function template
<algorithm>

std::equal_range

default (1)
template <class ForwardIterator, class T>
  pair<ForwardIterator,ForwardIterator>
    equal_range (ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last, const T& val);
custom (2)
template <class ForwardIterator, class T, class Compare>
  pair<ForwardIterator,ForwardIterator>
    equal_range (ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last, const T& val,
                  Compare comp);
Get subrange of equal elements
Returns the bounds of the subrange that includes all the elements of the range [first,last) with values equivalent to val.

The elements are compared using operator< for the first version, and comp for the second. Two elements, a and b are considered equivalent if (!(a<b) && !(b<a)) or if (!comp(a,b) && !comp(b,a)).

The elements in the range shall already be sorted according to this same criterion (operator< or comp), or at least partitioned with respect to val.

If val is not equivalent to any value in the range, the subrange returned has a length of zero, with both iterators pointing to the nearest value greater than val, if any, or to last, if val compares greater than all the elements in the range.

The behavior of this function template is equivalent to:
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template <class ForwardIterator, class T>
  pair<ForwardIterator,ForwardIterator>
    equal_range (ForwardIterator first, ForwardIterator last, const T& val)
{
  ForwardIterator it = std::lower_bound (first,last,val);
  return std::make_pair ( it, std::upper_bound(it,last,val) );
}


Parameters

first, last
Forward iterators to the initial and final positions of a sorted (or properly partitioned) sequence. 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.
val
Value of the subrange to search for in the range.
For (1), T shall be a type supporting being compared with elements of the range [first,last) as either operand of operator<.
comp
Binary function that accepts two arguments of the type pointed by ForwardIterator (and of type T), and returns a value convertible to bool. The value returned indicates whether the first argument is considered to go before the second.
The function shall not modify any of its arguments.
This can either be a function pointer or a function object.

Return value

A pair object, whose member pair::first is an iterator to the lower bound of the subrange of equivalent values, and pair::second its upper bound.
The values are the same as those that would be returned by functions lower_bound and upper_bound respectively.

Example

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// equal_range example
// equal_range example
#include <iostream>     // std::cout
#include <algorithm>    // std::equal_range, std::sort
#include <vector>       // std::vector

bool mygreater (int i,int j) { return (i>j); }

int main () {
  int myints[] = {10,20,30,30,20,10,10,20};
  std::vector<int> v(myints,myints+8);                         // 10 20 30 30 20 10 10 20
  std::pair<std::vector<int>::iterator,std::vector<int>::iterator> bounds;

  // using default comparison:
  std::sort (v.begin(), v.end());                              // 10 10 10 20 20 20 30 30
  bounds=std::equal_range (v.begin(), v.end(), 20);            //          ^        ^

  // using "mygreater" as comp:
  std::sort (v.begin(), v.end(), mygreater);                   // 30 30 20 20 20 10 10 10
  bounds=std::equal_range (v.begin(), v.end(), 20, mygreater); //       ^        ^

  std::cout << "bounds at positions " << (bounds.first - v.begin());
  std::cout << " and " << (bounds.second - v.begin()) << '\n';

  return 0;
}


Output:
bounds at positions 2 and 5

Complexity

On average, up to twice logarithmic in the distance between first and last: Performs approximately 2*log2(N)+1 element comparisons (where N is this distance).
On non-random-access iterators, the iterator advances produce themselves an additional up to twice linear complexity in N on average.

Data races

The objects in the range [first,last) are accessed.

Exceptions

Throws if either an element comparison or an operation on an iterator throws.
Note that invalid arguments cause undefined behavior.

See also

lower_bound
Return iterator to lower bound (function template )
upper_bound
Return iterator to upper bound (function template )
binary_search
Test if value exists in sorted sequence (function template )

C++