Inbuilt Min and Max Function in C++

How to find the minimum and maximum element of an Array using STL in C++?

Sometimes we need to find the minimum and maximum element in Array or Vector during solving a question. Well, many people don’t know that there is an inbuilt function in C++ to find the min or the max element and we don’t need to write an extra piece of code for this.

For finding the Minimum element we can use *min_element() function provided in the STL.

For finding the Maximum element we can use *max_element() function provided in the STL.

The syntax is as Follows-


*min_element (first, last);



*max_element (first, last);



In the range, the first element is included but the last element is not. For more clarity [First, last).

Now let us see an Example-

#include <bits/stdc++.h>

using namespace std;

int main()

{

// The array

int arr[] = { 1, 4, 5, 78, 56, 47, 45, 12 };

// Finding the Size of array

int n = sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]);

// Printing the array

cout << "Our Array is : ";

for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)

cout << arr[i] << " ";

// Find the minimum element

cout<<endl << "The Min Element = " << *min_element(arr, arr + n);

// Find the maximum element

cout<<endl << "The Max Element = " << *max_element(arr, arr + n);

return 0;

}

OutPut

Array: 1 4 5 78 56 47 45 12

Min Element = 1

Max Element = 78

In the same way we can use it for the Vectors.

In Vectors

#include <bits/stdc++.h>

using namespace std;

int main()

{

    vector<int> v;

    int k;

    for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)

    {

        cin >> k;

        v.push_back(k);

    }

    int s = *max_element(v.begin(), v.end());

    int t = *min_element(v.begin(), v.end());

    cout <<"Max Element is "<<s<<endl;

    cout <<"Min Element is "<<t;

    return 0;

}

OUTPUT:

12 45 78 23 56 Max Element is 78 Min Element is 12