std::equal

Defined in header `<algorithm>`
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2 > bool equal( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2 );	(1)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class BinaryPredicate > bool equal( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, BinaryPredicate p );	(2)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2 > bool equal( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2 );	(3)	(since C++14)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class BinaryPredicate > bool equal( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, BinaryPredicate p );	(4)	(since C++14)

1,2) Returns true if the range [first1, last1) is equal to the range [first2, first2 + (last1 - first1)), and false otherwise

3,4) Returns true if the range [first1, last1) is equal to the range [first2, last2), and false otherwise.

The two ranges are considered equal if, for every iterator i in the range [first1,last1), *i equals *(first2 + (i - first1)). The overloads (1,3) use operator== to determine if two elements are equal, whereas overloads (2,4) use the given binary predicate p.

first1, last1	-	the first range of the elements to compare
first2, last2	-	the second range of the elements to compare
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 InputIt1 and InputIt2 can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to Type1 and Type2 respectively.
Type requirements
- `InputIt1, InputIt2` must meet the requirements of `InputIterator`.

[edit] Return value

3,4) If the length of the range [first1, last1) does not equal the length of the range [first2, last2), returns false

If the elements in the two ranges are equal, returns true.

Otherwise returns false.

[edit] Notes

std::equal may not be used to compare the ranges formed by the iterators from std::unordered_set, std::unordered_multiset, std::unordered_map, or std::unordered_multimap because the order in which the elements are stored in those containers may be different even if the two containers store the same elements.

When comparing entire containers for equality, operator== for the corresponding container are usually preferred.

[edit] Complexity

1,2) At most last1 - first1 applications of the predicate p

3,4) At most min(last1 - first1, last2 - first2) applications of the predicate p.
However, if InputIt1 and InputIt2 meet the requirements of RandomAccessIterator and last1 - first1 != last2 - first2 then no applications of the predicate p are made.

[edit] Possible implementation

First version

template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2>
bool equal(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, 
           InputIt2 first2)
{
    for (; first1 != last1; ++first1, ++first2) {
        if (!(*first1 == *first2)) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

Second version

template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class BinaryPredicate>
bool equal(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, 
           InputIt2 first2, BinaryPredicate p)
{
    for (; first1 != last1; ++first1, ++first2) {
        if (!p(*first1, *first2)) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

[edit] Example

The following code uses equal() to test if a string is a palindrome

Run this code

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
 
bool is_palindrome(const std::string& s)
{
    return std::equal(s.begin(), s.begin() + s.size()/2, s.rbegin());
}
 
void test(const std::string& s)
{
    std::cout << "\"" << s << "\" "
        << (is_palindrome(s) ? "is" : "is not")
        << " a palindrome\n";
}
 
int main()
{
    test("radar");
    test("hello");
}

Output:

"radar" is a palindrome
"hello" is not a palindrome

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	searches for a range of elements (function template)

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)