How to use std::sort to sort an array in C++

Question

How to use standard template library std::sort() to sort an array declared as int v[2000];

Does C++ provide some function that can get the begin and end index of an array?

Answer 1

In C++0x/11 we get std::begin and std::end which are overloaded for arrays:

#include <algorithm>

int main(){
  int v[2000];
  std::sort(std::begin(v), std::end(v));
}

If you don't have access to C++0x, it isn't hard to write them yourself:

// for container with nested typedefs, non-const version
template<class Cont>
typename Cont::iterator begin(Cont& c){
  return c.begin();
}

template<class Cont>
typename Cont::iterator end(Cont& c){
  return c.end();
}

// const version
template<class Cont>
typename Cont::const_iterator begin(Cont const& c){
  return c.begin();
}

template<class Cont>
typename Cont::const_iterator end(Cont const& c){
  return c.end();
}

// overloads for C style arrays
template<class T, std::size_t N>
T* begin(T (&arr)[N]){
  return &arr[0];
}

template<class T, std::size_t N>
T* end(T (&arr)[N]){
  return arr + N;
}