| Category: algorithms | Component type: function |
template <class ForwardIterator1, class ForwardIterator2>
ForwardIterator1
find_end(ForwardIterator1 first1, ForwardIterator1 last1,
ForwardIterator2 first2, ForwardIterator2 last2);
template <class ForwardIterator1, class ForwardIterator2,
class BinaryPredicate>
ForwardIterator1
find_end(ForwardIterator1 first1, ForwardIterator1 last1,
ForwardIterator2 first2, ForwardIterator2 last2,
BinaryPredicate comp);
Like search, find_end attempts to find a subsequence within the range [first1, last1) that is identical to [first2, last2). The difference is that while search finds the first such subsequence, find_end finds the last such subsequence. Find_end returns an iterator pointing to the beginning of that subsequence; if no such subsequence exists, it returns last1.
The two versions of find_end differ in how they determine whether two elements are the same: the first uses operator==, and the second uses the user-supplied function object comp.
The first version of find_end returns the last iterator i in the range [first1, last1 - (last2 - first2)) such that, for every iterator j in the range [first2, last2), *(i + (j - first2)) == *j. The second version of find_end returns the last iterator i in [first1, last1 - (last2 - first2)) such that, for every iterator j in [first2, last2), binary_pred(*(i + (j - first2)), *j) is true. These conditions simply mean that every element in the subrange beginning with i must be the same as the corresponding element in [first2, last2).
int main()
{
char* s = "executable.exe";
char* suffix = "exe";
const int N = strlen(s);
const int N_suf = strlen(suffix);
char* location = find_end(s, s + N,
suffix, suffix + N_suf);
if (location != s + N) {
cout << "Found a match for " << suffix << " within " << s << endl;
cout << s << endl;
int i;
for (i = 0; i < (location - s); ++i)
cout << ' ';
for (i = 0; i < N_suf; ++i)
cout << '^';
cout << endl;
}
else
cout << "No match for " << suffix << " within " << s << endl;
}
[1] The reason that this range is [first1, last1 - (last2 - first2)), instead of simply [first1, last1), is that we are looking for a subsequence that is equal to the complete sequence [first2, last2). An iterator i can't be the beginning of such a subsequence unless last1 - i is greater than or equal to last2 - first2. Note the implication of this: you may call find_end with arguments such that last1 - first1 is less than last2 - first2, but such a search will always fail.