std::transform() in C++ STL (Perform an operation on all elements)

Consider the problem of adding contents of two arrays into a third array. It is given that all arrays are of same size.

Following is simple C++ program without transform().

CPP

// A C++ code to add two arrays
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
  int arr1[] = {1, 2, 3};
  int arr2[] = {4, 5, 6};
  int n = sizeof(arr1)/sizeof(arr1[0]);
  int res[n];

  // Code to add two arrays
  for (int i=0; i<n; i++)
    res[i] = arr1[i] + arr2[i];

  for (int i=0; i<3; i++)
    cout << res[i] << " ";
}

Output

5 7 9 

Time Complexity: O(N) , where N is size of array.
Auxiliary Space: (N)

Using transform function of STL, we can add arrays in single line. 

C++

// Using transform() in STL to add two arrays
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
  int arr1[] = {1, 2, 3};
  int arr2[] = {4, 5, 6};
  int n = sizeof(arr1)/sizeof(arr1[0]);
  int res[n];

  // Single line code to add arr1[] and arr2[] and
  // store result in res[]
  transform(arr1, arr1+n, arr2, res, plus<int>());

  for (int i=0; i<n; i++)
    cout << res[i] << " ";
}

Output

5 7 9 

transform() in C++ is used in two forms:

1. Unary Operation : Applies a unary operator on input to convert into output 

transform(Iterator inputBegin, Iterator inputEnd, 
         Iterator OutputBegin, unary_operation) 

Following is C++ example.

C++

// C++ program to demonstrate working of
// transform with unary operator.
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

int increment(int x) {  return (x+1); }

int main()
{
    int arr[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
    int n = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]);

    // Apply increment to all elements of
    // arr[] and store the modified elements
    // back in arr[]
    transform(arr, arr+n, arr, increment);

    for (int i=0; i<n; i++)
        cout << arr[i] << " ";

    return 0;
}

Output

2 3 4 5 6 

2. Binary Operation: Applies a binary operator on input to convert into output 

transform(Iterator inputBegin1, Iterator inputEnd1, 
         Iterator inputBegin2, Iterator OutputBegin, 
         binary_operation) 

The example mentioned above for adding two arrays is an example of transform with binary operation. 

More examples:
We can use transform to convert a string to upper case (See this) 
We can modify above examples for vectors also. 

    
    // vect is a vector of integers.
    transform(vect.begin(), vect.end(), 
              vect.begin(), increment); 

Related Topic:
Functors in C++
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