min_element

Algorithm

• Summary
• Data Type and Member Function Indexes
• Synopsis
• Description
• Complexity
• Example
• Warnings
• See Also

Finds the minimum value in a range.

None

#include <algorithm>
template <class ForwardIterator>
 ForwardIterator
 min_element(ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last);

template <class ForwardIterator, class Compare>
 InputIterator
 min_element(ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last,
             Compare comp);

The min_element algorithm returns an iterator that denotes the minimum element in a sequence. If the sequence contains more than one copy of the minimum element, the iterator points to the first occurrence of the element. In the second version of the function, the optional argument comp defines a comparison function that can be used in place of the default operator<.

Algorithm min_element returns the first iterator i in the range [first, last) such that for any iterator j in the same range, the following corresponding conditions hold:

!(*j < *i)

or

comp(*j, *i) == false.

min_element performs exactly max((last - first) - 1, 0) applications of the corresponding comparisons.

//
// max_elem.cpp
//
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <vector>
 #include <iostream>
 using namespace std;

 int main(void)
 {
   typedef vector<int>::iterator iterator; 
   int d1[5] = {1,3,5,32,64}; 
 
   // set up vector 
   vector<int>      v1(d1,d1 + 5); 

   // find the largest element in the vector
   iterator it1 = max_element(v1.begin(), v1.end());
   // it1 = v1.begin() + 4
 
   // find the largest element in the range from
   // the beginning of the vector to the 2nd to last
   iterator it2 = max_element(v1.begin(), v1.end()-1, 
                      less<int>());   
   // it2 = v1.begin() + 3
 
   // find the smallest element 
   iterator it3 = min_element(v1.begin(), v1.end()); 
   // it3 = v1.begin() 
 
   // find the smallest value in the range from
   // the beginning of the vector plus 1 to the end
   iterator it4 = min_element(v1.begin()+1, v1.end(), 
                      less<int>());      
   // it4 = v1.begin() + 1

   cout << *it1 << " " << *it2 << " " 
        << *it3 << " " << *it4 << endl;
 
   return 0;
 }

Program Output

64 32 1 3

If your compiler does not support default template parameters, then you always need to supply the Allocator template argument. For instance, you have to write:

vector<int,allocator<int> >

instead of:

vector<int>

If your compiler does not support namespaces, then you do not need the using declaration for std.

max, max_element, min