Standard C++ Library Class Reference

Description

The max_element algorithm returns an iterator that denotes the maximum element in a

sequence. If the sequence contains more than one copy of the element, the iterator points to its

first occurrence. The optional argument comp defines a comparison function that can be used in

place of the default operator<. This function can be used with all the datatypes provided by the

standard library.

Algorithm max_element returns the first iterator i in the range [first, last) such that for any

iterator j in the same range the following corresponding conditions hold:

!(*i < *j)

comp(*i, *j) == false.

Complexity

Exactly max((last - first) - 1, 0) applications of the corresponding comparisons are done for

max_element.

Example

// max_elem.cpp

#include <algorithm>

#include <vector>

#include <iostream.h>

int main(void)

{

typedef vector<int>::iterator iterator;

int d1[5] = {1,3,5,32,64};

// set up vector

vector<int> v1(d1,d1 + 5);

// find the largest element in the vector

iterator it1 = max_element(v1.begin(), v1.end());

// it1 = v1.begin() + 4

// find the largest element in the range from

// the beginning of the vector to the 2nd to last

iterator it2 = max_element(v1.begin(), v1.end()-1,

less<int>());

// it2 = v1.begin() + 3