Std::copy_backward (3) Linux Manual Page

std::copy_backward – std::copy_backward

Synopsis

Defined in header <algorithm>

template< class BidirIt1, class BidirIt2 >                                           (until C++20)

BidirIt2 copy_backward( BidirIt1 first, BidirIt1 last, BidirIt2 d_last );

template< class BidirIt1, class BidirIt2 >                                           (since C++20)

constexpr BidirIt2 copy_backward( BidirIt1 first, BidirIt1 last, BidirIt2 d_last );

Copies the elements from the range, defined by [first, last), to another range ending at d_last. The elements are copied in reverse order (the last element is copied first), but their relative order is preserved.
The behavior is undefined if d_last is within (first, last]. std::copy must be used instead of std::copy_backward in that case.

Parameters

first, last – the range of the elements to copy
d_last – end of the destination range..

Type requirements

–
BidirIt must meet the requirements of LegacyBidirectionalIterator.

Return value

iterator to the last element copied.

Complexity

Exactly last – first assignments.

Notes

When copying overlapping ranges, std::copy is appropriate when copying to the left (beginning of the destination range is outside the source range) while std::copy_backward is appropriate when copying to the right (end of the destination range is outside the source range).

Possible implementation

  template< class BidirIt1, class BidirIt2 >
  BidirIt2 copy_backward(BidirIt1 first, BidirIt1 last, BidirIt2 d_last)
  {
      while (first != last) {
          *(–d_last) = *(–last);
      }
      return d_last;
  }

Example

// Run this code

#include <algorithm>

#include <iostream>

#include <vector>
int main()

{
    std::vector<int> from_vector;
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        from_vector.push_back(i);
    }
    std::vector<int> to_vector(15);
    std::copy_backward(from_vector.begin(), from_vector.end(), to_vector.end());
    std::cout << "to_vector contains: ";
    for (auto i : to_vector) {
        std::cout << i << " ";
    }
}

Output:

to_vector contains: 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

std::copy_backward (3) Linux Manual Page