std::search

Defined in header `<algorithm>`
template< class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2 > ForwardIt1 search( ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last, ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last );	(1)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2 > ForwardIt1 search( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last, ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last );	(2)	(since C++17)
template< class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2, class BinaryPredicate > ForwardIt1 search( ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last, ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last, BinaryPredicate p );	(3)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2, class BinaryPredicate > ForwardIt1 search( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last, ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last, BinaryPredicate p );	(4)	(since C++17)
template<class ForwardIterator, class Searcher> ForwardIterator search( ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last, const Searcher& searcher );	(5)	(since C++17)

1-4) Searches for the first occurrence of the subsequence of elements [s_first, s_last) in the range [first, last - (s_last - s_first)).

1) Elements are compared using operator==.

3) Elements are compared using the given binary predicate p.

2,4) Same as (1,3), but executed according to policy. These overloads do not participate in overload resolution unless std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true

5) Searches the sequence

[first, last)

for the pattern specified in the constructor of searcher. Effectively executes return searcher(first, last).first;. Searcher need not be CopyConstructible.

The standard library provides the following searchers:

default_searcher (C++17)	standard C++ library search algorithm implementation (class template)
boyer_moore_searcher (C++17)	Boyer-Moore search algorithm implementation (class template)
boyer_moore_horspool_searcher (C++17)	Boyer-Moore-Horspool search algorithm implementation (class template)

(since C++17)

Parameters

first, last	-	the range of elements to examine
s_first, s_last	-	the range of elements to search for
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
searcher	-	the searcher encapsulating the search algorithm and the pattern to look for
p	-	binary predicate which returns true if the elements should be treated as equal. The signature of the predicate function should be equivalent to the following: bool pred(const Type1 &a, const Type2 &b); The signature does not need to have const &, but the function must not modify the objects passed to it. The types Type1 and Type2 must be such that objects of types ForwardIt1 and ForwardIt2 can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to Type1 and Type2 respectively.
Type requirements
- `ForwardIt1, ForwardIt2` must meet the requirements of `ForwardIterator`.
- `Searcher` must meet the requirements of `Searcher`.

Return value

1-4) Iterator to the beginning of first subsequence [s_first, s_last) in the range [first, last - (s_last - s_first)). If no such subsequence is found, last is returned.
If [s_first, s_last) is empty, first is returned. (since C++11)

5) Returns the result of searcher.operator(), that is, an iterator to the location at which the substring is found or a copy of last if it was not found.

Complexity

1-4) At most S*N comparisons where S = std::distance(s_first, s_last) and N = std::distance(first, last).

5) Depends on the searcher

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 ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2>
ForwardIt1 search(ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last,
                        ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last)
{
    for (; ; ++first) {
        ForwardIt1 it = first;
        for (ForwardIt2 s_it = s_first; ; ++it, ++s_it) {
            if (s_it == s_last) {
                return first;
            }
            if (it == last) {
                return last;
            }
            if (!(*it == *s_it)) {
                break;
            }
        }
    }
}

Second version

template<class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2, class BinaryPredicate>
ForwardIt1 search(ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last,
                        ForwardIt2 s_first, ForwardIt2 s_last, 
                        BinaryPredicate p)
{
    for (; ; ++first) {
        ForwardIt1 it = first;
        for (ForwardIt2 s_it = s_first; ; ++it, ++s_it) {
            if (s_it == s_last) {
                return first;
            }
            if (it == last) {
                return last;
            }
            if (!p(*it, *s_it)) {
                break;
            }
        }
    }
}

Example

Run this code

#include <string>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
 
template<typename Container>
bool in_quote(const Container& cont, const std::string& s)
{
    return std::search(cont.begin(), cont.end(), s.begin(), s.end()) != cont.end();
}
 
int main()
{
    std::string str = "why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?";
    // str.find() can be used as well
    std::cout << std::boolalpha << in_quote(str, "learning") << '\n'
                                << in_quote(str, "lemming")  << '\n';
 
    std::vector<char> vec(str.begin(), str.end());
    std::cout << std::boolalpha << in_quote(vec, "learning") << '\n'
                                << in_quote(vec, "lemming")  << '\n';
 
    // The C++17 overload demo:
    std::string in = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit,"
                     " sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua";
    std::string needle = "pisci";
    auto it = std::search(in.begin(), in.end(),
                   std::make_boyer_moore_searcher(
                       needle.begin(), needle.end()));
    if(it != in.end())
        std::cout << "The string " << needle << " found at offset "
                  << it - in.begin() << '\n';
    else
        std::cout << "The string " << needle << " not found\n";
}

Output:

true
false
true
false
The string pisci found at offset 43

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

find_end	finds the last sequence of elements in a certain range (function template)
includes	returns true if one set is a subset of another (function template)
equal	determines if two sets of elements are the same (function template)
findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11)	finds the first element satisfying specific criteria (function template)
lexicographical_compare	returns true if one range is lexicographically less than another (function template)
mismatch	finds the first position where two ranges differ (function template)
search_n	searches for a number consecutive copies of an element in a range (function template)
default_searcher (C++17)	standard C++ library search algorithm implementation (class template)
boyer_moore_searcher (C++17)	Boyer-Moore search algorithm implementation (class template)
boyer_moore_horspool_searcher (C++17)	Boyer-Moore-Horspool search algorithm implementation (class template)