STL Set
A set is a simple unique sorted associative container. It is a simple associative container as the key and the value are the same entities. It is a unique associative container as the values contained in a set are unique. During insertion, if a matching entry is found in the set, the insertion fails. The candidate is matched with the entries using the == operator. Sets are useful for implementing collections that allow fast associative lookup and reject duplicate candidate elements. Sets do not support index-based access of the elements.
Typical methods of STL's set class are listed below. As with the containers discussed above, methods related to iterators are discussed in the next section.
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Method
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Description
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set()
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Constructs an empty set.
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pair<const_iterator, bool> insert(const Key& key)
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If the key does not match any of the elements in the collection, the key is inserted otherwise it is rejected. This method returns a pair object the first element of which contains an iterator positioned at the new element and the second element is true in case of a successful insertion.
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size_type size(void)
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Returns the number of elements contained in the collection.
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size_type erase(const Key& key)
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Erases the element that matches key and returns the number of elements erased (1 in case of set).
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The following example shows insertion and deletion of elements from a set. As access to set elements is only possible via iterators, it will be explained in the next section.
#include <set>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
void populatePeople(set<string>& peopleSet)
{
char continueFlag = 'y';
string name;
while (continueFlag == 'y')
{
cout << "Enter name ";
cin >> name;
if (peopleSet.insert(name).second)
{
cout << name << " added successfully" << endl;
}
else
{
cout << name << " rejected" << endl;
}
cout << peopleSet.size() << " elements in the set" << endl;
cout << "Enter y to add another, any other key to exit:";
cin.get();
continueFlag = cin.get();
cin.get();
}
}
void deleteElements(set<string>& peopleSet)
{
char continueFlag = 'y';
string name;
while (continueFlag == 'y')
{
cout << "Enter name to search ";
cin >> name;
if (peopleSet.erase(name) > 0)
{
cout << name << " deleted" << endl;
cout << peopleSet.size() << " elements in the set" << endl;
}
else
{
cout << name << " not found" << endl;
}
cout << "Enter y to find another, any other key to exit:";
cin.get();
continueFlag = cin.get();
cin.get();
}
}
int main(void)
{
set<string> peopleSet;
populatePeople(peopleSet);
deleteElements(peopleSet);
return(0);
}
An interaction with this program is shown below,
Enter name Amna
Amna added successfully
1 elements in the set
Enter y to add another, any other key to exit:y
Enter name Omar
Omar added successfully
2 elements in the set
Enter y to add another, any other key to exit:y
Enter name Amna
Amna rejected
2 elements in the set
Enter y to add another, any other key to exit:y
Enter name Saif
Saif added successfully
3 elements in the set
Enter y to add another, any other key to exit:y
Enter name Sameer
Sameer added successfully
4 elements in the set
Enter y to add another, any other key to exit:n
Enter name to search Nadeem
Nadeem not found
Enter y to find another, any other key to exit:y
Enter name to search Sameer
Sameer deleted
3 elements in the set
Enter y to find another, any other key to exit:y
Enter name to search Omar
Omar deleted
2 elements in the set
Enter y to find another, any other key to exit: