std::merge

 

C++

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Feature test macros (C++20)

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Concepts library (C++20)

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Strings library

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Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

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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 InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt > OutputIt merge( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,                 InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2,                 OutputIt d_first );	(1)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare> OutputIt merge( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,                 InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2,                 OutputIt d_first, Compare comp );	(2)

Merges two sorted ranges [first1, last1) and [first2, last2) into one sorted range beginning at d_first. The first version uses operator< to compare the elements, the second version uses the given comparison function comp. The relative order of equivalent elements is preserved.

Parameters

first1, last1	-	the first range of elements to merge
first2, last2	-	the second range of elements to merge
d_first	-	the beginning of the destination range
comp	-	comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the requirements of Compare) which returns true if the first argument is less than the second. The signature of the comparison function should be equivalent to the following: bool cmp(const Type1& a, const Type2& b); While the signature does not need to have const&, the function must not modify the objects passed to it and must be able to accept all values of type (possibly const) Type1 and Type2 regardless of value category (thus, Type1& is not allowed, nor is Type1 unless for Type1 a move is equivalent to a copy(since C++11)). The types Type1 and Type2 must be such that objects of types InputIt1 and InputIt2 can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to both Type1 and Type2.
Type requirements

Return value

An output iterator to element past the last element copied.

Complexity

At most std::distance(first1, last1) + std::distance(first2, last2) + 1 comparisons.

Possible implementation

First version
template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt> OutputIt merge(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first) { for (; first1 != last1; ++d_first) { if (first2 == last2) { return std::copy(first1, last1, d_first); } if (*first2 < *first1) { *d_first = *first2; ++first2; } else { *d_first = *first1; ++first1; } } return std::copy(first2, last2, d_first); }
Second version
template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare> OutputIt merge(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first, Compare comp) { for (; first1 != last1; ++d_first) { if (first2 == last2) { return std::copy(first1, last1, d_first); } if (comp(*first2, *first1)) { *d_first = *first2; ++first2; } else { *d_first = *first1; ++first1; } } return std::copy(first2, last2, d_first); }

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
 
int main() 
{
    const std::size_t items = 10;
 
    std::vector<int> v1, v2, dst;
 
    // fill the vectors
    for (std::size_t idx = 0; idx < items; ++idx) {
        v1.push_back(std::rand()%items);
        v2.push_back(std::rand()%items);
    }
 
    // sort
    std::sort(v1.begin(), v1.end());
    std::sort(v2.begin(), v2.end());
 
    // output v1
    std::cout << "v1 : ";
    std::copy(v1.begin(), v1.end(),
              std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " "));
    std::cout << '\n';
 
    // output v2
    std::cout << "v2 : ";
    std::copy(v2.begin(), v2.end(),
              std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " "));
    std::cout << '\n';
 
    // merge
    std::merge(v1.begin(), v1.end(),
               v2.begin(), v2.end(),
               std::back_inserter(dst));
 
    // output
    std::cout << "dst: ";
    std::copy(dst.begin(), dst.end(),
             std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " "));
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Output:

v1 : 0 0 2 2 3 3 3 6 7 9 
v2 : 1 2 5 5 6 6 6 6 7 9 
dst: 0 0 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 9 9

See also

Template:cpp/algorithm/dcl list inplace mergeTemplate:cpp/algorithm/dcl list sortTemplate:cpp/algorithm/dcl list stable sort