std::less in C++ with Examples

The std::less is a member of the functional class (<functional.h>) used for performing comparisons. It is defined as a function object class for less than inequality comparison which returns a boolean value depending upon the condition. This can be used to change the functionality of the given function. It can be used with various standard algorithms like sort, lower_bound etc.

Header File:

#include <functional.h>

Template Class:

template <class T> struct less {

  // Declaration of the less operation
  bool operator() (const T& x,
                   const T& y) 
       const 
  {
     return x  < y;
  }

  // Type of first parameter
  typedef T first_argument_type;

  // Type of second parameter
  typedef T second_argument_type;

  // The result is returned
  // as bool type
  typedef bool result_type;
};

Syntax:

std::less()

Parameter: This function accepts the type of the arguments T, as the parameter, to be compared by the functional call.

Return Type: It return a boolean value depending upon condition(let a & b are 2 element):

True: If a is less than b.
False: If a is greater than b.

Time Complexity: O(1)

Auxiliary Space: O(1)

Below is the illustration of std::less in C++:

Program 1:

CPP14

// C++ program to illustrate
// std::less function
#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// Function to print array arr[]
void printArray(int arr[], int N)
{

    for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
        cout << arr[i] << ' ';
    }
}

// Driver Code
int main()
{
    int arr[] = { 26, 23, 21, 22,
                28, 27, 25, 24 };

    int N = sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]);

    // Sort the array in increasing order
    sort(arr, arr + N, less<int>());

    // Print sorted array
    printArray(arr, N);
    return 0;
}

Output:

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Program 2:

CPP14

// C++ program to illustrate less
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>
using namespace std;

// Template
template <typename A, typename B,
        typename U = std::less<int> >

// Function to check if a < b or not
bool f(A a, B b, U u = U())
{
    return u(a, b);
}

// Driver Code
int main()
{
    int X = 1, Y = 2;

    // If X is less than Y or not
    cout << std::boolalpha;
    cout << f(X, Y) << '\n';

    X = 2, Y = -1;

    // If X is less than Y or not
    cout << f(X, Y) << '\n';

    return 0;
}

Output:

true
false

Reference: https://cplusplus.com/reference/functional/less/

std::less in C++ with Examples

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