NAME¶

std::min_element - std::min_element

Synopsis¶

Defined in header <algorithm>
template< class ForwardIt >
ForwardIt min_element( ForwardIt first, (until C++17)
ForwardIt last );
template< class ForwardIt >
constexpr ForwardIt min_element( ForwardIt (since C++17)
first, ForwardIt last );
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt
>
(2) (since C++17)
ForwardIt min_element( ExecutionPolicy&& policy,

ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last ); (1)
template< class ForwardIt, class Compare >
ForwardIt min_element( ForwardIt first, (until C++17)
ForwardIt last, Compare comp );
template< class ForwardIt, class Compare >
constexpr ForwardIt min_element( ForwardIt (since C++17)
first, ForwardIt last, Compare comp ); (3)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class
ForwardIt, class Compare >
(4) (since C++17)
ForwardIt min_element( ExecutionPolicy&& policy,

ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, Compare comp );

Finds the smallest element in the range [first, last).

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>>
(until C++20)
std::is_execution_policy_v<std::remove_cvref_t<ExecutionPolicy>>
(since C++20) is true.

Parameters¶

first, last - forward iterators defining the range to examine
policy - the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the
requirements of Compare) which returns true if a is less than b.

The signature of the comparison function should be equivalent to the
following:

bool cmp(const Type1 &a, const Type2 &b);

comp - While the signature does not need to have const &, the function must
not modify the objects passed to it and must be able to accept all
values of type (possibly const) Type1 and Type2 regardless of value
category (thus, Type1 & is not allowed
, nor is Type1 unless for Type1 a move is equivalent to a copy
(since C++11)).
The types Type1 and Type2 must be such that an object of type
ForwardIt can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to both of
them.

Type requirements¶

-
ForwardIt must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.

Return value¶

Iterator to the smallest element in the range [first, last). If several elements in
the range are equivalent to the smallest element, returns the iterator to the first
such element. Returns last if the range is empty.

Complexity¶

Exactly max(N-1,0) comparisons, where N = std::distance(first, last).

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
and ExecutionPolicy is one of the standard policies, std::terminate is called.
For any other ExecutionPolicy, the behavior is implementation-defined.
* If the algorithm fails to allocate memory, std::bad_alloc is thrown.

Possible implementation¶

First version¶

template<class ForwardIt>
ForwardIt min_element(ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last)
{
if (first == last) return last;

ForwardIt smallest = first;
++first;
for (; first != last; ++first) {
if (*first < *smallest) {
smallest = first;
}
}
return smallest;
}

Second version¶

template<class ForwardIt, class Compare>
ForwardIt min_element(ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, Compare comp)
{
if (first == last) return last;

ForwardIt smallest = first;
++first;
for (; first != last; ++first) {
if (comp(*first, *smallest)) {
smallest = first;
}
}
return smallest;
}

Example¶

// Run this code

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

int main()
{
std::vector<int> v{3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9};

std::vector<int>::iterator result = std::min_element(v.begin(), v.end());
std::cout << "min element at: " << std::distance(v.begin(), result);
}

Output:¶

min element at: 1

See also¶

max_element returns the largest element in a range
(function template)
minmax_element returns the smallest and the largest elements in a range
(C++11) (function template)
min returns the smaller of the given values
(function template)
ranges::min_element returns the smallest element in a range
(C++20) (niebloid)