std::max_element

C++

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Technical Specifications

Algorithm library

Execution policies (C++17)
is_execution_policy	execution::seqexecution::parexecution::par_unseq	execution::sequenced_policyexecution::parallel_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced_policy
Non-modifying sequence operations
all_ofany_ofnone_of (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) for_each for_each_n (C++17)	countcount_if mismatch equal adjacent_find	findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of	search search_n lexicographical_compare lexicographical_compare_3way (C++20)
Modifying sequence operations
copycopy_if (C++11) copy_n (C++11) copy_backward move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) shift_leftshift_right (C++20)(C++20) transform	fill fill_n generate generate_n swap iter_swap swap_ranges sample (C++17)	removeremove_if replacereplace_if reverse rotate unique random_shuffle (until C++17)	remove_copyremove_copy_if replace_copyreplace_copy_if reverse_copy rotate_copy unique_copy shuffle (C++11)
Operations on uninitialized storage
uninitialized_copy uninitialized_move (C++17) uninitialized_fill	uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_fill_n	uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) destroy (C++17)	uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17) destroy_n (C++17)
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is_partitioned (C++11) partition_point (C++11)	partition partition_copy (C++11)	stable_partition
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is_sorted (C++11) is_sorted_until (C++11)	sort stable_sort	partial_sort partial_sort_copy	nth_element
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lower_bound	upper_bound	binary_search	equal_range
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merge inplace_merge	set_difference set_intersection	set_symmetric_difference set_union	includes
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is_heap (C++11) is_heap_until (C++11)	make_heap sort_heap	push_heap pop_heap
Minimum/maximum operations
max max_element	min min_element	minmax (C++11) minmax_element (C++11)	clamp (C++17) compare_3way (C++20)
Permutations
is_permutation (C++11)	next_permutation	prev_permutation
Numeric operations
iota (C++11) inner_product adjacent_difference	accumulate reduce (C++17) transform_reduce (C++17)	partial_sum inclusive_scan (C++17) exclusive_scan (C++17)	transform_inclusive_scan (C++17) transform_exclusive_scan (C++17)
C library
qsort	bsearch

Defined in header <algorithm>
	(1)
template< class ForwardIt > ForwardIt max_element( ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last );			(until C++17)
template< class ForwardIt > constexpr ForwardIt max_element( ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last );			(since C++17)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt > ForwardIt max_element( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last );		(2)	(since C++17)
		(3)
template< class ForwardIt, class Compare > ForwardIt max_element( ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, Compare comp );				(until C++17)
template< class ForwardIt, class Compare > constexpr ForwardIt max_element( ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, Compare comp );				(since C++17)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt, class Compare > ForwardIt max_element( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, Compare comp );			(4)	(since C++17)

Finds the greatest element in the range [first, last).

1) Elements are compared using operator<.

3) Elements are compared using the given binary comparison function comp.

2,4) Same as (1,3), but executed according to policy. These overloads do not participate in overload resolution unless std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true

Parameters

first, last	-	forward iterators defining the range to examine
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
comp	-	comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the requirements of Compare) which returns true if the first argument is less than 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 an object of type ForwardIt can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to both of them.
Type requirements
- ForwardIt must meet the requirements of ForwardIterator.

Return value

Iterator to the greatest element in the range [first, last). If several elements in the range are equivalent to the greatest element, returns the iterator to the first such element. Returns last if the range is empty.

Complexity

Exactly max(N-1,0) comparisons, where N = std::distance(first, last).

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 three 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

First version
template<class ForwardIt> ForwardIt max_element(ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last) { if (first == last) return last; ForwardIt largest = first; ++first; for (; first != last; ++first) { if (*largest < *first) { largest = first; } } return largest; }
Second version
template<class ForwardIt, class Compare> ForwardIt max_element(ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, Compare comp) { if (first == last) return last; ForwardIt largest = first; ++first; for (; first != last; ++first) { if (comp(*largest, *first)) { largest = first; } } return largest; }

Example

Run this code

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <cmath>

static bool abs_compare(int a, int b)
{
    return (std::abs(a) < std::abs(b));
}

int main()
{
    std::vector<int> v{ 3, 1, -14, 1, 5, 9 }; 
    std::vector<int>::iterator result;

    result = std::max_element(v.begin(), v.end());
    std::cout << "max element at: " << std::distance(v.begin(), result) << '\n';

    result = std::max_element(v.begin(), v.end(), abs_compare);
    std::cout << "max element (absolute) at: " << std::distance(v.begin(), result);
}

Output:

max element at: 5
max element (absolute) at: 2

See also

min_element	returns the smallest element in a range (function template)
minmax_element (C++11)	returns the smallest and the largest elements in a range (function template)
max	returns the greater of the given values (function template)