std::sample

 

C++

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Technical Specifications

 

Algorithm library

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copycopy_if (C++11) copy_n (C++11) copy_backward move (C++11) move_backward (C++11) shift_leftshift_right (C++20)(C++20) transform	fill fill_n generate generate_n swap iter_swap swap_ranges sample (C++17)	removeremove_if replacereplace_if reverse rotate unique random_shuffle (until C++17)	remove_copyremove_copy_if replace_copyreplace_copy_if reverse_copy rotate_copy unique_copy shuffle (C++11)
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uninitialized_copy uninitialized_move (C++17) uninitialized_fill	uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_fill_n	uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) destroy (C++17)	uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17) destroy_n (C++17)
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Permutations
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C library
qsort	bsearch

 

Defined in header <algorithm>
template< class PopulationIterator, class SampleIterator,           class Distance, class URBG > SampleIterator sample( PopulationIterator first, PopulationIterator last,                        SampleIterator out, Distance n,                        URBG&& g);		(since C++17)

Selects n elements from the sequence [first; last) such that each possible sample has equal probability of appearance, and writes those selected elements into the output iterator out. Random numbers are generated using the random number generator g.

If n is greater than the number of elements in the sequence, selects last-first elements.

The algorithm is stable (preserves the relative order of the selected elements) only if PopulationIterator meets the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator

Parameters

first, last	-	pair of iterators forming the range from which to make the sampling (the population)
out	-	the output iterator where the samples are written. Must not be in the [first;last) range
n	-	number of samples to make
g	-	the random number generator used as the source of randomness
- PopulationIterator must meet the requirements of LegacyInputIterator.
- SampleIterator must meet the requirements of LegacyOutputIterator.
- SampleIterator must also meet the requirements of LegacyRandomAccessIterator if PopulationIterator doesn't meet LegacyForwardIterator
- PopulationIterator's value type must be writeable to out
- Distance must be an integer type
- std::remove_reference_t<URBG> must meet the requirements of UniformRandomBitGenerator and its return type must be convertible to Distance

Return value

Returns a copy of out after the last sample that was output, that is, end of the sample range.

Complexity

Linear in std::distance(first,last)

Notes

This function may implement selection sampling or reservoir sampling.

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <random>
#include <string>
#include <iterator>
#include <algorithm>
 
int main()
{
    std::string in = "abcdefgh", out;
    std::sample(in.begin(), in.end(), std::back_inserter(out),
                5, std::mt19937{std::random_device{}()});
    std::cout << "five random letters out of " << in << " : " << out << '\n';
}

Possible output:

five random letters out of abcdefgh : adfgh

See also

random_shuffleshuffle (until C++17)(C++11)

randomly re-orders elements in a range (function template)