Question

VC++ 2010

Lets say I have the following:

struct person {
    char *  name;
    int     age;
};

Then I have a vector which holds these:

std::vector <person> person_list;

Now, after pushing back a few of these elements, how can I locate one based off of one of its properties? Best case scenario, I would like it to return a pointer to the vectors element 'where name = string' type of deal.

Answer 1

One suggestion to improve. Use std::string instead of char*. You have to #include <string> for that.

• In C++11 you can use lamda and std::find_if as:

  #include <algorithm>
  
  auto it = std::find_if(persons.begin(), persons.end(), [](const person & p)
                              {
                                   return p.name = "string"; 
                              });
  

• In C++03, you can use functor as predicate:

  #include <algorithm>
  
  struct name_predicate
  {
      std::string name;
      name_predicate(std::string const & name) : name(name) {}
      bool operator()(person const & p) { return name == p.name; }
  };
  
  std::vector<person>::iterator it = std::find_if(persons.begin(), 
                                                  persons.end(),
                                                  name_predicate("string"));