max_element

cppreference.com > C++ Algorithms > max_element

max_element

Syntax:

  #include <algorithm>
  iterator max_element( iterator start, iterator end );
  iterator max_element( iterator start, iterator end, BinPred p );

The max_element() function returns an iterator to the largest element in the range [start,end).

If the binary predicate p is given, then it will be used instead of the < operator to determine the largest element.

For example, the following code uses the max_element() function to determine the largest integer in an array and the largest character in a vector of characters:

 int array[] = { 3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9 };
 unsigned int array_size = 6;
 cout << "Max element in array is " << *max_element( array, array+array_size) << endl;              

 vector<char> v;
 v.push_back('a'); v.push_back('b'); v.push_back('c'); v.push_back('d');
 cout << "Max element in the vector v is " << *max_element( v.begin(), v.end() ) << endl;

When run, the above code displays this output:

 Max element in array is 9
 Max element in the vector v is d