std::set_union

Defined in header `<algorithm>`
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt > OutputIt set_union( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first );	(1)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2, class ForwardIt3 > ForwardIt3 set_union( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt1 first1, ForwardIt1 last1, ForwardIt2 first2, ForwardIt2 last2, ForwardIt3 d_first );	(2)	(since C++17)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare > OutputIt set_union( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first, Compare comp );	(3)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2, class ForwardIt3, class Compare > ForwardIt3 set_union( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt1 first1, ForwardIt1 last1, ForwardIt2 first2, ForwardIt2 last2, ForwardIt3 d_first, Compare comp );	(4)	(since C++17)

Constructs a sorted range beginning at d_first consisting of all elements present in one or both sorted ranges [first1, last1) and [first2, last2).

If some element is found m times in [first1, last1) and n times in [first2, last2), then all m elements will be copied from [first1, last1) to d_first, preserving order, and then exactly std::max(n-m, 0) elements will be copied from [first2, last2) to d_first, also preserving order.

The resulting range cannot overlap with either of the input ranges.

1) Elements are compared using operator< and the ranges must be sorted with respect to the same.

3) Elements are compared using the given binary comparison function comp and the ranges must be sorted with respect to the same.

2,4) Same as (1,3), but executed according to policy. This overload only participates in overload resolution if std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true

Parameters

first1, last1	-	the first input sorted range
first2, last2	-	the second input sorted range
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
comp	-	comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the requirements of `Compare`) which returns true if the first argument is less than (i.e. is ordered before) 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 types Type1 and Type2 must be such that objects of types InputIt1 and InputIt2 can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to both Type1 and Type2.
Type requirements
- `InputIt1, InputIt2` must meet the requirements of `InputIterator`.
- `ForwardIt1, ForwardIt2, ForwardIt3` must meet the requirements of `ForwardIterator`.
- `OutputIt` must meet the requirements of `OutputIterator`.

Return value

Iterator past the end of the constructed range.

Complexity

At most $2\cdot(N 1 +N 2 -1)$ comparisons, where $N 1$ = std::distance(first1, last1) and $N 2$ = std::distance(first2, last2).

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 three 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.

Notes

This algorithm performs a similar task as std::merge does. Both consume two sorted input ranges and produce a sorted output with elements from both inputs. The difference bewteen these two algorithms is with handling values from both input ranges which compare equivalent (see notes on LessThanComparable). If any equivalent values appeared n times in the first range and m times in the second, std::merge would output all n+m occurrences whereas std::set_union would output std::max(n, m) ones only. So std::merge outputs exactly std::distance(first1, last1) + std::distance(first2, last2) values and std::set_union may produce less.

Possible implementation

First version

template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt>
OutputIt set_union(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,
                   InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2,
                   OutputIt d_first)
{
    for (; first1 != last1; ++d_first) {
        if (first2 == last2)
            return std::copy(first1, last1, d_first);
        if (*first2 < *first1) {
            *d_first = *first2++;
        } else {
            *d_first = *first1;
            if (!(*first1 < *first2))
                ++first2;
            ++first1;
        }
    }
    return std::copy(first2, last2, d_first);
}

Second version

template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2,
         class OutputIt, class Compare>
OutputIt set_union(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,
                   InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2,
                   OutputIt d_first, Compare comp)
{
    for (; first1 != last1; ++d_first) {
        if (first2 == last2)
            return std::copy(first1, last1, d_first);
        if (comp(*first2, *first1)) {
            *d_first = *first2++;
        } else {
            *d_first = *first1;
            if (!comp(*first1, *first2))
                ++first2;
            ++first1;
        }
    }
    return std::copy(first2, last2, d_first);
}

Example

Example with vectors :

Run this code

#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
 
int main()
{
    std::vector<int> v1 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}; 
    std::vector<int> v2 = {      3, 4, 5, 6, 7}; 
    std::vector<int> dest1;
 
    std::set_union(v1.begin(), v1.end(),
                   v2.begin(), v2.end(),                  
                   std::back_inserter(dest1));
 
    for (const auto &i : dest1) {
        std::cout << i << ' ';
    }   
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Output:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Language
Standard library headers
Concepts
Utilities library
Strings library
Containers library
Algorithms library
Iterators library
Numerics library
Input/output library
Localizations library
Regular expressions library (C++11)
Atomic operations library (C++11)
Thread support library (C++11)
Filesystem library (C++17)
Technical Specifications

includes	returns true if one set is a subset of another (function template)
merge	merges two sorted ranges (function template)
set_difference	computes the difference between two sets (function template)
set_intersection	computes the intersection of two sets (function template)
set_symmetric_difference	computes the symmetric difference between two sets (function template)