Document number P0805R2 Date 2018-06-22 Project Programming Language C++, Library Working Group Reply-to Marshall Clow <mclow.lists@gmail.com>

Comparing Containers

History

P0805R0 was presented to LEWG in Albequerque, and was received favorably. They asked for an R1 that also included the rest of the sequence containers ( <deque> , <list> , <forward_list> and <vector> ) and forwarded the paper to LWG.

In Rapperswil, LWG asked for a couple of editorial changes to P0805R1 (reordering template parameters and function lists), and I rebased on N4750. Also, Daniel pointed out that I was relying on Table 77 and 78 for semantics of the comparison operators, and they only define semantics for comparisons between containers of the same type.

For P0805R2 Daniel, Jonathan and Casey helped me add the appropriate wording for comparing containers of different types.

Rationale

When I was attempting to implement P0122R5, I became frustrated with the inability to compare spans of different lengths, and sometimes spans of the same lengths as well. I started thinking about this in general, and realized that our comparison conventions for containers are limited, but for no good reason.

In C++17, std::optional has a nice set of comparison operators.

An optional<T> can be compared to a T .

can be compared to a . An optional<T> can be compared to a U .

can be compared to a . An optional<T> can be compared to an optional<T> .

can be compared to an . An optional<T> can be compared to an optional<U> .

can be compared to an . An optional<T> can be compared to a nullopt_t .

But an array<int, 5> cannot be compared to an array<int, 6> . Nor can an array<int, 5> cannot be compared to an array<long, 5> . This seems like an artificial limitation to me - these comparisons "make sense", we just don't implement them. We can compare a vector<int> that contains five elements to a vector<int> that contains six elements, but not a vector<int> to a vector<long> , no matter what size. And if the allocators are different, that won't work either.

As people write more and more generic code, these arbitrary limitations will cause increasing friction.

In the header <algorithm> we have lexicographical_compare . This is a very general algorithm - it compares two sequences, which may be of differing lengths, and/or different underlying types, and returns whether one is “less than” the other. But that generality is not reflected in the containers, even though their comparisons are defined in terms of lexicographical_compare (Table 85).

The same logic applies to std::tuple . The comparison operators for tuple require that both tuples be the same size ([tuple.rel]/1) but (surprisingly) not that they contain the same types.

Note: I have not suggested changes to basic_string , because it does not use lexicographical_compare , but delegates to a traits class.

Suggested changes

These wording changes are relative to N4750.

In [tuple.rel]/1, change:

Requires: For all i , where 0 <= i and i < min(sizeof...(TTypes), sizeof...(UTypes)) sizeof...(TTypes) , get<i>(t) == get<i>(u) is a valid expression returning a type that is convertible to bool . sizeof...(TTypes) == sizeof...(UTypes) .

In [tuple.rel]/2, change:

Returns: true if sizeof...(TTypes) == sizeof...(UTypes) and get<i>(t) == get<i>(u) for all i , otherwise false . For any two zero-length tuples e and f , e == f returns true .

In [tuple.rel]/5, change:

Requires: For all i , where 0 <= i and i < min(sizeof...(TTypes), sizeof...(UTypes)) i < sizeof...(TTypes) , both get<i>(t) < get<i>(u) and get<i>(u) < get<i>(t) are valid expressions returning types that are convertible to bool . sizeof...(TTypes) == sizeof...(UTypes) .

In [tuple.rel]/6, change:

Returns: The result of a lexicographical comparison between t and u . A zero-length tuple is lexicographically less than any non-zero-length tuple. The result is defined as: (bool)(get<0>(t) < get<0>(u)) || (!(bool)(get<0>(u) < get<0>(t)) && ttail < utail) , where rtail for some tuple r is a tuple containing all but the first element of r . For any two zero-length tuples e and f , e < f returns false.

In [sequence.reqmts]/3, change:

In Tables 81 and 82, X denotes a sequence container class containing elements of type T , a denotes a value of type X , X2 denotes a different specialization of the same class template as X (if any) containing elements of type T2 , a2 denotes a value of type X2 , a denotes a value of type X containing elements of type T , u denotes the name of a variable being declared [...]

Append six rows to the end of table 81:

Expression Return type Assertion/note pre-/post-condition a == a2 convertible to bool Returns: equal(a.begin(), a.end(), a2.begin(), a2.end()) . Requires: T and T2 model EqualityComparableWith . Complexity: Constant if a.size() != a2.size() , linear otherwise. a != a2 convertible to bool Equivalent to !(a == a2) . a < a2 convertible to bool Returns: lexicographical_compare(a.begin(), a.end(), a2.begin(), a2.end()) . Requires: T and T2 model StrictTotallyOrdered . Complexity: linear. a > a2 convertible to bool Equivalent to a2 < a a <= a2 convertible to bool Equivalent to !(a > a2) a >= a2 convertible to bool Equivalent to !(a < a2)

In [array.syn], add the following functions:

template <class T1, size_t N1, class T2, size_t N2> constexpr bool operator==(const array<T1,N1>& x, const array<T2,N2>& y); template <class T1, size_t N1, class T2, size_t N2> constexpr bool operator!=(const array<T1,N1>& x, const array<T2,N2>& y); template <class T1, size_t N1, class T2, size_t N2> constexpr bool operator<(const array<T1,N1>& x, const array<T2,N2>& y); template <class T1, size_t N1, class T2, size_t N2> constexpr bool operator>(const array<T1,N1>& x, const array<T2,N2>& y); template <class T1, size_t N1, class T2, size_t N2> constexpr bool operator<=(const array<T1,N1>& x, const array<T2,N2>& y); template <class T1, size_t N1, class T2, size_t N2> constexpr bool operator>=(const array<T1,N1>& x, const array<T2,N2>& y);

In [deque.syn], add the following functions:

template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator==(const deque<T1, Allocator1>& x, const deque<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator!=(const deque<T1, Allocator1>& x, const deque<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator< (const deque<T1, Allocator1>& x, const deque<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator> (const deque<T1, Allocator1>& x, const deque<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator<=(const deque<T1, Allocator1>& x, const deque<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator>=(const deque<T1, Allocator1>& x, const deque<T2, Allocator2>& y);

In [forward_list.syn], add the following functions:

template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator==(const forward_list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const forward_list<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator!=(const forward_list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const forward_list<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator< (const forward_list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const forward_list<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator> (const forward_list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const forward_list<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator<=(const forward_list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const forward_list<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator>=(const forward_list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const forward_list<T2, Allocator2>& y);

In [list.syn], add the following functions:

template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator==(const list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const list<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator!=(const list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const list<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator< (const list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const list<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator> (const list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const list<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator<=(const list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const list<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator>=(const list<T1, Allocator1>& x, const list<T2, Allocator2>& y);

In [vector.syn], add the following functions:

template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator==(const vector<T1, Allocator1>& x, const vector<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator!=(const vector<T1, Allocator1>& x, const vector<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator< (const vector<T1, Allocator1>& x, const vector<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator> (const vector<T1, Allocator1>& x, const vector<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator<=(const vector<T1, Allocator1>& x, const vector<T2, Allocator2>& y); template<class T1, class Allocator1, class T2, class Allocator2> bool operator>=(const vector<T1, Allocator1>& x, const vector<T2, Allocator2>& y);

Implementation status

This has been implemented (but not shipped) for libc++.

Future Directions

Thanks

Thanks to Daniel Krügler for his advice and wording assistance. Thanks to Jonathan Wakely abd Casey Carter for their wording assistance.