std::set_difference

Defined in header `<algorithm>`
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt > OutputIt set_difference( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first );	(1)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt > OutputIt set_difference( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first );	(2)	(since C++17)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare > OutputIt set_difference( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first, Compare comp );	(3)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare > OutputIt set_difference( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first, Compare comp );	(4)	(since C++17)

Copies the elements from the sorted range [first1, last1) which are not found in the sorted range [first2, last2) to the range beginning at d_first.

The resulting range is also sorted. Equivalent elements are treated individually, that is, if some element is found m times in [first1, last1) and n times in [first2, last2), it will be copied to d_first exactly std::max(m-n, 0) times. The resulting range cannot overlap with either of the input ranges.

1) Elements are compared using operator< and the ranges must be sorted with respect to the same.

3) Elements are compared using the given binary comparison function comp and the ranges must be sorted with respect to the same.

2,4) Same as (1,3), but executed according to policy. These overloads do not participate in overload resolution unless std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true

first1, last1	-	the range of elements to examine
first2, last2	-	the range of elements to search for
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
comp	-	comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the requirements of `Compare`) which returns true if the first argument is less than (i.e. is ordered before) the second. The signature of the comparison function should be equivalent to the following: bool cmp(const Type1 &a, const Type2 &b); The signature does not need to have const &, but the function object must not modify the objects passed to it. 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
- `InputIt1` must meet the requirements of `InputIterator`.
- `InputIt2` must meet the requirements of `InputIterator`.
- `OutputIt` must meet the requirements of `OutputIterator`.

[edit] Return value

Iterator past the end of the constructed range.

[edit] Complexity

At most $2\cdot(N 1 +N 2 -1)$ comparisons, where $N 1$ = std::distance(first1, last1) and $N 2$ = std::distance(first2, last2).

[edit] 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,

if policy is std::parallel_vector_execution_policy, std::terminate is called
if policy is std::sequential_execution_policy or std::parallel_execution_policy, the algorithm exits with an std::exception_list containing all uncaught exceptions. If there was only one uncaught exception, the algorithm may rethrow it without wrapping in std::exception_list. It is unspecified how much work the algorithm will perform before returning after the first exception was encountered.
if policy is some other type, the behavior is implementation-defined

If the algorithm fails to allocate memory (either for itself or to construct an std::exception_list when handling a user exception), std::bad_alloc is thrown.

[edit] Possible implementation

First version

template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt>
OutputIt set_difference(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,
                        InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2,
                        OutputIt d_first)
{
    while (first1 != last1) {
        if (first2 == last2) return std::copy(first1, last1, d_first);
 
        if (*first1 < *first2) {
            *d_first++ = *first1++;
        } else {
            if (! (*first2 < *first1)) {
                ++first1;
            }
            ++first2;
        }
    }
    return d_first;
}

Second version

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

[edit] Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
#include <iterator>
 
int main() {
    std::vector<int> v1 {1, 2, 5, 5, 5, 9};
    std::vector<int> v2 {2, 5, 7};
    std::vector<int> diff;
 
    std::set_difference(v1.begin(), v1.end(), v2.begin(), v2.end(), 
                        std::inserter(diff, diff.begin()));
 
    for (auto i : v1) std::cout << i << ' ';
    std::cout << "minus ";
    for (auto i : v2) std::cout << i << ' ';
    std::cout << "is: ";
 
    for (auto i : diff) std::cout << i << ' ';
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Output:

1 2 5 5 5 9 minus 2 5 7 is: 1 5 5 9

[edit] See also

includes	returns true if one set is a subset of another (function template)
set_symmetric_difference	computes the symmetric difference between two sets (function template)
std::experimental::parallel::set_difference (parallelism TS)	parallelized version of `std::set_difference` (function template)

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