std::move

 

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Technical Specifications

 

Algorithm library

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Concepts and utilities: std::Sortable, std::projected, ...
Constrained algorithms: std::ranges::copy, std::ranges::sort, ...
Execution policies (C++17)
is_execution_policy	execution::seqexecution::parexecution::par_unseqexecution::unseq (C++20)	execution::sequenced_policyexecution::parallel_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced_policyexecution::parallel_unsequenced (C++20)
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all_ofany_ofnone_of (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) for_each for_each_n (C++17)	countcount_if mismatch equal adjacent_find	findfind_iffind_if_not (C++11) find_end find_first_of	search search_n lexicographical_compare lexicographical_compare_3way (C++20)
Modifying sequence operations
copycopy_if (C++11) copy_n (C++11) copy_backward move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) shift_leftshift_right (C++20)(C++20) transform	fill fill_n generate generate_n swap iter_swap swap_ranges sample (C++17)	removeremove_if replacereplace_if reverse rotate unique random_shuffle (until C++17)	remove_copyremove_copy_if replace_copyreplace_copy_if reverse_copy rotate_copy unique_copy shuffle (C++11)
Operations on uninitialized storage
uninitialized_copy uninitialized_move (C++17) uninitialized_fill	uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_fill_n	uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) destroy (C++17)	uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17) destroy_n (C++17)
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lower_bound	upper_bound	binary_search	equal_range
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max max_element	min min_element	minmax (C++11) minmax_element (C++11)	clamp (C++17) compare_3way (C++20)
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C library
qsort	bsearch

 

Defined in header <algorithm>
	(1)
template< class InputIt, class OutputIt > OutputIt move( InputIt first, InputIt last, OutputIt d_first );			(since C++11) (until C++20)
template< class InputIt, class OutputIt > constexpr OutputIt move( InputIt first, InputIt last, OutputIt d_first );			(since C++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt1, class ForwardIt2 > ForwardIt2 move( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt1 first, ForwardIt1 last, ForwardIt2 d_first );		(2)	(since C++17)

1) Moves the elements in the range [first, last), to another range beginning at d_first, starting from first and proceeding to last - 1. After this operation the elements in the moved-from range will still contain valid values of the appropriate type, but not necessarily the same values as before the move.

2) Same as (1), but executed according to policy. This overload only participates in overload resolution if std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true

Parameters

first, last	-	the range of elements to move
d_first	-	the beginning of the destination range. The behavior is undefined if d_first is within the range [first, last). In this case, std::move_backward may be used instead of std::move.
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
Type requirements
- InputIt must meet the requirements of LegacyInputIterator.
- OutputIt must meet the requirements of LegacyOutputIterator.
- ForwardIt1, ForwardIt2 must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.

Return value

Output iterator to the element past the last element moved (d_first + (last - first))

Complexity

Exactly last - first move 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 InputIt, class OutputIt> OutputIt move(InputIt first, InputIt last, OutputIt d_first) { while (first != last) { *d_first++ = std::move(*first++); } return d_first; }

Notes

When moving overlapping ranges, std::move is appropriate when moving to the left (beginning of the destination range is outside the source range) while std::move_backward is appropriate when moving to the right (end of the destination range is outside the source range).

Example

The following code moves thread objects (which themselves are not copyable) from one container to another.

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <list>
#include <iterator>
#include <thread>
#include <chrono>
 
void f(int n)
{
    std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(n));
    std::cout << "thread " << n << " ended" << '\n';
}
 
int main() 
{
    std::vector<std::thread> v;
    v.emplace_back(f, 1);
    v.emplace_back(f, 2);
    v.emplace_back(f, 3);
    std::list<std::thread> l;
    // copy() would not compile, because std::thread is noncopyable
 
    std::move(v.begin(), v.end(), std::back_inserter(l)); 
    for (auto& t : l) t.join();
}

Output:

thread 1 ended
thread 2 ended
thread 3 ended

See also

move_backward (C++11)	moves a range of elements to a new location in backwards order (function template)
move (C++11)	obtains an rvalue reference (function template)