STL MAP should use find() or [n] identifier to find element in map?

Question

I am confused which is more efficient?

As we can access map directly, why do we need to use find?

I just need to know which way is more efficient.

Answer 1

As we can access map directly, why do we need to use find?

Because map<>::operator[] is sometimes nasty. If an element doesn't exist then:

• it inserts it
• value initialize it
• returns reference of value

Thus it always returns a valid reference of value, even if a key din't exist previously. This behavior is not intended many times.

On the other hand map<>::find() is safer; because it returns end(), if a value doesn't exit. Another advantage of find() is that it returns an iterator which contains references to key (first) and value(second) both.

Answer 2

The [] operator in map is not constant it is logarithmic. Most of the books stress on this fact and point out it is a bit misleading. So both find and [] operator are with the same complexity.

Please note that the [] operator will create the entry even if it does not exist while find will return end() in that case.

Answer 3

Using find means that you don't inadvertently create a new element in the map if the key doesn't exist, and -- more importantly -- this means that you can use find to look up an element if all you have is a constant reference to the map.

That of course means that you should check the return value of find. Typically it goes like this:

void somewhere(const std::map<K, T> & mymap, K const & key)
{
    auto it = mymap.find(key);
    if (it == mymap.end()) { /* not found! */ }
    else                   { do_something_with(it->second); }
}

Answer 4

This code and doc is picked from cplusplus.com

// accessing mapped values
#include <iostream>
#include <map>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  map<char,string> mymap;

  mymap['a']="an element";
  mymap['b']="another element";
  mymap['c']=mymap['b'];

  cout << "mymap['a'] is " << mymap['a'] << endl;
  cout << "mymap['b'] is " << mymap['b'] << endl;
  cout << "mymap['c'] is " << mymap['c'] << endl;
  cout << "mymap['d'] is " << mymap['d'] << endl;

  cout << "mymap now contains " << (int) mymap.size() << " elements." << endl;

  return 0;
}

OP:
mymap['a'] is an element
mymap['b'] is another element
mymap['c'] is another element
mymap['d'] is
mymap now contains 4 elements.

Notice how the last access (to element 'd') inserts a new element in the map with that key and initialized to its default value (an empty string) even though it is accessed only to retrieve its value. Member function map::find does not produce this effect.