Best way of comparing two containers?



 DEVELOP > c-Plus-Plus > Best way of comparing two containers?

LINK TO THIS PAGE  


rating :  0   |  0


  Page 1 of 1

1

 
Topic: DEVELOP > c-Plus-Plus
User: "Dylan"
Date: 08 Jul 2004 07:07:57 PM
Object: Best way of comparing two containers?
I'd like to compare two containers. They should be considered
equivalent if both containers have the same number of elements with
the same values, no matter what order the values are in.
For instance the containers
A = [1, 2, 3]
B = [1, 2, 3]
are obviously equal, but so would be
A = [3, 2, 1]
B = [2, 1, 3]
as would
A = [2, 2, 5, 1]
B = [2, 1, 5, 2]
What's the best (quickest) way of comparing containers in this way?
.

User: "Kai-Uwe Bux"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 08 Jul 2004 08:08:11 PM
Dylan wrote:

I'd like to compare two containers. They should be considered
equivalent if both containers have the same number of elements with
the same values, no matter what order the values are in.

For instance the containers

A = [1, 2, 3]
B = [1, 2, 3]

are obviously equal, but so would be

A = [3, 2, 1]
B = [2, 1, 3]

as would

A = [2, 2, 5, 1]
B = [2, 1, 5, 2]

What's the best (quickest) way of comparing containers in this way?

I am not sure if this is optimal, but the obvious way should be worth
trying: copy into two new containers, sort them and check whether they
are equal. That would work in O(n*log(n)) time:
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
template < typename T, template <typename> class C >
bool sort_compare ( const C<T> & c_1, const C<T> & c_2 ) {
std::vector<T> v_1 ( c_1.begin(), c_1.end() );
std::vector<T> v_2 ( c_2.begin(), c_2.end() );
std::sort( v_1.begin(), v_1.end() );
std::sort( v_2.begin(), v_2.end() );
return( v_1 == v_2 );
}
#include <iostream>
int main ( void ) {
std::vector< int > c_1;
c_1.push_back( 1 );
c_1.push_back( 1 );
c_1.push_back( 3 );
std::vector< int > c_2;
c_2.push_back( 3 );
c_2.push_back( 1 );
c_2.push_back( 1 );
std::vector< int > c_3;
c_3.push_back( 3 );
c_3.push_back( 0 );
c_3.push_back( 1 );
std::cout << sort_compare( c_1, c_2 )
<< " "
<< sort_compare( c_2, c_3 )
<< "\n";
}
Do you suspect that there is a linear time method?
Best
Kai-Uwe Bux
.
User: "Dylan"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 08 Jul 2004 08:42:11 PM
On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 21:08:11 -0400, Kai-Uwe Bux <jkherciueh@gmx.net>
wrote:

Dylan wrote:

I'd like to compare two containers. They should be considered
equivalent if both containers have the same number of elements with
the same values, no matter what order the values are in.

For instance the containers

A = [1, 2, 3]
B = [1, 2, 3]

are obviously equal, but so would be

A = [3, 2, 1]
B = [2, 1, 3]

as would

A = [2, 2, 5, 1]
B = [2, 1, 5, 2]

What's the best (quickest) way of comparing containers in this way?


I am not sure if this is optimal, but the obvious way should be worth
trying: copy into two new containers, sort them and check whether they
are equal. That would work in O(n*log(n)) time:

#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>

template < typename T, template <typename> class C >
bool sort_compare ( const C<T> & c_1, const C<T> & c_2 ) {
std::vector<T> v_1 ( c_1.begin(), c_1.end() );
std::vector<T> v_2 ( c_2.begin(), c_2.end() );
std::sort( v_1.begin(), v_1.end() );
std::sort( v_2.begin(), v_2.end() );
return( v_1 == v_2 );
}

#include <iostream>

int main ( void ) {
std::vector< int > c_1;
c_1.push_back( 1 );
c_1.push_back( 1 );
c_1.push_back( 3 );
std::vector< int > c_2;
c_2.push_back( 3 );
c_2.push_back( 1 );
c_2.push_back( 1 );
std::vector< int > c_3;
c_3.push_back( 3 );
c_3.push_back( 0 );
c_3.push_back( 1 );
std::cout << sort_compare( c_1, c_2 )
<< " "
<< sort_compare( c_2, c_3 )
<< "\n";
}


Do you suspect that there is a linear time method?


Best

Kai-Uwe Bux

Thanks for your answer, but the reason I stipulated that the elements
can be in any order is that, for the problem I'm working on, it's
unreasonable to assume there is a sorting criteria defined for the
element type (or that one can be defined using the type interface).
.
User: "Andrey Tarasevich"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 08 Jul 2004 08:48:52 PM
Dylan wrote:

...
Thanks for your answer, but the reason I stipulated that the elements
can be in any order is that, for the problem I'm working on, it's
unreasonable to assume there is a sorting criteria defined for the
element type (or that one can be defined using the type interface).
...

In that case you should specify what kind of criteria you _do_ have
defined. Boolean equality criteria only? Something else?
--
Best regards,
Andrey Tarasevich
.
User: "Dylan"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 08 Jul 2004 09:00:21 PM
On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 18:48:52 -0700, Andrey Tarasevich
<andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dylan wrote:

...
Thanks for your answer, but the reason I stipulated that the elements
can be in any order is that, for the problem I'm working on, it's
unreasonable to assume there is a sorting criteria defined for the
element type (or that one can be defined using the type interface).
...


In that case you should specify what kind of criteria you _do_ have
defined. Boolean equality criteria only? Something else?


Boolean equality criteria only (==)
.
User: "Karl Heinz Buchegger"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 09 Jul 2004 03:10:14 AM
Dylan wrote:


On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 18:48:52 -0700, Andrey Tarasevich
<andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dylan wrote:

...
Thanks for your answer, but the reason I stipulated that the elements
can be in any order is that, for the problem I'm working on, it's
unreasonable to assume there is a sorting criteria defined for the
element type (or that one can be defined using the type interface).
...


In that case you should specify what kind of criteria you _do_ have
defined. Boolean equality criteria only? Something else?



Boolean equality criteria only (==)

Hmm. Would it be possible to make up some artificial 'less'
relationship just for the purpose of sorting? It doesn't
matter if that 'less' actually makes some sense in the
assignment space.
(Such a thing is almost always possible to do)
--
Karl Heinz Buchegger
kbuchegg@gascad.at
.

User: "Kai-Uwe Bux"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 08 Jul 2004 09:32:17 PM
Dylan wrote:

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 18:48:52 -0700, Andrey Tarasevich
<andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dylan wrote:

...
Thanks for your answer, but the reason I stipulated that the elements
can be in any order is that, for the problem I'm working on, it's
unreasonable to assume there is a sorting criteria defined for the
element type (or that one can be defined using the type interface).
...


In that case you should specify what kind of criteria you _do_ have
defined. Boolean equality criteria only? Something else?



Boolean equality criteria only (==)

Hm,
in this case, I only see a quadratic way of doing it:
template < typename T, template <typename> class C >
bool nosort_compare ( const C<T> & c_1, const C<T> & c_2 ) {
std::vector<T> v_1 ( c_1.begin(), c_1.end() );
std::vector<T> v_2 ( c_2.begin(), c_2.end() );
if ( v_1.size() != v_2.size() ) {
return( false );
}
typename std::vector<T>::size_type i_1 = 0;
typename std::vector<T>::size_type i_2 = 0;
while ( i_1 < v_1.size() ) {
if ( v_1[i_1] == v_2[i_2] ) {
std::swap( v_2[i_1], v_2[i_2] );
++ i_1;
i_2 = i_1;
continue;
} else if ( i_2 == v_2.size() ) {
return( false );
} else {
++ i_2;
}
}
return( true );
}
Beware: as this code is not as transparent as the sorting method, it
may be deeply flawed.
Best
Kai-Uwe Bux
.





User: "Ioannis Vranos"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 09 Jul 2004 11:20:22 AM
Dylan wrote:

I'd like to compare two containers. They should be considered
equivalent if both containers have the same number of elements with
the same values, no matter what order the values are in.

For instance the containers

A = [1, 2, 3]
B = [1, 2, 3]

are obviously equal, but so would be

A = [3, 2, 1]
B = [2, 1, 3]

as would

A = [2, 2, 5, 1]
B = [2, 1, 5, 2]

What's the best (quickest) way of comparing containers in this way?

I think you need to use std::set or std::multiset.
Regards,
Ioannis Vranos
.
User: "Ioannis Vranos"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 09 Jul 2004 11:32:45 AM
Example:
#include <iostream>
#include <set>
int main()
{
using namespace std;
multiset<int>t1, t2;
t1.insert(2);
t1.insert(2);
t1.insert(5);
t1.insert(1);
t2.insert(2);
t2.insert(1);
t2.insert(5);
t2.insert(2);
if(t1==t2)
cout<<"\nEqual!\n";
}
Regards,
Ioannis Vranos
.
User: "Jeff Flinn"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 09 Jul 2004 12:14:30 PM
"Ioannis Vranos" <ivr@guesswh.at.grad.com> wrote in message
news:ccmhat$l13$1@ulysses.noc.ntua.gr...

Example:


#include <iostream>
#include <set>


int main()
{
using namespace std;

multiset<int>t1, t2;

t1.insert(2);
t1.insert(2);
t1.insert(5);
t1.insert(1);

t2.insert(2);
t2.insert(1);
t2.insert(5);
t2.insert(2);

if(t1==t2)
cout<<"\nEqual!\n";

}

Which works for int, but the OP said his T only implements operator==, and
not any of the inequalities.
Jeff F
.



User: "E. Robert Tisdale"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 08 Jul 2004 08:16:33 PM
Dylan wrote:

I'd like to compare two containers. They should be considered
equivalent if both containers have the same number of elements with
the same values, no matter what order the values are in.

For instance the containers

A = [1, 2, 3]
B = [1, 2, 3]

are obviously equal, but so would be

A = [3, 2, 1]
B = [2, 1, 3]

as would

A = [2, 2, 5, 1]
B = [2, 1, 5, 2]

What's the best (quickest) way of comparing containers in this way?

Your *equivalence relationship* is *ill-defined*.
Is [3, 1, 1] equal to [3, 3, 1] for example?
What do you mean by "order"?
1 < 2 < . . . < INT_MAX?
.
User: "Dylan"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 08 Jul 2004 09:02:45 PM
On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 18:16:33 -0700, "E. Robert Tisdale"
<E.Robert.Tisdale@jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:

Dylan wrote:

I'd like to compare two containers. They should be considered
equivalent if both containers have the same number of elements with
the same values, no matter what order the values are in.

For instance the containers

A = [1, 2, 3]
B = [1, 2, 3]

are obviously equal, but so would be

A = [3, 2, 1]
B = [2, 1, 3]

as would

A = [2, 2, 5, 1]
B = [2, 1, 5, 2]

What's the best (quickest) way of comparing containers in this way?


Your *equivalence relationship* is *ill-defined*.

Is it?


Is [3, 1, 1] equal to [3, 3, 1] for example?

no, see above

What do you mean by "order"?
1 < 2 < . . . < INT_MAX?

replace "order" with "position".
.
User: "E. Robert Tisdale"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 08 Jul 2004 09:17:14 PM
Dylan wrote:

E. Robert Tisdale wrote:

Dylan wrote:

I'd like to compare two containers. They should be considered
equivalent if both containers have the same number of elements with
the same values, no matter what order the values are in.

For instance the containers

A = [1, 2, 3]
B = [1, 2, 3]

are obviously equal, but so would be

A = [3, 2, 1]
B = [2, 1, 3]

as would

A = [2, 2, 5, 1]
B = [2, 1, 5, 2]

What's the best (quickest) way of comparing containers in this way?


Your *equivalence relationship* is *ill-defined*.


Is it?

Yes.

Is [3, 1, 1] equal to [3, 3, 1] for example?


no, see above

What above disqualifies this example?

What do you mean by "order"?
1 < 2 < . . . < INT_MAX?


replace "order" with "position".

What *type* of container are you talking about?
Apparently, it's *not* a set.
Can you extract the set of elements from each container
and compare them for equality
to get the equivalence relationship that you want?
.



User: "Markus Dehmann"

Title: Re: Best way of comparing two containers? 08 Jul 2004 09:36:46 PM
On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 01:07:57 +0100, Dylan <spaldeen@ontheball.com> wrote:

I'd like to compare two containers. They should be considered
equivalent if both containers have the same number of elements with
the same values, no matter what order the values are in.

For instance the containers

A = [1, 2, 3]
B = [1, 2, 3]

are obviously equal, but so would be

A = [3, 2, 1]
B = [2, 1, 3]

as would

A = [2, 2, 5, 1]
B = [2, 1, 5, 2]

What's the best (quickest) way of comparing containers in this way?

Isn't that a multiset?
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Multiset.html
If so, use the STL multiset implementation
http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/multiset.html
Markus
.


  Page 1 of 1

1

 


Related Articles
 

NEWER

pg.1232     pg.940     pg.716     pg.544     pg.412     pg.311     pg.234     pg.175     pg.130     pg.96     pg.70     pg.50     pg.35     pg.24     pg.16     pg.10     pg.6     pg.3     pg.1

OLDER