template <class InputIterator, class OutputIterator>
  OutputIterator copy ( InputIterator first, InputIterator last, OutputIterator result );

<algorithm>

Copy range of elements

Copies the elements in the range [first,last) into a range beginning at result.

Returns an iterator to the last element in the destination range.

The behavior of this function template is equivalent to:

template<class InputIterator, class OutputIterator>
  OutputIterator copy ( InputIterator first, InputIterator last, OutputIterator result )
{
  while (first!=last) *result++ = *first++;
  return result;
}

If both ranges overlap in such a way that result points to an element in the range [first,last), the function copy_backward should be used instead.

Parameters

first, last

Input iterators to the initial and final positions in a sequence to be copied. The range used is [first,last), which contains all the elements between first and last, including the element pointed by first but not the element pointed by last.

result

Output iterator to the initial position in the destination sequence. This shall not point to any element in the range [first,last).

Return value

Example

// copy algorithm example
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;

int main () {
  int myints[]={10,20,30,40,50,60,70};
  vector<int> myvector;
  vector<int>::iterator it;

  myvector.resize(7);   // allocate space for 7 elements

  copy ( myints, myints+7, myvector.begin() );

  cout << "myvector contains:";
  for (it=myvector.begin(); it!=myvector.end(); ++it)
    cout << " " << *it;

  cout << endl;

  return 0;
}

Output:

myvector contains: 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Complexity

See also