std::adjacent_difference

Defined in header `<numeric>`
template< class InputIt, class OutputIt > OutputIt adjacent_difference( InputIt first, InputIt last, OutputIt d_first );	(1)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2 > ForwardIt2 adjacent_difference( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last, ForwardIt2 d_first );	(2)	(since C++17)
template< class InputIt, class OutputIt, class BinaryOperation > OutputIt adjacent_difference( InputIt first, InputIt last, OutputIt d_first, BinaryOperation op );	(3)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2, class BinaryOperation > ForwardIt2 adjacent_difference( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last, ForwardIt2 d_first, BinaryOperation op );	(4)	(since C++17)

Computes the differences between the second and the first of each adjacent pair of elements of the range [first, last) and writes them to the range beginning at d_first + 1. Unmodified copy of first is written to d_first.

1,3) First, creates an accumulator acc whose type is InputIt's value type, initializes it with *first, and assigns the result to *d_first. Then, for every iterator i in [first + 1, last) in order, creates an object val whose type is InputIt's value type, initializes it with *i, computes val - acc (overload (1)) or op(val, acc) (overload (3)), assigns the result to *(d_first + (i - first)), and move assigns from val to acc.

The input ranges may overlap, but cannot be identical: the behavior is undefined if first==d_first

2,4) First, creates an object whose type is ForwardIt1's value type, initializes it with *first, and assigns the result to *d_first. Then for every d in [1, last - first - 1], creates an object val whose type is ForwardIt1's value type, initializes it with *(first + d) - *(first + d - 1) (overload (2)) or op(*(first + d), *(first + d - 1)) (overload (4)), and assigns the result to *(d_first + d). This is executed according to policy. This overload only participates in overload resolution if std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true.

The behavior is undefined if the input ranges overlap in any way.

Equivalent operation:

*(d_first)   = *first;
*(d_first+1) = *(first+1) - *(first);
*(d_first+2) = *(first+2) - *(first+1);
*(d_first+3) = *(first+3) - *(first+2);
...

`op` must not have side effects.	(until C++11)
`op` must not invalidate any iterators, including the end iterators, or modify any elements of the ranges involved.	(since C++11)

Parameters

first, last	-	the range of elements
d_first	-	the beginning of the destination range
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
op	-	binary operation function object that will be applied. The signature of the function should be equivalent to the following: Ret fun(const Type1 &a, const Type2 &b); The signature does not need to have const &. The types Type1 and Type2 must be such that an object of type iterator_traits<InputIt>::value_type can be implicitly converted to both of them. The type Ret must be such that an object of type OutputIt can be dereferenced and assigned a value of type Ret.
Type requirements
- `InputIt` must meet the requirements of `InputIterator`. InputIt's value type must be `MoveAssignable` and constructible from the type of *first
- `OutputIt` must meet the requirements of `OutputIterator`. both acc (the accumulated value) and the result of val-acc or op(val, acc) must be writable to OutputIt
- `ForwardIt1, ForwardIt2` must meet the requirements of `ForwardIterator`. ForwardIt1's value_type must be `CopyConstructible`, constructible from the expression first - first or op(first, first), and assignable to ForwardIt2's value_type

Return value

It to the element past the last element written.

Notes

If first == last, this function has no effect and will merely return d_first.

Complexity

Exactly (last - first) - 1 applications of the binary operation

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.

Possible implementation

First version

template<class InputIt, class OutputIt>
OutputIt adjacent_difference(InputIt first, InputIt last, 
                             OutputIt d_first)
{
    if (first == last) return d_first;
 
    typedef typename std::iterator_traits<InputIt>::value_type value_t;
    value_t acc = *first;
    *d_first = acc;
    while (++first != last) {
        value_t val = *first;
        *++d_first = val - acc;
        acc = std::move(val);
    }
    return ++d_first;
}

Second version

template<class InputIt, class OutputIt, class BinaryOperation>
OutputIt adjacent_difference(InputIt first, InputIt last, 
                             OutputIt d_first, BinaryOperation op)
{
    if (first == last) return d_first;
 
    typedef typename std::iterator_traits<InputIt>::value_type value_t;
    value_t acc = *first;
    *d_first = acc;
    while (++first != last) {
        value_t val = *first;
        *++d_first = op(val, acc);
        acc = std::move(val);
    }
    return ++d_first;
}

Example

The following code converts a sequence of even numbers to repetitions of the number 2 and converts a sequence of ones to a sequence of Fibonacci numbers.

Run this code

#include <numeric>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <functional>
 
int main()
{
    std::vector<int> v{2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20};
    std::adjacent_difference(v.begin(), v.end(), v.begin());
 
    for (auto n : v) {
        std::cout << n << ' ';
    }
    std::cout << '\n';
 
    v = {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1};
    std::adjacent_difference(v.begin(), v.end() - 1, v.begin() + 1, std::plus<int>());
 
    for (auto n : v) {
        std::cout << n << ' ';
    }
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Output:

2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55

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

partial_sum	computes the partial sum of a range of elements (function template)
accumulate	sums up a range of elements (function template)