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<h2><a name="copy" id="copy">copy</a></h2>
<div class="level2">
<p>
Syntax:
</p>
<pre class="c code c++" style="font-family:monospace;"> <span class="co2">#include <algorithm></span>
output_iterator copy<span class="br0">(</span> input_iterator start<span class="sy0">,</span> input_iterator end<span class="sy0">,</span> output_iterator dest <span class="br0">)</span><span class="sy0">;</span></pre>
<p>
The <code>copy</code> function copies the elements between <code>start</code> and <code>end</code> to <code>dest</code>. In other
words, after <code>copy</code> has run,
</p>
<pre class="c code c++" style="font-family:monospace;"> <span class="sy0">*</span>dest <span class="sy0">=</span> <span class="sy0">*</span>start
<span class="sy0">*</span><span class="br0">(</span>dest<span class="sy0">+</span><span class="nu0">1</span><span class="br0">)</span> <span class="sy0">=</span> <span class="sy0">*</span><span class="br0">(</span>start<span class="sy0">+</span><span class="nu0">1</span><span class="br0">)</span>
<span class="sy0">*</span><span class="br0">(</span>dest<span class="sy0">+</span><span class="nu0">2</span><span class="br0">)</span> <span class="sy0">=</span> <span class="sy0">*</span><span class="br0">(</span>start<span class="sy0">+</span><span class="nu0">2</span><span class="br0">)</span>
...
<span class="sy0">*</span><span class="br0">(</span>dest<span class="sy0">+</span>N<span class="br0">)</span> <span class="sy0">=</span> <span class="sy0">*</span><span class="br0">(</span>start<span class="sy0">+</span>N<span class="br0">)</span></pre>
<p>
The return value is the position in the destination range after the last element copied (i.e. <code>dest+N+1</code>).
<code>copy</code> runs in <a href="../../complexity.html" class="wikilink1" title="complexity">linear time</a>.
</p>
<p>
For example, the following code uses <code>copy</code> to both copy the contents of one vector
to another and to display the resulting vector:
</p>
<pre class="c code c++" style="font-family:monospace;"> vector<span class="sy0"><</span>int<span class="sy0">></span> from_vector<span class="sy0">;</span>
<span class="kw1">for</span><span class="br0">(</span> <span class="kw4">int</span> i <span class="sy0">=</span> <span class="nu0">0</span><span class="sy0">;</span> i <span class="sy0"><</span> <span class="nu0">10</span><span class="sy0">;</span> i<span class="sy0">++</span> <span class="br0">)</span> <span class="br0">{</span>
from_vector.<span class="me1">push_back</span><span class="br0">(</span> i <span class="br0">)</span><span class="sy0">;</span>
<span class="br0">}</span>
vector<span class="sy0"><</span>int<span class="sy0">></span> to_vector<span class="br0">(</span>10<span class="br0">)</span><span class="sy0">;</span>
copy<span class="br0">(</span> from_vector.<span class="me1">begin</span><span class="br0">(</span><span class="br0">)</span><span class="sy0">,</span> from_vector.<span class="me1">end</span><span class="br0">(</span><span class="br0">)</span><span class="sy0">,</span> to_vector.<span class="me1">begin</span><span class="br0">(</span><span class="br0">)</span> <span class="br0">)</span><span class="sy0">;</span>
<a href="http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/cout.html"><span class="kw3">cout</span></a> <span class="sy0"><<</span> <span class="st0">"to_vector contains: "</span><span class="sy0">;</span>
copy<span class="br0">(</span> to_vector.<span class="me1">begin</span><span class="br0">(</span><span class="br0">)</span><span class="sy0">,</span> to_vector.<span class="me1">end</span><span class="br0">(</span><span class="br0">)</span><span class="sy0">,</span> ostream_iterator<span class="sy0"><</span>int<span class="sy0">></span><span class="br0">(</span> <a href="http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/cout.html"><span class="kw3">cout</span></a><span class="sy0">,</span> <span class="st0">" "</span> <span class="br0">)</span> <span class="br0">)</span><span class="sy0">;</span>
<a href="http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/cout.html"><span class="kw3">cout</span></a> <span class="sy0"><<</span> endl<span class="sy0">;</span></pre>
<p>
Related Topics: <a href="../../stl/algorithm/copy_backward.html" class="wikilink1" title="stl:algorithm:copy_backward">copy_backward</a>, <a href="../../stl/algorithm/copy_n.html" class="wikilink1" title="stl:algorithm:copy_n">copy_n</a>, <a href="../../stl/algorithm/generate.html" class="wikilink1" title="stl:algorithm:generate">generate</a>, <a href="../../stl/algorithm/remove_copy.html" class="wikilink1" title="stl:algorithm:remove_copy">remove_copy</a>, <a href="../../stl/algorithm/swap.html" class="wikilink1" title="stl:algorithm:swap">swap</a>, <a href="../../stl/algorithm/transform.html" class="wikilink1" title="stl:algorithm:transform">transform</a>
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