std::lower_bound

 

C++

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Technical Specifications

 

Algorithm library

Functions
Non-modifying sequence operations
all_ofany_ofnone_of (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) for_each countcount_if mismatch equal	findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of adjacent_find search search_n
Modifying sequence operations
copycopy_if (C++11) copy_n (C++11) copy_backward move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) fill fill_n transform generate generate_n removeremove_if remove_copyremove_copy_if	replacereplace_if replace_copyreplace_copy_if swap swap_ranges iter_swap reverse reverse_copy rotate rotate_copy random_shuffleshuffle (until C++17)(C++11) unique unique_copy
Partitioning operations
is_partitioned (C++11) partition partition_copy (C++11)	stable_partition partition_point (C++11)
Sorting operations (on sorted ranges)
is_sorted (C++11) is_sorted_until (C++11) sort	partial_sort partial_sort_copy stable_sort nth_element
Binary search operations (on sorted ranges)
lower_bound upper_bound	binary_search equal_range
Set operations (on sorted ranges)
merge inplace_merge includes	set_difference set_intersection set_symmetric_difference set_union
Heap operations
is_heap (C++11) is_heap_until (C++11) make_heap	push_heap pop_heap sort_heap
Minimum/maximum operations
max max_element min min_element minmax (C++11) minmax_element (C++11)	lexicographical_compare is_permutation (C++11) next_permutation prev_permutation
Numeric operations
iota (C++11) accumulate inner_product	adjacent_difference partial_sum
C library
qsort	bsearch

 

Defined in header <algorithm>
template< class ForwardIt, class T > ForwardIt lower_bound( ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, const T& value );	(1)
template< class ForwardIt, class T, class Compare > ForwardIt lower_bound( ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, const T& value, Compare comp );	(2)

Returns an iterator pointing to the first element in the range [first, last) that is not less than (i.e. greater or equal to) value.

The range [first, last) must be at least partially ordered, i.e. partitioned with respect to the expression element < value or comp(element, value). A fully-sorted range meets this criterion, as does a range resulting from a call to std::partition.

The first version uses operator< to compare the elements, the second version uses the given comparison function comp.

Parameters

first, last	-	iterators defining the partially-ordered range to examine
value	-	value to compare the elements to
comp	-	comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the requirements of Compare) which returns ​true if the first argument is less than 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 type Type1 must be such that an object of type ForwardIt can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to Type1. The type Type2 must be such that an object of type T can be implicitly converted to Type2. ​
Type requirements
- ForwardIt must meet the requirements of ForwardIterator.

Return value

Iterator pointing to the first element that is not less than value, or last if no such element is found.

Complexity

The number of comparisons performed is logarithmic in the distance between first and last (At most log
2(last - first) + O(1) comparisons). However, for non-RandomAccessIterators, the number of iterator increments is linear.

Possible implementation

First version
template<class ForwardIt, class T> ForwardIt lower_bound(ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, const T& value) { ForwardIt it; typename std::iterator_traits<ForwardIt>::difference_type count, step; count = std::distance(first, last);   while (count > 0) { it = first; step = count / 2; std::advance(it, step); if (*it < value) { first = ++it; count -= step + 1; } else count = step; } return first; }
Second version
template<class ForwardIt, class T, class Compare> ForwardIt lower_bound(ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, const T& value, Compare comp) { ForwardIt it; typename std::iterator_traits<ForwardIt>::difference_type count, step; count = std::distance(first,last);   while (count > 0) { it = first; step = count / 2; std::advance(it, step); if (comp(*it, value)) { first = ++it; count -= step + 1; } else count = step; } return first; }

Example

Run this code

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <vector>
 
int main()
{
    std::vector<int> data = { 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6 };
 
    auto lower = std::lower_bound(data.begin(), data.end(), 4);
    auto upper = std::upper_bound(data.begin(), data.end(), 4);
 
    std::copy(lower, upper, std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " "));
}

Output:

4 4 4

See also

equal_range	returns range of elements matching a specific key (function template)
partition	divides a range of elements into two groups (function template)
upper_bound	returns an iterator to the first element greater than a certain value (function template)