Check if a string contains a string in C++

Question

Use std::string::find as follows:

if (s1.find(s2) != std::string::npos) {
    std::cout << "found!" << '\n';
}

Note: "found!" will be printed if s2 is a substring of s1, both s1 and s2 are of type std::string.

You can try using the find function:

string str ("There are two needles in this haystack.");
string str2 ("needle");

if (str.find(str2) != string::npos) {
//.. found.
} 

Actually, you can try to use boost library,I think std::string doesn't supply enough method to do all the common string operation.In boost,you can just use the boost::algorithm::contains:

#include <string>
#include <boost/algorithm/string.hpp>

int main() {
    std::string s("gengjiawen");
    std::string t("geng");
    bool b = boost::algorithm::contains(s, t);
    std::cout << b << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

Starting from C++23 you can use std::string::contains

#include <string>

const auto haystack = std::string("haystack with needles");
const auto needle = std::string("needle");

if (haystack.contains(needle))
{
    // found!
}

You can try this

string s1 = "Hello";
string s2 = "el";
if(strstr(s1.c_str(),s2.c_str()))
{
   cout << " S1 Contains S2";
}

In the event if the functionality is critical to your system, it is actually beneficial to use an old strstr method. The std::search method within algorithm is the slowest possible. My guess would be that it takes a lot of time to create those iterators.

The code that i used to time the whole thing is

#include <string>
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <random>
#include <chrono>

std::string randomString( size_t len );

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
        using namespace std::chrono;

        const size_t haystacksCount = 200000;
        std::string haystacks[haystacksCount];
        std::string needle = "hello";

        bool sink = true;

        high_resolution_clock::time_point start, end;
        duration<double> timespan;

        int sizes[10] = { 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 5120, 10240 };

        for(int s=0; s<10; ++s)
        {
                std::cout << std::endl << "Generating " << haystacksCount << " random haystacks of size " << sizes[s] << std::endl;
                for(size_t i=0; i<haystacksCount; ++i)
                {
                        haystacks[i] = randomString(sizes[s]);
                }

                std::cout << "Starting std::string.find approach" << std::endl;
                start = high_resolution_clock::now();
                for(size_t i=0; i<haystacksCount; ++i)
                {
                        if(haystacks[i].find(needle) != std::string::npos)
                        {
                                sink = !sink; // useless action
                        }
                }
                end = high_resolution_clock::now();
                timespan = duration_cast<duration<double>>(end-start);
                std::cout << "Processing of " << haystacksCount << " elements took " << timespan.count() << " seconds." << std::endl;

                std::cout << "Starting strstr approach" << std::endl;
                start = high_resolution_clock::now();
                for(size_t i=0; i<haystacksCount; ++i)
                {
                        if(strstr(haystacks[i].c_str(), needle.c_str()))
                        {
                                sink = !sink; // useless action
                        }
                }
                end = high_resolution_clock::now();
                timespan = duration_cast<duration<double>>(end-start);
                std::cout << "Processing of " << haystacksCount << " elements took " << timespan.count() << " seconds." << std::endl;

                std::cout << "Starting std::search approach" << std::endl;
                start = high_resolution_clock::now();
                for(size_t i=0; i<haystacksCount; ++i)
                {
                        if(std::search(haystacks[i].begin(), haystacks[i].end(), needle.begin(), needle.end()) != haystacks[i].end())
                        {
                                sink = !sink; // useless action
                        }
                }
                end = high_resolution_clock::now();
                timespan = duration_cast<duration<double>>(end-start);
                std::cout << "Processing of " << haystacksCount << " elements took " << timespan.count() << " seconds." << std::endl;
        }

        return 0;
}

std::string randomString( size_t len)
{
        static const char charset[] = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
        static const int charsetLen = sizeof(charset) - 1;
        static std::default_random_engine rng(std::random_device{}());
        static std::uniform_int_distribution<> dist(0, charsetLen);
        auto randChar = [charset, &dist, &rng]() -> char
        {
                return charset[ dist(rng) ];
        };

        std::string result(len, 0);
        std::generate_n(result.begin(), len, randChar);
        return result;
}

Here i generate random haystacks and search in them the needle. The haystack count is set, but the length of strings within each haystack is increased from 10 in the beginning to 10240 in the end. Most of the time the program spends actually generating random strings, but that is to be expected.

The output is:

Generating 200000 random haystacks of size 10
Starting std::string.find approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.00358503 seconds.
Starting strstr approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0022727 seconds.
Starting std::search approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0346258 seconds.

Generating 200000 random haystacks of size 20
Starting std::string.find approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.00480959 seconds.
Starting strstr approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.00236199 seconds.
Starting std::search approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0586416 seconds.

Generating 200000 random haystacks of size 40
Starting std::string.find approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0082571 seconds.
Starting strstr approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.00341435 seconds.
Starting std::search approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0952996 seconds.

Generating 200000 random haystacks of size 80
Starting std::string.find approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0148288 seconds.
Starting strstr approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.00399263 seconds.
Starting std::search approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.175945 seconds.

Generating 200000 random haystacks of size 160
Starting std::string.find approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0293496 seconds.
Starting strstr approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.00504251 seconds.
Starting std::search approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.343452 seconds.

Generating 200000 random haystacks of size 320
Starting std::string.find approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0522893 seconds.
Starting strstr approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.00850485 seconds.
Starting std::search approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.64133 seconds.

Generating 200000 random haystacks of size 640
Starting std::string.find approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.102082 seconds.
Starting strstr approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.00925799 seconds.
Starting std::search approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 1.26321 seconds.

Generating 200000 random haystacks of size 1280
Starting std::string.find approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.208057 seconds.
Starting strstr approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0105039 seconds.
Starting std::search approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 2.57404 seconds.

Generating 200000 random haystacks of size 5120
Starting std::string.find approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.798496 seconds.
Starting strstr approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0137969 seconds.
Starting std::search approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 10.3573 seconds.

Generating 200000 random haystacks of size 10240
Starting std::string.find approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 1.58171 seconds.
Starting strstr approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 0.0143111 seconds.
Starting std::search approach
Processing of 200000 elements took 20.4163 seconds.

If the size of strings is relatively big (hundreds of bytes or more) and c++17 is available, you might want to use Boyer-Moore-Horspool searcher (example from cppreference.com):

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>

int main()
{
    std::string in = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit,"
                     " sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua";
    std::string needle = "pisci";
    auto it = std::search(in.begin(), in.end(),
                   std::boyer_moore_searcher(
                       needle.begin(), needle.end()));
    if(it != in.end())
        std::cout << "The string " << needle << " found at offset "
                  << it - in.begin() << '\n';
    else
        std::cout << "The string " << needle << " not found\n";
}