std::set_difference

Defined in header `<algorithm>`
	(1)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt > OutputIt set_difference( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first );			(until C++20)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt > constexpr OutputIt set_difference( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first );			(since C++20)
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)
		(3)
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 );				(until C++20)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare > constexpr OutputIt set_difference( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first, Compare comp );				(since C++20)
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. These overloads do not participate in overload resolution unless std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> (until C++20) std::is_execution_policy_v<std::remove_cvref_t<ExecutionPolicy>> (since C++20) is true.

Parameters

first1, last1	-	the range of elements to examine
first2, last2	-	the range of elements to search for
d_first	-	the beginning of the destination range
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); While the signature does not need to have const &, the function must not modify the objects passed to it and must be able to accept all values of type (possibly const) `Type1` and `Type2` regardless of value category (thus, Type1 & is not allowed, nor is Type1 unless for `Type1` a move is equivalent to a copy (since C++11)). 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 LegacyInputIterator.
- `OutputIt` must meet the requirements of LegacyOutputIterator.
- `ForwardIt1, ForwardIt2, ForwardIt3` must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.

Return value

Iterator past the end of the constructed range.

Complexity

At most $\scriptsize 2\cdot(N_1+N_2)-1$ $2\cdot(N 1 +N 2)-1$ comparisons, where $\scriptsize N_1$ $N 1$ and $\scriptsize N_2$ $N 2$ are std::distance(first1, last1) and std::distance(first2, last2), respectively.

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 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 <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <string_view>
#include <vector>
 
auto print = [](const auto& v, std::string_view end = "") {
    std::cout << "{ ";
    for (auto i : v) std::cout << i << ' ';
    std::cout << "} " << end;
};
 
struct Order // a struct with some interesting data
{
    int order_id;
 
    friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const Order& ord) {
        return os << ord.order_id << ',';
    }
};
 
int main() {
    const std::vector<int> v1 {1, 2, 5, 5, 5, 9};
    const 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()));
    print(v1, "∖ ");
    print(v2, "= ");
    print(diff, "\n");
 
    // we want to know which orders "cut" between old and new states:
    std::vector<Order> old_orders { {1}, {2}, {5}, {9} };
    std::vector<Order> new_orders { {2}, {5}, {7} };
    std::vector<Order> cut_orders;
 
    std::set_difference(old_orders.begin(), old_orders.end(),
                        new_orders.begin(), new_orders.end(),
                        std::back_inserter(cut_orders),
                        [](auto& a, auto& b) { return a.order_id < b.order_id; });
 
    std::cout << "old orders = "; print(old_orders, "\n");
    std::cout << "new orders = "; print(new_orders, "\n");
    std::cout << "cut orders = "; print(cut_orders, "\n");
}

Output:

{ 1 2 5 5 5 9 } ∖ { 2 5 7 } = { 1 5 5 9 } 
old orders = { 1, 2, 5, 9, } 
new orders = { 2, 5, 7, } 
cut orders = { 1, 9, }

Compiler support
Freestanding and hosted
Language
Standard library headers
Named requirements
Feature test macros (C++20)
Language support library
Concepts library (C++20)
Metaprogramming library (C++11)
Diagnostics library
General utilities library
Strings library
Containers library
Iterators library
Ranges library (C++20)
Algorithms library
Numerics library
Localizations library
Input/output library
Filesystem library (C++17)
Regular expressions library (C++11)
Concurrency support library (C++11)
Technical specifications
Symbols index
External libraries

includes	returns true if one sequence is a subsequence of another (function template)
set_symmetric_difference	computes the symmetric difference between two sets (function template)
ranges::set_difference (C++20)	computes the difference between two sets (niebloid)