[c++] How to update std::map after using the find method?

How to update the value of a key in std::map after using the find method?

I have a map and iterator declaration like this:

map <char, int> m1;
map <char, int>::iterator m1_it;
typedef pair <char, int> count_pair;

I'm using the map to store the number of occurrences of a character.

I'm using Visual C++ 2010.

I would use the operator[].

map <char, int> m1;

m1['G'] ++;  // If the element 'G' does not exist then it is created and 
             // initialized to zero. A reference to the internal value
             // is returned. so that the ++ operator can be applied.

// If 'G' did not exist it now exist and is 1.
// If 'G' had a value of 'n' it now has a value of 'n+1'

So using this technique it becomes really easy to read all the character from a stream and count them:

map <char, int>                m1;
std::ifstream                  file("Plop");
std::istreambuf_iterator<char> end;

for(std::istreambuf_iterator<char> loop(file); loop != end; ++loop)
{
    ++m1[*loop]; // prefer prefix increment out of habbit
}

You can use std::map::at member function, it returns a reference to the mapped value of the element identified with key k.

std::map<char,int> mymap = {
                               { 'a', 0 },
                               { 'b', 0 },
                           };

  mymap.at('a') = 10;
  mymap.at('b') = 20;

You can update the value like following

   auto itr = m.find('ch'); 
     if (itr != m.end()){
           (*itr).second = 98;
     }

You can also do like this-

 std::map<char, int>::iterator it = m.find('c'); 
 if (it != m.end())
 (*it).second = 42;

If you already know the key, you can directly update the value at that key using m[key] = new_value

Here is a sample code that might help:

map<int, int> m;

for(int i=0; i<5; i++)
    m[i] = i;

for(auto it=m.begin(); it!=m.end(); it++)
    cout<<it->second<<" ";
//Output: 0 1 2 3 4

m[4] = 7;  //updating value at key 4 here

cout<<"\n"; //Change line

for(auto it=m.begin(); it!=m.end(); it++)
    cout<<it->second<<" ";
// Output: 0 1 2 3 7