浅析std::remove函数

c++标准库中有一个名为 std::remove函数，形式为

remove(beg,end,val)

remove_if(beg,end,unarryPred)

其中，beg，end为迭代器，也可以为指针

机理为：通过用保存的元素覆盖元素而从序列中“移去”元素。remove移去的元素为等于val值，remove_if移去的是当unarryPred为真的那些元素，然后返回一个迭代器，该迭代器指向未移去的最后一个元素的下一个位置。

我们需要注意的是，remove函数是通过覆盖移去的，如果容器最后一个值刚好是需要删除的，则它无法覆盖掉容器中最后一个元素！我们来看下面一个例子，取自msdn

// remove.cpp
// compile with: /EHsc
// Illustrates how to use the remove function.
//
// Functions:
//   remove - remove all elements from the sequence that match value.
//   begin - Returns an iterator that points to the first element in a
//           sequence.
//   end - Returns an iterator that points one past the end of a sequence.
//

// disable warning C4786: symbol greater than 255 character,
// okay to ignore
#pragma warning(disable: 4786)

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>

using namespace std;


int main()
{
    const int VECTOR_SIZE = 8 ;

    // Define a template class vector of integers
    typedef vector<int > IntVector ;

    //Define an iterator for template class vector of integer
    typedef IntVector::iterator IntVectorIt ;

    IntVector Numbers(VECTOR_SIZE) ;   //vector containing numbers

    IntVectorIt start, end, it, last;

    start = Numbers.begin() ;   // location of first
                                // element of Numbers

    end = Numbers.end() ;       // one past the location
                                // last element of Numbers

    //Initialize vector Numbers
    Numbers[0] = 10 ;
    Numbers[1] = 20 ;
    Numbers[2] = 10 ;
    Numbers[3] = 15 ;
    Numbers[4] = 12 ;
    Numbers[5] = 7 ;
    Numbers[6] = 9 ;
    Numbers[7] = 10 ;


    cout << "Before calling remove" << endl ;

    // print content of Numbers
    cout << "Numbers { " ;
    for(it = start; it != end; it++)
        cout << *it << " " ;
    cout << " }\n" << endl ;

    // remove all elements from Numbers that match 10
     last = remove(start, end, 10) ;

    cout << "After calling remove" << endl ;

    // print content of Numbers
    cout << "Numbers { " ;
    for(it = start; it != end; it++)
        cout << *it << " " ;
    cout << " }\n" << endl ;

    //print number of elements removed from Numbers
    cout << "Total number of elements removed from Numbers = "
        << end - last << endl ;

    //print only the valid elements of Number
    cout << "Valid elements of Numbers { " ;
    for(it = start; it != last; it++)
        cout << *it << " " ;
    cout << " }\n" << endl ;

}

输出结果为

Before calling remove
Numbers { 10 20 10 15 12 7 9 10  }

After calling remove
Numbers { 20 15 12 7 9 7 9 10  }    //我们可以看到，这边最后一个元素

Total number of elements removed from Numbers = 3
Valid elements of Numbers { 20 15 12 7 9  }

第二个结果很有意思的，结果并不是20 15 12 7 9 9 9 10，从这里我们也可以发现，remove实现机制是统一先找出哪些元素需要被覆盖，等全部找到以后在进行一次性覆盖，而不是每找到一个需要覆盖的元素就将其进行覆盖。因为我们知道，对于顺序存储的容器如vectro deque 来说，移动覆盖代价是很大的，所以这么做完全是从性能上来考虑的。