std::generate_n

 

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Algorithm library

Constrained algorithms and algorithms on ranges (C++20)
Constrained algorithms, e.g. ranges::copy, ranges::sort, ...
Execution policies (C++17)
is_execution_policy (C++17)   execution::seqexecution::parexecution::par_unseqexecution::unseq (C++17)    (C++17)(C++17)(C++20)	execution::sequenced_policyexecution::parallel_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced (C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++20)
Non-modifying sequence operations Batch operations for_each for_each_n (C++17) Search operations all_ofany_ofnone_of (C++11)                (C++11)(C++11) countcount_if mismatch equal findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of adjacent_find search search_n Modifying sequence operations Copy operations copycopy_if (C++11) copy_backward copy_n (C++11) move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) Swap operations swap iter_swap swap_ranges Transformation operations replacereplace_if transform replace_copyreplace_copy_if Generation operations fill fill_n generate generate_n Removing operations removeremove_if unique remove_copyremove_copy_if unique_copy Order-changing operations reverse reverse_copy rotate rotate_copy random_shuffleshuffle (until C++17)(C++11) shift_leftshift_right (C++20)(C++20) Sampling operations sample (C++17)	Sorting and related operations Partitioning operations partition partition_copy (C++11)   stable_partition is_partitioned (C++11) partition_point (C++11) Sorting operations sort stable_sort partial_sort partial_sort_copy is_sorted (C++11) is_sorted_until (C++11) nth_element Binary search operations (on partitioned ranges) lower_bound upper_bound equal_range binary_search Set operations (on sorted ranges) includes set_union set_intersection set_difference set_symmetric_difference Merge operations (on sorted ranges) merge inplace_merge Heap operations push_heap pop_heap make_heap sort_heap is_heap (C++11) is_heap_until (C++11) Minimum/maximum operations max min minmax (C++11) clamp (C++17) max_element min_element minmax_element (C++11) Lexicographical comparison operations lexicographical_compare lexicographical_compare_three_way (C++20) Permutation operations next_permutation prev_permutation is_permutation (C++11) C library qsort bsearch
Numeric operations
iota (C++11) inner_product adjacent_difference    accumulate reduce (C++17) transform_reduce (C++17)	partial_sum inclusive_scan (C++17)    exclusive_scan (C++17) transform_inclusive_scan (C++17) transform_exclusive_scan (C++17)
Operations on uninitialized memory
uninitialized_copy uninitialized_move (C++17)    uninitialized_fill uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_fill_n	destroy (C++17) destroy_n (C++17) destroy_at (C++17) construct_at (C++20)       uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17)

 

Defined in header <algorithm>
	(1)
template< class OutputIt, class Size, class Generator > OutputIt generate_n( OutputIt first, Size count, Generator g );			(until C++20)
template< class OutputIt, class Size, class Generator > constexpr OutputIt generate_n( OutputIt first, Size count, Generator g );			(since C++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt,           class Size, class Generator > ForwardIt generate_n( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt first,                       Size count, Generator g );		(2)	(since C++17)

1) Assigns values, generated by given function object g, to the first count elements in the range beginning at first, if count > 0. Does nothing otherwise.

2) Same as (1), but executed according to policy. This overload participates in overload resolution only if

std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true.	(until C++20)
std::is_execution_policy_v<std::remove_cvref_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true.	(since C++20)

Parameters

first	-	the beginning of the range of elements to generate
count	-	number of the elements to generate
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
g	-	generator function object that will be called. The signature of the function should be equivalent to the following: Ret fun(); The type Ret must be such that an object of type OutputIt can be dereferenced and assigned a value of type Ret. ​
Type requirements
- OutputIt must meet the requirements of LegacyOutputIterator.
- ForwardIt must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.

Return value

Iterator one past the last element assigned if count > 0, first otherwise.

Complexity

Exactly std::max(0, count) invocations of g() and assignments.

Exceptions

The overload with a template parameter named ExecutionPolicy reports errors as follows:

• If execution of a function invoked as part of the algorithm throws an exception and ExecutionPolicy is one of the standard policies, std::terminate is called. For any other ExecutionPolicy, the behavior is implementation-defined.
• If the algorithm fails to allocate memory, std::bad_alloc is thrown.

Possible implementation

template<class OutputIt, class Size, class Generator> constexpr // since C++20 OutputIt generate_n(OutputIt first, Size count, Generator g) { for (Size i = 0; i < count; ++i, ++first) *first = g();   return first; }

Example

Run this code

#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <random>
 
int main()
{
    std::mt19937 rng; // default constructed, seeded with fixed seed
    std::generate_n(std::ostream_iterator<std::mt19937::result_type>(std::cout, " "),
                    5, std::ref(rng));
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Output:

3499211612 581869302 3890346734 3586334585 545404204

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 426	C++98	the complexity requirement was 'exactly count invocations or assignments', which is broken if count is negative	no invocation or assignment if count is non-positive
LWG 865	C++98	the location of the first element following the generation range was not returned	returned

See also

fill_n	copy-assigns the given value to N elements in a range (function template)
generate	assigns the results of successive function calls to every element in a range (function template)
ranges::generate_n (C++20)	saves the result of N applications of a function (niebloid)