C++ search

 #include <iostream>

#include <string>
#include <array>
#include <algorithm>

int main() {
    // 1. Declare and initialize an array of 5 names
    std::array<std::string, 5> names = {"Alice", "Bob", "Charlie", "Diana", "Ethan"};

    // 2. Specify the name to search for
    std::string target = "Charlie";

    // 3. Search using std::find from <algorithm>
    auto it = std::find(names.begin(), names.end(), target);

    // 4. Check if the name was found
    if (it != names.end()) {
        // std::distance calculates the index from the iterator
        int index = std::distance(names.begin(), it);
        std::cout << "Found '" << target << "' at index " << index << "!\n";
    } else {
        std::cout << "'" << target << "' was not found in the array.\n";
    }

    return 0;
}

Key Takeaways

• std::find(begin, end, value): Iterates through the collection and returns an iterator pointing to the first matching element. If no match is found, it returns names.end().

• std::array: Preferred over raw C-style arrays (std::string names[5]) because it works seamlessly with C++ standard algorithms like std::find.

• std::distance: Converts the resulting iterator into a standard 0-based array index.