Man Page set_union.3



                       Standard C++ Library
             Copyright 1998, Rogue Wave Software, Inc.



NAME

     set_union

      - A basic set operation for constructing a sorted union.





SYNOPSIS

     #include <algorithm>
     template <class InputIterator1, class InputIterator2,
              class OutputIterator>
      OutputIterator
         set_union (InputIterator1 first1, InputIterator1 last1,
                   InputIterator2 first2, InputIterator2 last2,
                   OutputIterator result);
     template <class InputIterator1, class InputIterator2,
              class OutputIterator, class Compare>
      OutputIterator
         set_union (InputIterator1 first1, InputIterator1 last1,
                   InputIterator2 first2, InputIterator2 last2,
                   OutputIterator result, Compare comp);





DESCRIPTION

     The_set_union algorithm constructs a  sorted  union  of  the
     elements from the two ranges. It returns the end of the con-
     structed range. set_union is stable, which means that if  an
     element  is  present  in both ranges, the one from the first
     range is copied. The result of set_union is undefined if the
     result  range  overlaps  with either of the original ranges.
     Note that set_union does not merge the two sorted sequences.
     If an element is present in both sequences, only the element
     from the first sequence is copied to result. (Use the  merge
     algorithm to create an ordered merge of two sorted sequences
     that contains all the elements from both sequences.)

     set_union assumes that the sequences are  sorted  using  the
     default  comparison operator less than (<), unless an alter-
     native comparison operator (comp) is provided.





COMPLEXITY

     At most ((last1 -  first1)  +  (last2  -  first2))  *  2  -1
     comparisons are performed.





EXAMPLE

     //
     // set_unin.cpp
     //
     #include <algorithm>
     #include <set>
     #include <iostream>
     using namespace std;

     int main()
      {

     //Initialize some sets
     int a2[6]  = {2,4,6,8,10,12};
     int a3[4]  = {3,5,7,8};
     set<int, less<int> >  even(a2+0, a2+6),
        result, small(a3+0,a3+4);
     //Create an insert_iterator for result
     insert_iterator<set<int, less<int> > >
        res_ins(result, result.begin());
     //Demonstrate set_union
     cout << "The result of:" << endl << "{";
     copy(small.begin(),small.end(),
         ostream_iterator<int,char>(cout," "));
     cout << "} union {";
     copy(even.begin(),even.end(),
         ostream_iterator<int,char>(cout," "));
     cout << "} =" << endl << "{";
     set_union(small.begin(), small.end(),
              even.begin(), even.end(), res_ins);
     copy(result.begin(),result.end(),
         ostream_iterator<int,char>(cout," "));
     cout << "}" << endl << endl;
     return 0;
      }

     Program Output




     The result of:
     {3 5 7 8 } union {2 4 6 8 10 12 } =
     {2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 12 }




WARNINGS

     If your compiler does not support default  template  parame-
     ters,  then  you  always need to supply the Compare template
     argument and the Allocator template argument. For  instance,
     you need to write:

     set<int, less<int>, allocator<int> >

     instead of:

     set<int>

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





SEE ALSO

     includes,     set,     set_intersection,     set_difference,
     set_symmetric_difference