std::set_symmetric_difference

Defined in header `<algorithm>`
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt > OutputIt set_symmetric_difference( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first );	(1)
template< class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt, class Compare > OutputIt set_symmetric_difference( InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, OutputIt d_first, Compare comp );	(2)

Computes symmetric difference of two sorted ranges: the elements that are found in either of the ranges, but not in both of them are copied to the range beginning at d_first. The resulting range is also sorted.

The first version expects both input ranges to be sorted with operator<, the second version expects them to be sorted with the given comparison function comp. 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::abs(m-n) times. If m>n, then the last m-n of those elements are copied from [first1,last1), otherwise the last n-m elements are copied from [first2,last2). The resulting range cannot overlap with either of the input ranges.

first1, last1	-	the first sorted range of elements
first2, last2	-	the second sorted range of elements
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); The signature does not need to have const &, but the function object 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 both Type1 and Type2.
Type requirements
- `InputIt1` must meet the requirements of `InputIterator`.
- `InputIt2` must meet the requirements of `InputIterator`.
- `OutputIt` must meet the requirements of `OutputIterator`.

[edit] Return value

Iterator past the end of the constructed range.

[edit] Complexity

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

[edit] Possible implementation

First version

template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class OutputIt>
OutputIt set_symmetric_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) {
                *d_first++ = *first2;
            } else {
                ++first1;
            }
            ++first2;
        }
    }
    return std::copy(first2, last2, d_first);
}

Second version

template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2,
         class OutputIt, class Compare>
OutputIt set_symmetric_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)) {
                *d_first++ = *first2;
            } else {
                ++first1;
            }
            ++first2;
        }
    }
    return std::copy(first2, last2, d_first);
}

[edit] Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
int main()
{
    std::vector<int> v1{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8     };
    std::vector<int> v2{        5,  7,  9,10};
    std::sort(v1.begin(), v1.end());
    std::sort(v2.begin(), v2.end());
 
    std::vector<int> v_symDifference;
 
    std::set_symmetric_difference(
        v1.begin(), v1.end(),
        v2.begin(), v2.end(),
        std::back_inserter(v_symDifference));
 
    for(int n : v_symDifference)
        std::cout << n << ' ';
}

Output:

1 2 3 4 6 8 9 10

[edit] See also

includes	returns true if one set is a subset of another (function template)
set_difference	computes the difference between two sets (function template)
set_union	computes the union of two sets (function template)
set_intersection	computes the intersection of two sets (function template)
std::experimental::parallel::set_symmetric_difference (parallelism TS)	parallelized version of `std::set_symmetric_difference` (function template)

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