How to find the first smaller element than an integer X in a vector ? (c++)

Question

If I have the following vector {10 10 10 20 20 20 30 30} and I want a function to return the position of the integer that = X or directly the smaller element after X , like for example if I am searching for 11 I want the function to return 2 since the 2nd element(10) is the first smaller element than 11 in the vector.
I tried using lower_bound but that doesn't work.

int myints[] = {10,20,30,30,20,10,10,20};
vector<int> v(myints,myints+8);           // 10 20 30 30 20 10 10 20
vector<int>::iterator low,up;

sort (v.begin(), v.end());                // 10 10 10 20 20 20 30 30

low=lower_bound (v.begin(), v.end(), 11); //
up= upper_bound (v.begin(), v.end(), 11); //

cout << "lower_bound at position " << int(low- v.begin()) << endl;
cout << "upper_bound at position " << int(up - v.begin()) << endl;

return 0;

this code outputs:

lower_bound at position 3
upper_bound at position 3

Answer 1

Well, upper_bound returns the first item that is greater than the test item, so the one before that (if it exists) will be the one you want?

Answer 2

you could do this...it might be better to return an iterator in case if the vector is empty...

auto find_next_smaller(vector<int> vec, const int x) { 
    std::sort(vec.begin(), vec.end());
    auto it = std::lower_bound(vec.begin(), vec.end(), x); 
    if (it == vec.end()) { 
      it = (vec.rbegin()+1).base();
    }
    else if (it != vec.begin() && *it > x) { 
        --it; 
    }

    return it; 
} 

Answer 3

If one has to find an element less than or equal to some x then multiset can be used to do so.

#include <iostream> 
#include <set> 
#include <iterator> 

using namespace std; 

int main() 
{
    multiset <int, greater <int> > iammultiset;
    iammultiset.insert(10);
    iammultiset.insert(10);
    iammultiset.insert(14);
    iammultiset.insert(20);
    iammultiset.insert(20);
    iammultiset.insert(30);
    iammultiset.insert(40);
    iammultiset.insert(50);
    //{10,10,14,20,20,30,40,50}
    
    cout<<*iammultiset.lower_bound(17) << endl;
    //The Output here will be 14.
    
    cout<<*iammultiset.lower_bound(20) << endl;
    //The Output here will be 20.
}

Answer 4

#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
template <typename F, typename T>

F first_less_than(F f, F l, T val)
{
    auto it = lower_bound(f, l, val);
    return it == f ? l : --it;
}

int main()
{
    vector<int> s{10, 20, 25, 40};
    auto j = first_less_than(s.begin(), s.end(), 35);

    cout << *j;

    //output : 25
    return 0;
}