The first (well-voted) comment of the accepted answer complains about a missing operator for the existing std set operations.
On one hand, I understand the lack of such operators in the standard library. On the other hand, it is easy to add them (for the personal joy) if desired.
I overloaded
operator *() for intersection of setsoperator +() for union of sets.
Sample test-set-ops.cc:
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
#include <set>
template <class T, class CMP = std::less<T>, class ALLOC = std::allocator<T> >
std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> operator * (
const std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> &s1, const std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> &s2)
{
std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> s;
std::set_intersection(s1.begin(), s1.end(), s2.begin(), s2.end(),
std::inserter(s, s.begin()));
return s;
}
template <class T, class CMP = std::less<T>, class ALLOC = std::allocator<T> >
std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> operator + (
const std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> &s1, const std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> &s2)
{
std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> s;
std::set_union(s1.begin(), s1.end(), s2.begin(), s2.end(),
std::inserter(s, s.begin()));
return s;
}
// sample code to check them out:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
template <class T>
ostream& operator << (ostream &out, const set<T> &values)
{
const char *sep = " ";
for (const T &value : values) {
out << sep << value; sep = ", ";
}
return out;
}
int main()
{
set<int> s1 { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
cout << "s1: {" << s1 << " }" << endl;
set<int> s2 { 0, 1, 3, 6 };
cout << "s2: {" << s2 << " }" << endl;
cout << "I: {" << s1 * s2 << " }" << endl;
cout << "U: {" << s1 + s2 << " }" << endl;
return 0;
}
Compiled and tested:
$ g++ -std=c++11 -o test-set-ops test-set-ops.cc
$ ./test-set-ops
s1: { 1, 2, 3, 4 }
s2: { 0, 1, 3, 6 }
I: { 1, 3 }
U: { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 }
$
What I don't like is the copy of return values in the operators. May be, this could be solved using move assignment but this is still beyond my skills.
Due to my limited knowledge about these "new fancy" move semantics, I was concerned about the operator returns which might cause copies of the returned sets. Olaf Dietsche pointed out that these concerns are unnecessary as std::set is already equipped with move constructor/assignment.
Although I believed him, I was thinking how to check this out (for something like "self-convincing"). Actually, it is quite easy. As templates has to be provided in source code, you can simply step through with the debugger. Thus, I placed a break point right at the return s; of the operator *() and proceeded with single-step which leaded me immediately into std::set::set(_myt&& _Right): et voilà – the move constructor. Thanks, Olaf, for the (my) enlightment.
For the sake of completeness, I implemented the corresponding assignment operators as well
operator *=() for "destructive" intersection of setsoperator +=() for "destructive" union of sets.
Sample test-set-assign-ops.cc:
#include <iterator>
#include <set>
template <class T, class CMP = std::less<T>, class ALLOC = std::allocator<T> >
std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC>& operator *= (
std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> &s1, const std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> &s2)
{
auto iter1 = s1.begin();
for (auto iter2 = s2.begin(); iter1 != s1.end() && iter2 != s2.end();) {
if (*iter1 < *iter2) iter1 = s1.erase(iter1);
else {
if (!(*iter2 < *iter1)) ++iter1;
++iter2;
}
}
while (iter1 != s1.end()) iter1 = s1.erase(iter1);
return s1;
}
template <class T, class CMP = std::less<T>, class ALLOC = std::allocator<T> >
std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC>& operator += (
std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> &s1, const std::set<T, CMP, ALLOC> &s2)
{
s1.insert(s2.begin(), s2.end());
return s1;
}
// sample code to check them out:
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
template <class T>
ostream& operator << (ostream &out, const set<T> &values)
{
const char *sep = " ";
for (const T &value : values) {
out << sep << value; sep = ", ";
}
return out;
}
int main()
{
set<int> s1 { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
cout << "s1: {" << s1 << " }" << endl;
set<int> s2 { 0, 1, 3, 6 };
cout << "s2: {" << s2 << " }" << endl;
set<int> s1I = s1;
s1I *= s2;
cout << "s1I: {" << s1I << " }" << endl;
set<int> s2I = s2;
s2I *= s1;
cout << "s2I: {" << s2I << " }" << endl;
set<int> s1U = s1;
s1U += s2;
cout << "s1U: {" << s1U << " }" << endl;
set<int> s2U = s2;
s2U += s1;
cout << "s2U: {" << s2U << " }" << endl;
return 0;
}
Compiled and tested:
$ g++ -std=c++11 -o test-set-assign-ops test-set-assign-ops.cc
$ ./test-set-assign-ops
s1: { 1, 2, 3, 4 }
s2: { 0, 1, 3, 6 }
s1I: { 1, 3 }
s2I: { 1, 3 }
s1U: { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 }
s2U: { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 }
$
