std::set_difference

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

Copies the elements from the sorted range [first1, last1) which are not found in the sorted range [first2, last2) to the range beginning at d_first.

The resulting range is also sorted. Equivalent elements are treated individually, that is, if some element is found m times in [first1, last1) and n times in [first2, last2), it will be copied to d_first exactly std::max(m-n, 0) times. 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 range of elements to examine
first2, last2	-	the range of elements to search for
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`.
- `OutputIt` must meet the requirements of `OutputIterator`.
- `ForwardIt1, ForwardIt2, ForwardIt3` must meet the requirements of `ForwardIterator`.

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.

Possible implementation

First version

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

Second version

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

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
#include <iterator>
 
int main() {
    std::vector<int> v1 {1, 2, 5, 5, 5, 9};
    std::vector<int> v2 {2, 5, 7};
    std::vector<int> diff;
 
    std::set_difference(v1.begin(), v1.end(), v2.begin(), v2.end(), 
                        std::inserter(diff, diff.begin()));
 
    for (auto i : v1) std::cout << i << ' ';
    std::cout << "minus ";
    for (auto i : v2) std::cout << i << ' ';
    std::cout << "is: ";
 
    for (auto i : diff) std::cout << i << ' ';
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Output:

1 2 5 5 5 9 minus 2 5 7 is: 1 5 5 9

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)
set_symmetric_difference	computes the symmetric difference between two sets (function template)