Question

I know the STL has set_difference, but I need to just know if 2 sets are disjoint. I’ve profiled my code and this is slowing my app down quite a bit. Is there an easy way to see if 2 sets are disjoint, or do I need to just roll my own code?

EDIT: I also tried set_intersection but it took the same time…

Answer 1

Modified hjhill’s code to reduce complexity by a factor of O(log n) by getting rid of the count() call.

template<class Set1, class Set2> 
bool is_disjoint(const Set1 &set1, const Set2 &set2)
{
    if(set1.empty() || set2.empty()) return true;

    typename Set1::const_iterator 
        it1 = set1.begin(), 
        it1End = set1.end();
    typename Set2::const_iterator 
        it2 = set2.begin(), 
        it2End = set2.end();

    if(*it1 > *set2.rbegin() || *it2 > *set1.rbegin()) return true;

    while(it1 != it1End && it2 != it2End)
    {
        if(*it1 == *it2) return false;
        if(*it1 < *it2) { it1++; }
        else { it2++; }
    }

    return true;
}

I’ve complied and tested this code now so it should be good.