std::ranges::nth_element

Reorders the elements in [first, last)

• The element pointed at by nth is changed to whatever element would occur in that position if [ first ,  last ) were sorted with respect to comp and proj
• All of the elements before this new nth element are less than or equal to the elements after the new nth element. That is, for every iterator i, j in the ranges [first, nth), [ nth ,  last ) respectively, the expression std::invoke (comp, std::invoke (proj, *j), std::invoke (proj, *i) ) evaluates to false
• If nth == last then the function has no effect.

The function-like entities described on this page are algorithm function objects (informally known as 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

Parameters

Return value

Complexity

Linear in ranges::distance(first, last)

Notes

The algorithm used is typically introselect although other selection algorithms

Possible implementation

See also the implementation in msvc stl, libstdc++, and libc++: (1) / (2)

Example

#include <algorithm>
#include <array>
#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
#include <ranges>
#include <string_view>
 
void print(std::string_view rem, std::ranges::input_range auto const& a)
{
    for (std::cout << rem; const auto e : a)
        std::cout << e << ' ';
    std::cout << '\n';
}
 
int main()
{
    std::array v{5, 6, 4, 3, 2, 6, 7, 9, 3};
    print("Before nth_element: ", v);
 
    std::ranges::nth_element(v, v.begin() + v.size() / 2);
    print("After nth_element:  ", v);
    std::cout << "The median is: " << v[v.size() / 2] << '\n';
 
    std::ranges::nth_element(v, v.begin() + 1, std::greater<int>());
    print("After nth_element:  ", v);
    std::cout << "The second largest element is: " << v[1] << '\n';
    std::cout << "The largest element is: " << v[0] << "\n\n";
 
    using namespace std::literals;
    std::array names
    {
        "Diva"sv, "Cornelius"sv, "Munro"sv, "Rhod"sv,
        "Zorg"sv, "Korben"sv, "Bender"sv, "Leeloo"sv,
    };
    print("Before nth_element: ", names);
    auto fifth_element{std::ranges::next(names.begin(), 4)};
    std::ranges::nth_element(names, fifth_element);
    print("After nth_element:  ", names);
    std::cout << "The 5th element is: " << *fifth_element << '\n';
}

Before nth_element: 5 6 4 3 2 6 7 9 3 
After nth_element:  2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 9 
The median is: 5
After nth_element:  9 7 6 6 5 4 3 3 2 
The second largest element is: 7
The largest element is: 9
 
Before nth_element: Diva Cornelius Munro Rhod Zorg Korben Bender Leeloo 
After nth_element:  Diva Cornelius Bender Korben Leeloo Rhod Munro Zorg 
The 5th element is: Leeloo

See also