How can I display the content of a map on the console?

Question

I have a map declared as follows:

map < string , list < string > > mapex ; list< string > li;

How can I display the items stored in the above map on the console?

Solution 1

Well it depends on how you want to display them, but you can always iterate them easily:

typedef map<string, list<string>>::const_iterator MapIterator;
for (MapIterator iter = mapex.begin(); iter != mapex.end(); iter++)
{
    cout << "Key: " << iter->first << endl << "Values:" << endl;
    typedef list<string>::const_iterator ListIterator;
    for (ListIterator list_iter = iter->second.begin(); list_iter != iter->second.end(); list_iter++)
        cout << " " << *list_iter << endl;
}

Solution 2

Update (Back to the future): with C++11 range-based for loops –

std::map<Key, Value> m { ... /* initialize it */ ... };

for (const auto &p : m) {
    std::cout << "m[" << p.first << "] = " << p.second << '\n';
}

Solution 3

I'd try the following

void dump_list(const std::list<string>& l) {
  for ( std::list<string>::const_iterator it = l.begin(); l != l.end(); l++ ) {
    cout << *l << endl;
  }
}

void dump_map(const std::map<string, std::list<string>>& map) {
  for ( std::map<string,std::list<string>>::const_iterator it = map.begin(); it != map.end(); it++) {
    cout << "Key: " << it->first << endl;
    cout << "Values" << endl;
    dump_list(it->second);
}

Solution 4

I'm a little off topic here...

I guess you want to dump the map content for debugging. I like to mention that the next gdb release (version 7.0) will have a built in python interpreter which will be used by the gcc libstdc++ to provide stl pretty printers. Here is an example for your case

  #include <map>
  #include <map>
  #include <list>
  #include <string>

  using namespace std;

  int main()
  {
    typedef map<string, list<string> > map_type;
    map_type mymap;

    list<string> mylist;
    mylist.push_back("item 1");
    mylist.push_back("item 2");
    mymap["foo"] =  mylist;
    mymap["bar"] =  mylist;

    return 0; // stopped here
  }

which results in

(gdb) print mymap
$1 = std::map with 2 elements = {
  ["bar"] = std::list = {
    [0] = "item 1",
    [1] = "item 2"
  },
  ["foo"] = std::list = {
    [0] = "item 1",
    [1] = "item 2"
  }
}

Yay!

Solution 5

Another form, using <algorithm>:

void printPair(const pair<string, list<string> > &p)
{
    cout << "Key: " << p.first << endl;
    copy(p.second.begin(), p.second.end(), ostream_iterator<string>(cout, "\n"));
}    
for_each(mapex.begin(), mapex.end(), printPair);

Test program:

#include <iostream>
#include <map>
#include <list>
#include <iterator>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;

void printPair(const pair<string, list<string> > &p)
{
    cout << "Key: " << p.first << endl;
    copy(p.second.begin(), p.second.end(), ostream_iterator<string>(cout, "\n"));
}

int main()
{
    map<string, list<string> >  mapex;

    list<string> mylist1;
    mylist1.push_back("item 1");
    mylist1.push_back("item 2");
    mapex["foo"] =  mylist1;
    list<string> mylist2;
    mylist2.push_back("item 3");
    mylist2.push_back("item 4");
    mylist2.push_back("item 5");
    mapex["bar"] =  mylist2;

    for_each(mapex.begin(), mapex.end(), printPair);
}

View more solutions