(element.second);
													});

	// Print contents of vector
	std::copy(vecOfValues.begin(), vecOfValues.end(), std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " , ") );
	std::cout<<std::endl;


	// Vector of int to store values
	std::vector<int> vecOfValues2;
    vecOfValues2.reserve(wordMap.size());

	/*** Copy all value fields from map to a vector using transform() & Lambda function ***/
	std::transform (wordMap.begin(), wordMap.end(),back_inserter(vecOfValues2), [] (std::pair<std::string, int> const & pair)
																					{
																						return pair.second;
																					});

	// Print contents of vector
	std::copy(vecOfValues2.begin(), vecOfValues2.end(), std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " , ") );
	std::cout<<std::endl;

	// Vector of int to store values
	std::vector<int> vecOfValues3;
	vecOfValues3.reserve(wordMap.size());

	/*** Copy all values from a map to vector using transform() & function pointer ***/
	std::transform (wordMap.begin(), wordMap.end(),back_inserter(vecOfValues3), &getSecond<std::string, int>);


	// Print contents of vector
	std::copy(vecOfValues3.begin(), vecOfValues3.end(), std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " , ") );
	std::cout<<std::endl;

	 return 0;
}

Output:

6 , 9 , 1 , 6 , 2 , 5 , 
6 , 9 , 1 , 6 , 2 , 5 , 
6 , 9 , 1 , 6 , 2 , 5 , 

Thanks.