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std::generate_n

Defined in header `<algorithm>`
	(1)
template< class OutputIt, class Size, class Generator > OutputIt generate_n( OutputIt first, Size count, Generator g );		(until C++20)
template< class OutputIt, class Size, class Generator > constexpr OutputIt generate_n( OutputIt first, Size count, Generator g );		(since C++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt, class Size, class Generator > ForwardIt generate_n( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt first, Size count, Generator g );	(2)	(since C++17)

1) Assigns values, generated by given function object g, to the first count elements in the range beginning at first, if count > 0. Does nothing otherwise.

2) Same as (1), but executed according to policy. This overload does not participate in overload resolution unless

`std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>>` is `true`.	(until C++20)
`std::is_execution_policy_v<std::remove_cvref_t<ExecutionPolicy>>` is `true`.	(since C++20)

Parameters

first - the beginning of the range of elements to generate

count - number of the elements to generate

policy - the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.

generator function object that will be called.

The signature of the function should be equivalent to the following:

Ret fun();

The type Ret must be such that an object of type OutputIt can be dereferenced and assigned a value of type Ret.

Type requirements

-OutputIt must meet the requirements of LegacyOutputIterator.

-ForwardIt must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.

Return value

Iterator one past the last element assigned if count > 0, first otherwise.

Complexity

Exactly std::max(0, count) invocations of g() and assignments.

Exceptions

The overload with a template parameter named ExecutionPolicy reports errors as follows:

If execution of a function invoked as part of the algorithm throws an exception and ExecutionPolicy is one of the standard policies, std::terminate is called. For any other ExecutionPolicy, the behavior is implementation-defined.
If the algorithm fails to allocate memory, std::bad_alloc is thrown.

Possible implementation

template<class OutputIt, class Size, class Generator>
constexpr // since C++20
OutputIt generate_n(OutputIt first, Size count, Generator g)
{
    for (Size i = 0; i < count; ++i, ++first)
        *first = g();
 
    return first;
}

Example

#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <random>
 
int main()
{
    std::mt19937 rng; // default constructed, seeded with fixed seed
    std::generate_n(std::ostream_iterator<std::mt19937::result_type>(std::cout, " "),
                    5, std::ref(rng));
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Output:

3499211612 581869302 3890346734 3586334585 545404204

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 426	C++98	the complexity requirement was 'exactly `count` invocations or assignments', which is broken if `count` is negative	no invocation or assignment if `count` is non-positive
LWG 865	C++98	the location of the first element following the generation range was not returned	returned

fill_n	copy-assigns the given value to N elements in a range (function template)
generate	assigns the results of successive function calls to every element in a range (function template)
ranges::generate_n (C++20)	saves the result of N applications of a function (niebloid)