Difference between revisions of "cpp/algorithm/ranges/inplace merge"

Revision as of 15:09, 8 July 2021

Merges two consecutive sorted ranges [first, middle) and [middle, last) into one sorted range [first, last).

A sequence is said to be sorted with respect to the comparator comp and projection proj if for any iterator it pointing to the sequence and any non-negative integer n such that it + n is a valid iterator pointing to an element of the sequence, std::invoke(comp, std::invoke(proj, *(it + n)), std::invoke(proj, *it))) evaluates to false.

This merge function is stable, which means that for equivalent elements in the original two ranges, the elements from the first range (preserving their original order) precede the elements from the second range (preserving their original order).

The function-like entities described on this page are niebloids, that is:

• Explicit template argument lists cannot be specified when calling any of them.
• None of them are visible to argument-dependent lookup.
• When any of them are found by normal unqualified lookup as the name to the left of the function-call operator, argument-dependent lookup is inhibited.

In practice, they may be implemented as function objects, or with special compiler extensions.

Parameters

Return value

An iterator equal to last.

Complexity

Exactly N−1 comparisons, if additional memory buffer is available, where N = ranges::distance(first, last). Otherwise, 𝓞(N•log(N)) comparisons. Additionally, twice as many projections as comparisons in both cases.

Notes

This function attempts to allocate a temporary buffer. If the allocation fails, the less efficient algorithm is chosen.

Example

#include <algorithm>
#include <complex>
#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <vector>
 
void print(auto const& v, auto const& rem, int middle = -1)
{
    for (int i{}; auto n : v)
        std::cout << (i++ == middle ? "│ " : "") << n << ' ';
    std::cout << rem << '\n';
}
 
template <std::random_access_iterator I, std::sentinel_for<I> S>
requires std::sortable<I>
void merge_sort(I first, S last)
{
    if (last - first > 1) {
        I middle {first + (last - first) / 2};
        merge_sort(first, middle);
        merge_sort(middle, last);
        std::ranges::inplace_merge(first, middle, last);
    }
}
 
int main()
{
    // custom merge-sort demo
    std::vector v {8, 2, 0, 4, 9, 8, 1, 7, 3};
    print(v, ": before sort");
    merge_sort(v.begin(), v.end());
    print(v, ": after sort\n");
 
    // merging with comparison function object and projection
    using CI = std::complex<int>;
    std::vector<CI> r { {0,1}, {0,2}, {0,3}, {1,1}, {1,2} };
    const auto middle { std::ranges::next(r.begin(), 3) };
    auto comp { std::ranges::less{} };
    auto proj { [](CI z) { return z.imag(); } };
 
    print(r, ": before merge", middle - r.begin());
    std::ranges::inplace_merge(r, middle, comp, proj);
    print(r, ": after merge");
}

8 2 0 4 9 8 1 7 3 : before sort
0 1 2 3 4 7 8 8 9 : after sort
 
(0,1) (0,2) (0,3) │ (1,1) (1,2) : before merge
(0,1) (1,1) (0,2) (1,2) (0,3) : after merge

See also