std::partition

 

C++

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Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

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Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

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Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

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Filesystem library (C++17)

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Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Algorithm library

Constrained algorithms and algorithms on ranges (C++20)
Constrained algorithms, e.g. ranges::copy, ranges::sort, ...
Execution policies (C++17)
is_execution_policy (C++17)   execution::seqexecution::parexecution::par_unseqexecution::unseq (C++17)    (C++17)(C++17)(C++20)	execution::sequenced_policyexecution::parallel_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced (C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++20)
Non-modifying sequence operations Batch operations for_each for_each_n (C++17) Search operations all_ofany_ofnone_of (C++11)                (C++11)(C++11) countcount_if mismatch equal findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of adjacent_find search search_n Modifying sequence operations Copy operations copycopy_if (C++11) copy_backward copy_n (C++11) move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) Swap operations swap iter_swap swap_ranges Transformation operations replacereplace_if transform replace_copyreplace_copy_if Generation operations fill fill_n generate generate_n Removing operations removeremove_if unique remove_copyremove_copy_if unique_copy Order-changing operations reverse reverse_copy rotate rotate_copy random_shuffleshuffle (until C++17)(C++11) shift_leftshift_right (C++20)(C++20) Sampling operations sample (C++17)	Sorting and related operations Partitioning operations partition partition_copy (C++11)   stable_partition is_partitioned (C++11) partition_point (C++11) Sorting operations sort stable_sort partial_sort partial_sort_copy is_sorted (C++11) is_sorted_until (C++11) nth_element Binary search operations (on partitioned ranges) lower_bound upper_bound equal_range binary_search Set operations (on sorted ranges) includes set_union set_intersection set_difference set_symmetric_difference Merge operations (on sorted ranges) merge inplace_merge Heap operations push_heap pop_heap make_heap sort_heap is_heap (C++11) is_heap_until (C++11) Minimum/maximum operations max min minmax (C++11) clamp (C++17) max_element min_element minmax_element (C++11) Lexicographical comparison operations lexicographical_compare lexicographical_compare_three_way (C++20) Permutation operations next_permutation prev_permutation is_permutation (C++11) C library qsort bsearch
Numeric operations
iota (C++11) inner_product adjacent_difference    accumulate reduce (C++17) transform_reduce (C++17)	partial_sum inclusive_scan (C++17)    exclusive_scan (C++17) transform_inclusive_scan (C++17) transform_exclusive_scan (C++17)
Operations on uninitialized memory
uninitialized_copy uninitialized_move (C++17)    uninitialized_fill uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_fill_n	destroy (C++17) destroy_n (C++17) destroy_at (C++17) construct_at (C++20)       uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17)

 

Defined in header <algorithm>
template< class ForwardIt, class UnaryPred > ForwardIt partition( ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, UnaryPred p );	(1)	(constexpr since C++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt, class UnaryPred > ForwardIt partition( ExecutionPolicy&& policy,                      ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, UnaryPred p );	(2)	(since C++17)

1) Reorders the elements in the range [first, last) in such a way that all elements for which the predicate p returns true precede all elements for which predicate p returns false. Relative order of the elements is not preserved.

2) Same as (1), but executed according to policy.

This overload participates in overload resolution only if

std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true.	(until C++20)
std::is_execution_policy_v<std::remove_cvref_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true.	(since C++20)

If the type of *first is not Swappable(until C++11)ForwardIt is not ValueSwappable(since C++11), the behavior is undefined.

Parameters

first, last	-	the range of elements to reorder
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
p	-	unary predicate which returns ​true if the element should be ordered before other elements. The expression p(v) must be convertible to bool for every argument v of type (possibly const) VT, where VT is the value type of ForwardIt, regardless of value category, and must not modify v. Thus, a parameter type of VT&is not allowed, nor is VT unless for VT a move is equivalent to a copy(since C++11). ​
Type requirements
- ForwardIt must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.
- UnaryPred must meet the requirements of Predicate.

Return value

Iterator to the first element of the second group.

Complexity

Given \(\scriptsize N\)N as std::distance(first, last):

1) Exactly \(\scriptsize N\)N applications of p.

At most \(\scriptsize N/2\)N/2 swaps if ForwardIt meets the requirements of LegacyBidirectionalIterator, and at most \(\scriptsize N\)N swaps otherwise.

2) \(\scriptsize O(N)\)O(N) applications of p.

\(\scriptsize O(N \cdot log(N))\)O(N·log(N)) swaps.

Exceptions

The overload with a template parameter named ExecutionPolicy reports errors as follows:

• If execution of a function invoked as part of the algorithm throws an exception and ExecutionPolicy is one of the standard policies, std::terminate is called. For any other ExecutionPolicy, the behavior is implementation-defined.
• If the algorithm fails to allocate memory, std::bad_alloc is thrown.

Possible implementation

Implements overload (1) preserving C++11 compatibility.

template<class ForwardIt, class UnaryPred> ForwardIt partition(ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, UnaryPred p) { first = std::find_if_not(first, last, p); if (first == last) return first;   for (auto i = std::next(first); i != last; ++i) if (p(*i)) { std::iter_swap(i, first); ++first; }   return first; }

Example

Run this code

#include <algorithm>
#include <forward_list>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <vector>
 
template<class ForwardIt>
void quicksort(ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last)
{
    if (first == last)
        return;
 
    auto pivot = *std::next(first, std::distance(first, last) / 2);
    auto middle1 = std::partition(first, last, [pivot](const auto& em)
    {
        return em < pivot;
    });
    auto middle2 = std::partition(middle1, last, [pivot](const auto& em)
    {
        return !(pivot < em);
    });
 
    quicksort(first, middle1);
    quicksort(middle2, last);
}
 
int main()
{
    std::vector<int> v{0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9};
    std::cout << "Original vector: ";
    for (int elem : v)
        std::cout << elem << ' ';
 
    auto it = std::partition(v.begin(), v.end(), [](int i) {return i % 2 == 0;});
 
    std::cout << "\nPartitioned vector: ";
    std::copy(std::begin(v), it, std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " "));
    std::cout << "* ";
    std::copy(it, std::end(v), std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " "));
 
    std::forward_list<int> fl {1, 30, -4, 3, 5, -4, 1, 6, -8, 2, -5, 64, 1, 92};
    std::cout << "\nUnsorted list: ";
    for (int n : fl)
        std::cout << n << ' ';
 
    quicksort(std::begin(fl), std::end(fl));
    std::cout << "\nSorted using quicksort: ";
    for (int fi : fl)
        std::cout << fi << ' ';
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Possible output:

Original vector: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 
Partitioned vector: 0 8 2 6 4 * 5 3 7 1 9 
Unsorted list: 1 30 -4 3 5 -4 1 6 -8 2 -5 64 1 92 
Sorted using quicksort: -8 -5 -4 -4 1 1 1 2 3 5 6 30 64 92

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 498	C++98	std::partition required first and last to be LegacyBidirectionalIterator	only required to be LegacyForwardIterator
LWG 2150	C++98	std::partition was only required to place one element satisfying p before one element not satisfying p	corrected the requirement

See also

is_partitioned (C++11)	determines if the range is partitioned by the given predicate (function template)
stable_partition	divides elements into two groups while preserving their relative order (function template)
ranges::partition (C++20)	divides a range of elements into two groups (niebloid)