Re: std::sort (AGAIN)

From:
SG <s.gesemann@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sat, 23 May 2009 01:16:25 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<d6b82c64-3c50-4b7e-a246-189c3d32b870@x3g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>
On 23 Mai, 00:36, none <n...@none.none> wrote:

I want to sort a vector of structs. The catch is that the user can sel=

ect

which fields in the struct are used for the sort. That alone I can do,=

 but

what I can't do is make it work with member functions. From what I can
gather in the FAQ, there are a few possibilities:


As Juha wrote you can simply use pointers to a functions like

  bool cmp_first_name(YourType const& a, YourType const& b);

In case you really want to sort "structs" (with public members) you
can do something like this:

  template<typename S, typename C>
  class member_comparator {
    S C::*pm;
  public:
    explicit member_comparator(S C::*p) : pm(p) {}

    bool operator()(C const& a, C const& b) const
    {return a.*pm < b.*pm;}
  };

  template<typename S, typename C>
  member_comparator<S,C> make_memcmp(S C::*p) {
    return member_comparator<S,C>(p);
  }

  ...

  void foo(std::vector<YourType> & vec) {
    std::sort(vec.begin(), vec.end(),
              make_memcmp(&YourType::first_name));
  }

provided that YourType has a public member called first_name that is
comparable.

Another thing: If you don't provide your own swap function for
YourType the sort algorithm will fall back on an unspecialized
std::sort which might be slower than necessary. In case your struct
contains objects of type std::string or some other members that swap
quickly but copy slowly you should supply your own swap function.

  struct YourType {
    std::string first_name;
    std::string last_name;
    int age;

    void swap(YourType & x);
  };

  void YourType::swap(YourType & x) {
    // string::swap is FAST
    first_name.swap(x.first_name);
    last_name.swap(x.last_name);
    std::swap(age,x.age);
  }

  // non-templated swap, can be found via ADL
  inline swap(YourType & a, YourType & b) {a.swap(b);}

  // specialization of std::swap to be on the safe side.
  namespace std {
    template<> swap<YourType>(YourType & a, YourType & b)
    {a.swap(b);}
  }

hth,
SG

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