source: trunk/doc/src/qalgorithms.qdoc@ 560

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/*!
    \headerfile <QtAlgorithms>
    \title Generic Algorithms
    \ingroup architecture

    \brief The <QtAlgorithms> header provides generic template-based algorithms.

    Qt provides a number of global template functions in \c
    <QtAlgorithms> that work on containers and perform well-know
    algorithms. You can use these algorithms with any \l {container
    class} that provides STL-style iterators, including Qt's QList,
    QLinkedList, QVector, QMap, and QHash classes.

    These functions have taken their inspiration from similar
    functions available in the STL \c <algorithm> header. Most of them
    have a direct STL equivalent; for example, qCopyBackward() is the
    same as STL's copy_backward() algorithm.

    If STL is available on all your target platforms, you can use the
    STL algorithms instead of their Qt counterparts. One reason why
    you might want to use the the STL algorithms is that STL provides
    dozens and dozens of algorithms, whereas Qt only provides the most
    important ones, making no attempt to duplicate functionality that
    is already provided by the C++ standard.

    Most algorithms take \l {STL-style iterators} as parameters. The
    algorithms are generic in the sense that they aren't bound to a
    specific iterator class; you can use them with any iterators that
    meet a certain set of requirements.

    Let's take the qFill() algorithm as an example. Unlike QVector,
    QList has no fill() function that can be used to fill a list with
    a particular value. If you need that functionality, you can use
    qFill():

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qalgorithms.qdoc 0

    qFill() takes a begin iterator, an end iterator, and a value.
    In the example above, we pass \c list.begin() and \c list.end()
    as the begin and end iterators, but this doesn't have to be
    the case:

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qalgorithms.qdoc 1

    Different algorithms can have different requirements for the
    iterators they accept. For example, qFill() accepts two 
    \l {forward iterators}. The iterator types required are specified
    for each algorithm. If an iterator of the wrong type is passed (for
    example, if QList::ConstIterator is passed as an \l {output
    iterator}), you will always get a compiler error, although not
    necessarily a very informative one.

    Some algorithms have special requirements on the value type
    stored in the containers. For example, qEqual() requires that the
    value type supports operator==(), which it uses to compare items.
    Similarly, qDeleteAll() requires that the value type is a
    non-const pointer type (for example, QWidget *). The value type
    requirements are specified for each algorithm, and the compiler
    will produce an error if a requirement isn't met.

    \target binaryFind example

    The generic algorithms can be used on other container classes
    than those provided by Qt and STL. The syntax of STL-style
    iterators is modeled after C++ pointers, so it's possible to use
    plain arrays as containers and plain pointers as iterators. A
    common idiom is to use qBinaryFind() together with two static
    arrays: one that contains a list of keys, and another that
    contains a list of associated values. For example, the following
    code will look up an HTML entity (e.g., \c &amp;) in the \c
    name_table array and return the corresponding Unicode value from
    the \c value_table if the entity is recognized:

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qalgorithms.qdoc 2

    This kind of code is for advanced users only; for most
    applications, a QMap- or QHash-based approach would work just as
    well:

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qalgorithms.qdoc 3

    \section1 Types of Iterators

    The algorithms have certain requirements on the iterator types
    they accept, and these are specified individually for each
    function. The compiler will produce an error if a requirement
    isn't met.

    \section2 Input Iterators

    An \e{input iterator} is an iterator that can be used for reading
    data sequentially from a container. It must provide the following
    operators: \c{==} and \c{!=} for comparing two iterators, unary
    \c{*} for retrieving the value stored in the item, and prefix
    \c{++} for advancing to the next item.

    The Qt containers' iterator types (const and non-const) are all
    input iterators.

    \section2 Output Iterators

    An \e{output iterator} is an iterator that can be used for
    writing data sequentially to a container or to some output
    stream. It must provide the following operators: unary \c{*} for
    writing a value (i.e., \c{*it = val}) and prefix \c{++} for
    advancing to the next item.

    The Qt containers' non-const iterator types are all output
    iterators.

    \section2 Forward Iterators

    A \e{forward iterator} is an iterator that meets the requirements
    of both input iterators and output iterators.

    The Qt containers' non-const iterator types are all forward
    iterators.

    \section2 Bidirectional Iterators

    A \e{bidirectional iterator} is an iterator that meets the
    requirements of forward iterators but that in addition supports
    prefix \c{--} for iterating backward.

    The Qt containers' non-const iterator types are all bidirectional
    iterators.

    \section2 Random Access Iterators

    The last category, \e{random access iterators}, is the most
    powerful type of iterator. It supports all the requirements of a
    bidirectional iterator, and supports the following operations:

    \table
    \row \i \c{i += n} \i advances iterator \c i by \c n positions
    \row \i \c{i -= n} \i moves iterator \c i back by \c n positions
    \row \i \c{i + n} or \c{n + i} \i returns the iterator for the item \c
       n positions ahead of iterator \c i
    \row \i \c{i - n} \i returns the iterator for the item \c n positions behind of iterator \c i
    \row \i \c{i - j} \i returns the number of items between iterators \c i and \c j
    \row \i \c{i[n]} \i same as \c{*(i + n)}
    \row \i \c{i < j} \i returns true if iterator \c j comes after iterator \c i
    \endtable

    QList and QVector's non-const iterator types are random access iterators.

    \sa {container classes}, <QtGlobal>
*/

/*! \fn OutputIterator qCopy(InputIterator begin1, InputIterator end1, OutputIterator begin2)
    \relates <QtAlgorithms>

    Copies the items from range [\a begin1, \a end1) to range [\a
    begin2, ...), in the order in which they appear.

    The item at position \a begin1 is assigned to that at position \a
    begin2; the item at position \a begin1 + 1 is assigned to that at
    position \a begin2 + 1; and so on.

    Example:
    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qalgorithms.qdoc 4

    \sa qCopyBackward(), {input iterators}, {output iterators}
*/

/*! \fn BiIterator2 qCopyBackward(BiIterator1 begin1, BiIterator1 end1, BiIterator2 end2)
    \relates <QtAlgorithms>

    Copies the items from range [\a begin1, \a end1) to range [...,
    \a end2).