As an alternative, if you want to keep your items, but denote what will be at some later time, "removed", the algorithm that can be used is stable_partition
:
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <functional>
int main()
{
int vValues[] = {4,2,3,5,1};
// partition the values on left and right. The left side will have values
// <= 3, and on right >3. The return value is the partition point.
int *p = std::stable_partition(vValues, vValues + 5,
std::bind2nd(std::less_equal<int>(), 3));
// display information
std::cout << "Partition is located at vValues[" << std::distance(vValues, p) << "]\n";
std::copy(vValues, vValues + 5, std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " "));
}
Output:
Partition is located at vValues[3]
2 3 1 4 5
You will see that 2,3,1 are on the left of partition p
, and 4,5 are on the right of the partition p
. So the "removed" items start at where p
points to. The std::partition
ensures the elements are still in their relative order when done.