std::remove_copy, std::remove_copy_if

Copies elements from the range [ first ,  last ) , to another range beginning at d_first

If *d_first = *first is invalid (until C++20) *first is not writable to d_first (since C++20)

If source and destination ranges overlap, the behavior is undefined.

Parameters

Return value

Iterator to the element past the last element copied.

Complexity

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

For the overloads with an ExecutionPolicy, there may be a performance cost if ForwardIt1's value_type is not MoveConstructible

Exceptions

The overloads with a template parameter named ExecutionPolicy report 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
• If the algorithm fails to allocate memory, std::bad_alloc is thrown.

Possible implementation

template<class InputIt, class OutputIt,
         class T = typename std::iterator_traits<InputIt>::value_type>
constexpr OutputIt remove_copy(InputIt first, InputIt last,
                               OutputIt d_first, const T& value)
{
    for (; first != last; ++first)
        if (!(*first == value))
            *d_first++ = *first;
    return d_first;
}

template<class InputIt, class OutputIt, class UnaryPred>
constexpr OutputIt remove_copy_if(InputIt first, InputIt last,
                                  OutputIt d_first, UnaryPred p)
{
    for (; first != last; ++first)
        if (!p(*first))
            *d_first++ = *first;
    return d_first;
}

Notes

Example

#include <algorithm>
#include <complex>
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
 
int main()
{
    // Erase the hash characters '#' on the fly.
    std::string str = "#Return #Value #Optimization";
    std::cout << "before: " << std::quoted(str) << '\n';
 
    std::cout << "after:  \"";
    std::remove_copy(str.begin(), str.end(),
                     std::ostream_iterator<char>(std::cout), '#');
    std::cout << "\"\n";
 
    // Erase {1, 3} value on the fly.
    std::vector<std::complex<double>> nums{{2, 2}, {1, 3}, {4, 8}, {1, 3}};
    std::remove_copy(nums.begin(), nums.end(),
                     std::ostream_iterator<std::complex<double>>(std::cout),
    #ifdef __cpp_lib_algorithm_default_value_type
                     {1, 3}); // T gets deduced
    #else
                     std::complex<double>{1, 3});
    #endif
}

before: "#Return #Value #Optimization"
after:  "Return Value Optimization"
(2,2)(4,8)

Defect reports

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

See also