1. Standard Template Library Find
CSCE 121
Slides adapted by J. Michael Moore
Based on slides created by Bjarne Stroustrup and Jennifer Welch

2. STL find() algorithm // find first element that equals a value
template<class It, class T>
It find(It first, It last, const T& val) {
while (first != last && *first != val) ++first;
return first; }
// sample use of find, for vector
void f(vector<int>& v, int x) {
vector<int>::iterator p = find(v.begin(), v.end(), x);
if (p != v.end()) { /* we found x */ }
// ...

3. More About STL find() Function
It is generic in two aspects
element type (sequence of any kind of data)
container type (is the sequence implemented with an array, a vector, a linked list, …?)
The next slide shows how similar the code is between
a vector of ints
a list of strings
a set of doubles

4. Comparing Different Uses of find()
void f(vector<int>& v, int x) {
vector<int>::iterator p = find(v.begin(), v.end(), x);
if (p != v.end()) { /* ... */ } }
void f(list<string>& v, string x) {
list<string>::iterator p = find(v.begin(), v.end(), x);
void f(set<double>& v, double x) {
set<double>::iterator p = find(v.begin, v.end(), x);