std::map::operator[]

T& operator[]( const Key& key );	(1)
T& operator[]( Key&& key );	(2)	(since C++11)

Returns a reference to the value that is mapped to a key equivalent to key, performing an insertion if such key does not already exist.

1) Inserts value_type(key, T()) if the key does not exist. This function is equivalent to return insert(std::make_pair(key, T())).first->second;

- `key_type` must meet the requirements of `CopyConstructible`.
- `mapped_type` must meet the requirements of `CopyConstructible` and `DefaultConstructible`.

If an insertion is performed, the mapped value is value-initialized (default-constructed for class types, zero-initialized otherwise) and a reference to it is returned.

(until C++11)

1) Inserts a value_type object constructed in-place from std::piecewise_construct, std::forward_as_tuple(key), std::tuple<>() if the key does not exist. This function is equivalent to return this->try_emplace(key).first->second;. (since C++17)
When the default allocator is used, this results in the key being copy constructed from key and the mapped value being value-initialized.

-

value_type must be EmplaceConstructible from std::piecewise_construct, std::forward_as_tuple(key), std::tuple<>(). When the default allocator is used, this means that key_type must be CopyConstructible and mapped_type must be DefaultConstructible.

2) Inserts a value_type object constructed in-place from std::piecewise_construct, std::forward_as_tuple(std::move(key)), std::tuple<>() if the key does not exist. This function is equivalent to return this->try_emplace(std::move(key)).first->second;. (since C++17)
When the default allocator is used, this results in the key being move constructed from key and the mapped value being value-initialized.

-

value_type must be EmplaceConstructible from std::piecewise_construct, std::forward_as_tuple(std::move(key)), std::tuple<>(). When the default allocator is used, this means that key_type must be MoveConstructible and mapped_type must be DefaultConstructible.

(since C++11)

No iterators or references are invalidated.

Parameters

key

-

the key of the element to find

Return value

Reference to the mapped value of the new element if no element with key key existed. Otherwise a reference to the mapped value of the existing element whose key is equivalent to key.

Exceptions

If an exception is thrown by any operation, the insertion has no effect

Complexity

Logarithmic in the size of the container.

Notes

In the published C++11 and C++14 standards, this function was specified to require mapped_type to be DefaultInsertable and key_type to be CopyInsertable or MoveInsertable into *this. This specification was defective and was fixed by LWG issue 2469, and the description above incorporates the resolution of that issue.

However, one implementation (libc++) is known to construct the key_type and mapped_type objects via two separate allocator construct() calls, as arguably required by the standards as published, rather than emplacing a value_type object.

operator[] is non-const because it inserts the key if it doesn't exist. If this behavior is undesirable or if the container is const, at() may be used.

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <map>
 
int main()
{
    std::map<char, int> letter_counts {{'a', 27}, {'b', 3}, {'c', 1}};
 
    std::cout << "initially:\n";
    for (const auto &pair : letter_counts) {
        std::cout << pair.first << ": " << pair.second << '\n';
    }
 
    letter_counts['b'] = 42;  // update an existing value
    letter_counts['x'] = 9;  // insert a new value
 
    std::cout << "after modifications:\n";
    for (const auto &pair : letter_counts) {
        std::cout << pair.first << ": " << pair.second << '\n';
    }
 
    // count the number of occurrences of each word
    // (the first call to operator[] initialized the counter with zero)
    std::map<std::string, size_t>  word_map;
    for (const auto &w : { "this", "sentence", "is", "not", "a", "sentence",
                           "this", "sentence", "is", "a", "hoax"}) {
        ++word_map[w];
    }
 
    for (const auto &pair : word_map) {
        std::cout << pair.second << " occurrences of word '" << pair.first << "'\n";
    }
}

Output:

initially:
a: 27
b: 3
c: 1
after modifications:
a: 27
b: 42
c: 1
x: 9
2 occurrences of word 'a'
1 occurrences of word 'hoax'
2 occurrences of word 'is'
1 occurrences of word 'not'
3 occurrences of word 'sentence'
2 occurrences of word 'this'

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

array (C++11)
vector
deque
forward_list (C++11)
list
set
multiset
map
multimap
unordered_set (C++11)
unordered_multiset (C++11)
unordered_map (C++11)
unordered_multimap (C++11)
stack
queue
priority_queue

Member functions
map::map
map::~map
map::operator=
map::get_allocator
Element access
map::at
map::operator[]
Iterators
map::beginmap::cbegin (C++11)
map::endmap::cend (C++11)
map::rbeginmap::crbegin (C++11)
map::rendmap::crend (C++11)
Capacity
map::empty
map::size
map::max_size
Modifiers
map::clear
map::insert
map::insert_or_assign (C++17)
map::emplace (C++11)
map::emplace_hint (C++11)
map::try_emplace (C++17)
map::erase
map::swap
map::extract (C++17)
map::merge (C++17)
Lookup
map::count
map::find
map::equal_range
map::lower_bound
map::upper_bound
Observers
map::key_comp
map::value_comp

at (C++11)	access specified element with bounds checking (public member function)
insert_or_assign (C++17)	inserts an element or assigns to the current element if the key already exists (public member function)
try_emplace (C++17)	inserts in-place if the key does not exist, does nothing if the key exists (public member function)