Example of loop using pointers rewritten using an STL algorithm, without a loop?

Question

How would I rewrite the code below for example, using an STL algorithm without a loop?

vector<double> pizzaBox;
int biggestSlice = 0;
for (int* p = &pizzaBox[0]; p != pizzaBox[pizzaBox.size()]; p++) {
    if(*p > biggestSlice)
        biggestSlice = *p;
}

Answer 1

Assuming that you actually meant vector<int>, and after correcting your loop end condition, you can use the max_element algorithm here:

int biggestSlice = *max_element(pizzaBox.begin(), pizzaBox.end());

(Notice that max_element returns an iterator, hence I’m dereferencing the return value before assigning to biggestSlice.)

This of course no longer works (= yields undefined behaviour) when the vector is empty. You need to test for this explicitly before dereferencing the return value of the function.