set operator= in C++ STL

Difficulty Level : Medium
Last Updated : 02 Jun, 2020

The ‘=’ is an operator in C++ STL which copies (or moves) a set to another set and set::operator= is the corresponding operator function. There are three versions of this function:

The first version takes reference of an set as an argument and copies it to an set.
Syntax:
```
ums1.operator=(set &set2)
```
Parameters: The first version takes the reference of an set as argument.
The second version performs a move assignment i.e it moves the content of an set to another set.
Syntax:
```
ums1.operator=(set &&set2)
```
Parameters: The second version takes the r-value reference of an set as argument
The third version assigns contents of an initializer list to an set.
Syntax:
```
ums1.operator=(initializer list)
```
Parameters: The third version takes an initializer list as argument.

Return Value: All of them return the value of this pointer(*this).

The following programs illustrates set::operator= :

// C++ code to illustrate the method 
// set::operator=() 
  
#include <iostream> 
#include <set> 
using namespace std; 
  
// merge function 
template <class T> 
T merge(T a, T b) 
{ 
    T t(a); 
    t.insert(b.begin(), b.end()); 
    return t; 
} 
  
int main() 
{ 
    set<int> sample1, sample2, sample3; 
  
    // List initialization 
    sample1 = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 }; 
    sample2 = { 6, 7, 8, 1 }; 
  
    // Merge both sets and 
    // move the result to sample3 
    sample3 = merge(sample1, sample2); 
  
    // copy assignment 
    sample1 = sample3; 
  
    // Print the sets 
    for (auto it = sample1.begin(); it != sample1.end(); ++it) { 
        cout << *it << " "; 
    } 
  
    cout << endl; 
  
    for (auto it = sample2.begin(); it != sample2.end(); ++it) { 
        cout << *it << " "; 
    } 
  
    cout << endl; 
  
    for (auto it = sample3.begin(); it != sample3.end(); ++it) { 
        cout << *it << " "; 
    } 
  
    cout << endl; 
  
    return 0; 
} 

Output:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 
1 6 7 8 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Attention reader! Don’t stop learning now. Get hold of all the important C++ Foundation and STL concepts with the C++ Foundation and STL courses at a student-friendly price and become industry ready.

My Personal Notes

Related Articles