std::swap

 

C++

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

 

Algorithm library

Constrained algorithms and algorithms on ranges (C++20)
Constrained algorithms, e.g. ranges::copy, ranges::sort, ...
Execution policies (C++17)
is_execution_policy (C++17)	execution::seqexecution::parexecution::par_unseqexecution::unseq (C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++20)	execution::sequenced_policyexecution::parallel_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced (C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++20)
Non-modifying sequence operations
all_ofany_ofnone_of (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) for_each for_each_n (C++17)	countcount_if mismatch equal adjacent_find	search search_n lexicographical_compare lexicographical_compare_three_way (C++20)	findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of
Modifying sequence operations
copycopy_if (C++11) copy_n (C++11) copy_backward move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) shift_leftshift_right (C++20)(C++20) transform	fill fill_n generate generate_n swap iter_swap swap_ranges sample (C++17)	removeremove_if replacereplace_if reverse rotate unique random_shuffle (until C++17)	remove_copyremove_copy_if replace_copyreplace_copy_if reverse_copy rotate_copy unique_copy shuffle (C++11)
Partitioning operations
is_partitioned (C++11) partition_point (C++11)	partition partition_copy (C++11)	stable_partition
Sorting operations
is_sorted (C++11) is_sorted_until (C++11)	sort stable_sort	partial_sort partial_sort_copy	nth_element
Binary search operations
lower_bound	upper_bound	binary_search	equal_range
Set operations (on sorted ranges)
merge inplace_merge	set_difference set_intersection	set_symmetric_difference set_union	includes
Heap operations
is_heap (C++11) is_heap_until (C++11)	make_heap sort_heap	push_heap pop_heap
Minimum/maximum operations
max max_element	min min_element	minmax (C++11) minmax_element (C++11)	clamp (C++17)
Permutations
is_permutation (C++11)	next_permutation	prev_permutation
Numeric operations
iota (C++11) inner_product adjacent_difference	accumulate reduce (C++17) transform_reduce (C++17)	transform_inclusive_scan (C++17) transform_exclusive_scan (C++17)	partial_sum inclusive_scan (C++17) exclusive_scan (C++17)
Operations on uninitialized storage
uninitialized_copy uninitialized_move (C++17) uninitialized_fill	uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_fill_n	uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17)	destroy (C++17) destroy_n (C++17) destroy_at (C++17) construct_at (C++20)
C library
qsort	bsearch

 

Defined in header <algorithm>		(until C++11)
Defined in header <utility>		(since C++11)
Defined in header <string_view>		(since C++17)
	(1)
template< class T > void swap( T& a, T& b );			(until C++11)
template< class T > void swap( T& a, T& b ) noexcept(/* see below */);			(since C++11) (until C++20)
template< class T > constexpr void swap( T& a, T& b ) noexcept(/* see below */);			(since C++20)
		(2)
template< class T2, std::size_t N > void swap( T2 (&a)[N], T2 (&b)[N]) noexcept(/* see below */);				(since C++11) (until C++20)
template< class T2, std::size_t N > constexpr void swap( T2 (&a)[N], T2 (&b)[N]) noexcept(/* see below */);				(since C++20)

Exchanges the given values.

1) Swaps the values a and b. This overload does not participate in overload resolution unless std::is_move_constructible_v<T> && std::is_move_assignable_v<T> is true. (since C++17)

2) Swaps the arrays a and b. In effect calls std::swap_ranges(a, a+N, b). This overload does not participate in overload resolution unless std::is_swappable_v<T2> is true. (since C++17)

Parameters

a, b	-	the values to be swapped
Type requirements
- T must meet the requirements of MoveAssignable and MoveConstructible.
- T2 must meet the requirements of Swappable.

Return value

(none)

Exceptions

1)

(none)	(until C++11)
noexcept specification:   noexcept(     std::is_nothrow_move_constructible<T>::value &&     std::is_nothrow_move_assignable<T>::value )	(since C++11)

2)

noexcept specification:   noexcept(noexcept(swap(*a, *b))) The lookup for the identifier swap in the exception specification finds this function template in addition to anything found by the usual lookup rules, making the exception specification equivalent to C++17 std::is_nothrow_swappable.	(since C++11) (until C++17)
noexcept specification:   noexcept(std::is_nothrow_swappable_v<T2>)	(since C++17)

Complexity

1) Constant

2) Linear in N

Specializations

std::swap may be specialized in namespace std for program-defined types, but such specializations are not found by ADL (the namespace std is not the associated namespace for the program-defined type).

(until C++20)

The expected way to make a program-defined type swappable is to provide a non-member function swap in the same namespace as the type: see Swappable for details.

The following overloads are already provided by the standard library:

std::swap(std::pair) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::tuple) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::shared_ptr) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::weak_ptr) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::unique_ptr) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::function) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_string)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::array) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::deque)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::forward_list) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::list)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::vector)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::map)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::multimap)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::set)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::multiset)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::unordered_map) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::unordered_multimap) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::unordered_set) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::unordered_multiset) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::queue) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::priority_queue) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::stack) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::valarray) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_stringbuf) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_istringstream) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_ostringstream) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_stringstream) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_filebuf) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_ifstream) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_ofstream) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_fstream) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_syncbuf) (C++20)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_spanbuf) (C++23)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_ispanstream) (C++23)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_ospanstream) (C++23)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_spanstream) (C++23)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::basic_regex) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::match_results) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::thread) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function)
std::swap(std::unique_lock) (C++11)	specialization of std::swap for unique_lock (function template)
std::swap(std::promise) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::packaged_task) (C++11)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::optional) (C++17)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
std::swap(std::any) (C++17)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function)
std::swap(std::variant) (C++17)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
swap(std::filesystem::path) (C++17)	swaps two paths (function)

Example

Run this code

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
 
namespace Ns {
class A {
    int id{};
 
    friend void swap(A& lhs, A& rhs) {
        std::cout << "swap(" << lhs << ", " << rhs << ")\n";
        std::swap(lhs.id, rhs.id);
    }
 
    friend std::ostream& operator<< (std::ostream& os, A const& a) {
        return os << "A::id=" << a.id;
    }
 
public:
    A(int i) : id{i} { }
    A(A const&) = delete;
    A& operator = (A const&) = delete;
};
}
 
int main()
{
    int a = 5, b = 3;
    std::cout << a << ' ' << b << '\n';
    std::swap(a,b);
    std::cout << a << ' ' << b << '\n';
 
    Ns::A p{6}, q{9};
    std::cout << p << ' ' << q << '\n';
//  std::swap(p, q);  // error, type requirements are not satisfied
    swap(p, q);  // OK, ADL finds the appropriate friend `swap`
    std::cout << p << ' ' << q << '\n';
}

Output:

5 3
3 5
A::id=6 A::id=9
swap(A::id=6, A::id=9)
A::id=9 A::id=6

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 2554	C++11	swapping multi-dimensional arrays can never be noexcept due to name lookup problems	made to work

See also

ranges::swap (C++20)	swaps the values of two objects (customization point object)
iter_swap	swaps the elements pointed to by two iterators (function template)
swap_ranges	swaps two ranges of elements (function template)
exchange (C++14)	replaces the argument with a new value and returns its previous value (function template)