C++ sorting and keeping track of indexes

Question

Using C++, and hopefully the standard library, I want to sort a sequence of samples in ascending order, but I also want to remember the original indexes of the new samples.<

Answer 1

You could sort std::pair instead of just ints - first int is original data, second int is original index. Then supply a comparator that only sorts on the first int. Example:

Your problem instance: v = [5 7 8]
New problem instance: v_prime = [<5,0>, <8,1>, <7,2>]

Sort the new problem instance using a comparator like:

typedef std::pair mypair;
bool comparator ( const mypair& l, const mypair& r)
   { return l.first < r.first; }
// forgetting the syntax here but intent is clear enough

The result of std::sort on v_prime, using that comparator, should be:

v_prime = [<5,0>, <7,2>, <8,1>]

You can peel out the indices by walking the vector, grabbing .second from each std::pair.