std::map insert or std::map find?

Question

Assuming a map where you want to preserve existing entries. 20% of the time, the entry you are inserting is new data. Is there an advantage to doing std::map::find then std

Answer 1

Any answers about efficiency will depend on the exact implementation of your STL. The only way to know for sure is to benchmark it both ways. I'd guess that the difference is unlikely to be significant, so decide based on the style you prefer.

Answer 2

I don't seem to have enough points to leave a comment, but the ticked answer seems to be long winded to me - when you consider that insert returns the iterator anyway, why go searching lower_bound, when you can just use the iterator returned. Strange.

Answer 3

The answer is you do neither. Instead you want to do something suggested by Item 24 of Effective STL by Scott Meyers:

typedef map<int, int> MapType;    // Your map type may vary, just change the typedef

MapType mymap;
// Add elements to map here
int k = 4;   // assume we're searching for keys equal to 4
int v = 0;   // assume we want the value 0 associated with the key of 4

MapType::iterator lb = mymap.lower_bound(k);

if(lb != mymap.end() && !(mymap.key_comp()(k, lb->first)))
{
    // key already exists
    // update lb->second if you care to
}
else
{
    // the key does not exist in the map
    // add it to the map
    mymap.insert(lb, MapType::value_type(k, v));    // Use lb as a hint to insert,
                                                    // so it can avoid another lookup
}

Answer 4

I would think if you do a find then insert, the extra cost would be when you don't find the key and performing the insert after. It's sort of like looking through books in alphabetical order and not finding the book, then looking through the books again to see where to insert it. It boils down to how you will be handling the keys and if they are constantly changing. Now there is some flexibility in that if you don't find it, you can log, exception, do whatever you want...

Answer 5

map[ key ] - let stl sort it out. That's communicating your intention most effectively.

Yeah, fair enough.

If you do a find and then an insert you're performing 2 x O(log N) when you get a miss as the find only lets you know if you need to insert not where the insert should go (lower_bound might help you there). Just a straight insert and then examining the result is the way that I'd go.

Answer 6

If you are concerned about efficiency, you may want to check out hash_map<>.

Typically map<> is implemented as a binary tree. Depending on your needs, a hash_map may be more efficient.