How to read arbitrary number of values using std::copy?

Question

Hi,

I'm trying to code opposite action to this:

std::ostream outs; // properly initialized of course
std::set<int> my_set; // ditto

outs << my_set.size();
std::copy( my_set.begin(), my_set.end(), std::ostream_iterator<int>( outs ) );

it should be something like this:

std::istream ins;

std::set<int>::size_type size;
ins >> size;

std::copy( std::istream_iterator<int>( ins ), std::istream_iterator<int>( ins ) ???, std::inserter( my_set, my_set.end() ) );

But I'm stuck with the 'end' iterator -- input interators can't use std::advance and neither I can use two streams with the same source...

Is there any elegant way how to solve this? Of course I can use for loop, but maybe there's something nicer :)

Answer 1

(Edited: I should have read the question closer...)

While somewhat suspect, you can get approximately the right behavior by having an entry in the file that will "fail" the first loop, then clear the fail bit on the stream and start reading more.

Data, without an explicit size, but like this

1 1 2 3 5 8 Fibb

Fed to the code below seems to do what I meant, at least on VS2005 with STLPort.

typedef std::istream_iterator < int, char, std::char_traits ,ptrdiff_t> is_iter;
std::copy( is_iter(cin), is_iter(), inserter(my_set,my_set.end()));
cin.clear();
std::cin >> instr;

Answer 2

Yes sdg but when I want to use another data structures in that file / stream? I should probably explicitly write here, I want to store another stuff after this set, this is the reason why I'm storing the size as well.

Answer 3

Errr... copy_n() algorithm?

Answer 4

Looking into this a bit I don't think reading directly into a set will work, as you need to call insert on it to actually add the elements (I could be mistaken, it is rather early in the morning here). Though looking at the STL documentation in VS2005 briefly I think something using the generate_n function should work, for instance:

std::istream ins;
std::set<int> my_set;
std::vector<int> my_vec;

struct read_functor
{
    read_functor(std::istream& stream) :
        m_stream(stream)
    {
    }

    int operator()
    {
        int temp;
        m_stream >> temp;
        return temp;
    }
private:
    std::istream& m_stream;
};

std::set<int>::size_type size;
ins >> size;
my_vec.reserve(size);

std::generate_n(my_vec.begin(), size, read_functor(ins));
my_set.insert(my_vec.begin(), my_vec.end());

Hopefully that's either solved your problem, or convinced you that the loop isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things.

Answer 5

You could derive from the istream_iterator<T>.
Though using Daemin generator method is another option, though I would generate directly into the set rather than use an intermediate vector.

#include <set>
#include <iterator>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>


template<typename T>
struct CountIter: public std::istream_iterator<T>
{
    CountIter(size_t c)
        :std::istream_iterator<T>()
        ,count(c)
    {}
    CountIter(std::istream& str)
        :std::istream_iterator<T>(str)
        ,count(0)
    {}

    bool operator!=(CountIter const& rhs) const
    {
        return (count != rhs.count) && (dynamic_cast<std::istream_iterator<T> const&>(*this) != rhs);
    }
    T operator*()
    {
        ++count;
        return std::istream_iterator<T>::operator*();
    }

    private:
        size_t  count;
};

int main()
{
    std::set<int>       x;

    //std::copy(std::istream_iterator<int>(std::cin),std::istream_iterator<int>(),std::inserter(x,x.end()));
    std::copy(
                CountIter<int>(std::cin),
                CountIter<int>(5),
                std::inserter(x,x.end())
            );
}

Answer 6

How about using an alternate iterator to do the traversal and then use a function object (or lambda) to fill in the container?

istream ins;
set<int>::size_type size;
set<int> new_set;
ins >> size;
ostream_iterator<int> ins_iter(ins);

for_each(counting_iterator<int>(0), counting_iterator<int>(size),
  [&new_set, &ins_iter](int n) { new_set.insert(*ins_iter++); }
);

Of course this assumes you have a C++0x compliant compiler.

BTW, 'counting_iterator<>' is part of Boost.Iterator.

Answer 7

Thanks for the ideas guys. Even when these things seem cool, I'm certainly not going to create new class / iterator for it ;-) I better understand why SGI decided to include "copy_n" algorithm now :)

Answer 8

Use:

std::copy( std::istream_iterator<int>(ins),
           std::istream_iterator<int>(),
           std::inserter(my_set, my_set.end())
         );

Note the empty parameter:

std::istream_iterator<int>();