std:: equal

Checks whether [ first1 , last1 ) and a range starting from first2 are equal:

• For overloads (1-4) , the second range has std:: distance ( first1, last1 ) elements.
• For overloads (5-8) , the second range is [ first2 , last2 ) .

Parameters

Return value

Complexity

Given \(\scriptsize N_1\) N 1 as std:: distance ( first1, last1 ) and \(\scriptsize N_2\) N 2 as std:: distance ( first2, last2 ) :

Exceptions

The overloads with a template parameter named ExecutionPolicy report errors as follows:

• If execution of a function invoked as part of the algorithm throws an exception and ExecutionPolicy is one of the standard policies , std::terminate is called. For any other ExecutionPolicy , the behavior is implementation-defined.
• If the algorithm fails to allocate memory, std::bad_alloc is thrown.

Possible implementation

template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2>
constexpr //< since C++20
bool equal(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2)
{
    for (; first1 != last1; ++first1, ++first2)
        if (!(*first1 == *first2))
            return false;
 
    return true;
}

template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class BinaryPred>
constexpr //< since C++20
bool equal(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,
           InputIt2 first2, BinaryPred p)
{
    for (; first1 != last1; ++first1, ++first2)
        if (!p(*first1, *first2))
            return false;
 
    return true;
}

namespace detail
{
    // random-access iterator implementation (allows quick range size detection)
    template<class RandomIt1, class RandomIt2>
    constexpr //< since C++20
    bool equal(RandomIt1 first1, RandomIt1 last1, RandomIt2 first2, RandomIt2 last2,
               std::random_access_iterator_tag, std::random_access_iterator_tag)
    {
        if (last1 - first1 != last2 - first2)
            return false;
 
        for (; first1 != last1; ++first1, ++first2)
            if (!(*first1 == *first2))
                return false;
 
        return true;
    }
 
    // input iterator implementation (needs to manually compare with “last2”)
    template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2>
    constexpr //< since C++20
    bool equal(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2,
               std::input_iterator_tag, std::input_iterator_tag)
    {
        for (; first1 != last1 && first2 != last2; ++first1, ++first2)
            if (!(*first1 == *first2))
                return false;
 
        return first1 == last1 && first2 == last2;
    }
}
 
template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2>
constexpr //< since C++20
bool equal(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1, InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2)
{
    details::equal(first1, last1, first2, last2,
                   typename std::iterator_traits<InputIt1>::iterator_category(),
                   typename std::iterator_traits<InputIt2>::iterator_category());
}

namespace detail
{
    // random-access iterator implementation (allows quick range size detection)
    template<class RandomIt1, class RandomIt2, class BinaryPred>
    constexpr //< since C++20
    bool equal(RandomIt1 first1, RandomIt1 last1,
               RandomIt2 first2, RandomIt2 last2, BinaryPred p,
               std::random_access_iterator_tag, std::random_access_iterator_tag)
    {
        if (last1 - first1 != last2 - first2)
            return false;
 
        for (; first1 != last1; ++first1, ++first2)
            if (!p(*first1, *first2))
                return false;
 
        return true;
    }
 
    // input iterator implementation (needs to manually compare with “last2”)
    template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class BinaryPred>
    constexpr //< since C++20
    bool equal(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,
               InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, BinaryPred p,
               std::input_iterator_tag, std::input_iterator_tag)
    {
        for (; first1 != last1 && first2 != last2; ++first1, ++first2)
            if (!p(*first1, *first2))
                return false;
 
        return first1 == last1 && first2 == last2;
    }
}
 
template<class InputIt1, class InputIt2, class BinaryPred>
constexpr //< since C++20
bool equal(InputIt1 first1, InputIt1 last1,
           InputIt2 first2, InputIt2 last2, BinaryPred p)
{
    details::equal(first1, last1, first2, last2, p,
                   typename std::iterator_traits<InputIt1>::iterator_category(),
                   typename std::iterator_traits<InputIt2>::iterator_category());
}

Notes

std::equal should not be used to compare the ranges formed by the iterators from std::unordered_set , std::unordered_multiset , std::unordered_map , or std::unordered_multimap because the order in which the elements are stored in those containers may be different even if the two containers store the same elements.

When comparing entire containers or string views (since C++17) for equality, operator == for the corresponding type are usually preferred.

Sequential std::equal is not guaranteed to be short-circuit. E.g. if the first pair elements of both ranges do not compare equal, the rest of elements may also be compared. Non-short-circuit comparison may happen when the ranges are compared with std::memcmp or implementation-specific vectorized algorithms.

Example

#include <algorithm>
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
#include <string_view>
 
constexpr bool is_palindrome(const std::string_view& s)
{
    return std::equal(s.cbegin(), s.cbegin() + s.size() / 2, s.crbegin());
}
 
void test(const std::string_view& s)
{
    std::cout << std::quoted(s)
              << (is_palindrome(s) ? " is" : " is not")
              << " a palindrome\n";
}
 
int main()
{
    test("radar");
    test("hello");
}

"radar" is a palindrome
"hello" is not a palindrome

See also