std::merge

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 ExecutionPolicy, class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt > OutputIt merge( 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 merge( 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 merge( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first, Compare comp );	(4)	(since C++17)

Merges two sorted ranges [first1, last1) and [first2, last2) into one sorted range beginning at d_first.

1) Elements are compared using operator<.

3) Elements are compared using the given binary comparison function comp.

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

For equivalent elements in the original two ranges, the elements from the first range (preserving their original order) precede the elements from the second range (preserving their original order).

The behavior is undefined if the destination range overlaps either of the input ranges (the input ranges may overlap each other).

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
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

An output iterator to element past the last element copied.

[edit] Complexity

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

[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] Notes

This algorithm performs a similar task as std::set_union does. Both consume two sorted input ranges and produce a sorted output with elements from both inputs. The difference bewteen these two algorithms is with handling values from both input ranges which compare equivalent (see notes on LessThanComparable). If any equivalent values appeared n times in the first range and m times in the second, std::merge would output all n+m occurrences whereas std::set_union would output std::max(n, m) ones only. So std::merge outputs exactly std::distance(first1, last1) + std::distance(first2, last2) values and std::set_union may produce less.

[edit] 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);
}

[edit] Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
#include <random>
#include <functional>
 
int main()
{
    // fill the vectors with random numbers
    std::random_device rd;
    std::mt19937 mt(rd());
    std::uniform_int_distribution<> dis(0, 9);
 
    std::vector<int> v1(10), v2(10);
    std::generate(v1.begin(), v1.end(), std::bind(dis, std::ref(mt)));
    std::generate(v2.begin(), v2.end(), std::bind(dis, std::ref(mt)));
 
    // 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::vector<int> dst;
    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';
}

Possible output:

v1 : 0 1 3 4 4 5 5 8 8 9 
v2 : 0 2 2 3 6 6 8 8 8 9 
dst: 0 0 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 8 8 8 8 8 9 9

[edit] See also

inplace_merge	merges two ordered ranges in-place (function template)
set_union	computes the union of two sets (function template)
sort	sorts a range into ascending order (function template)
stable_sort	sorts a range of elements while preserving order between equal elements (function template)
std::experimental::parallel::merge (parallelism TS)	parallelized version of `std::merge` (function template)

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