Why does the standard library have find and find_if?

Question

Couldn\'t find_if just be an overload of find? That\'s how std::binary_search and friends do it...

Answer 1

Here's what Stroustrup said (The C++ Programming Language, 18.5.2):

If find() and find_if() had the same name, surprising abmiguities would have resulted. In general, the _if suffix is used to indicate that an algrithm takes a predicate.

As to what exactly that "ambiguity" is, Steve Jessop answered that in his (top rated) answer to this SO question.

(note: that question may actually qualify as the same question as this one. I'm not quite smart enough in C++ arcania to decide).