Standard C++ LibraryCopyright 1996, Rogue Wave Software, Inc.

NAME

  max_element  - Finds maximum value in a range.

SYNOPSIS

  #include <algorithm>

  template <class ForwardIterator>
  ForwardIterator
   max_element(ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last);

  template <class ForwardIterator, class Compare>
  ForwardIterator
   max_element(ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last,
              Compare comp);

DESCRIPTION

  The max_element algorithm returns an iterator that denotes the maximum
  element  in a sequence. If the sequence contains more than one copy of the
  element, the iterator points to its first occurrence.  The optional
  argument comp defines a comparison function that can be used in place of
  the default operator<.  This function can be used with all the datatypes
  provided by the standard library.

  Algorithm max_element returns the first  iterator i in the range [first,
  last) such that for any iterator j in the same range the following
  corresponding conditions hold:

  !(*i < *j)

  or

  comp(*i, *j) == false.

COMPLEXITY

  Exactly max((last - first) - 1, 0) applications of the corresponding
  comparisons are done for max_element.

EXAMPLE

  //
  // max_elem.cpp
  //
   #include <algorithm>
   #include <vector>
   #include <iostream.h>

  int main(void)
   {
    typedef vector<int>::iterator iterator;
    int d1[5] = {1,3,5,32,64};

     // set up vector
    vector<int>      v1(d1,d1 + 5);

     // find the largest element in the vector
    iterator it1 = max_element(v1.begin(), v1.end());
     // it1 = v1.begin() + 4

     // find the largest element in the range from
     // the beginning of the vector to the 2nd to last
    iterator it2 = max_element(v1.begin(), v1.end()-1,
                       less<int>());
     // it2 = v1.begin() + 3

     // find the smallest element
    iterator it3 = min_element(v1.begin(), v1.end());
     // it3 = v1.begin()

     // find the smallest value in the range from
     // the beginning of the vector plus 1 to the end
    iterator it4 = min_element(v1.begin()+1, v1.end(),
                       less<int>());
     // it4 = v1.begin() + 1

    cout << *it1 << " " << *it2 << " "
          << *it3 << " " << *it4 << endl;

    return 0;
   }

  Output :
  64 32 1 3

WARNING

  If your compiler does not support default template parameters then you need
  to always supply the Allocator template argument.  For instance you'll have
  to write:

  vector<int,allocator<int> >

  instead of:

  vector<int>

SEE ALSO

  max, min, min_element

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

  ANSI X3J16/ISO WG21 Joint C++ Committee



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