[c++] How to retrieve all keys (or values) from a std::map and put them into a vector?

This is one of the possible ways I come out:

struct RetrieveKey
{
    template <typename T>
    typename T::first_type operator()(T keyValuePair) const
    {
        return keyValuePair.first;
    }
};

map<int, int> m;
vector<int> keys;

// Retrieve all keys
transform(m.begin(), m.end(), back_inserter(keys), RetrieveKey());

// Dump all keys
copy(keys.begin(), keys.end(), ostream_iterator<int>(cout, "\n"));

Of course, we can also retrieve all values from the map by defining another functor RetrieveValues.

Is there any other way to achieve this easily? (I'm always wondering why std::map does not include a member function for us to do so.)

Slightly similar to one of examples here, simplified from std::map usage perspective.

template<class KEY, class VALUE>
std::vector<KEY> getKeys(const std::map<KEY, VALUE>& map)
{
    std::vector<KEY> keys(map.size());
    for (const auto& it : map)
        keys.push_back(it.first);
    return keys;
}

Use like this:

auto keys = getKeys(yourMap);

Based on @rusty-parks solution, but in c++17:

std::map<int, int> items;
std::vector<int> itemKeys;

for (const auto& [key, _] : items) {
    itemKeys.push_back(key);
}

Bit of a c++11 take:

std::map<uint32_t, uint32_t> items;
std::vector<uint32_t> itemKeys;
for (auto & kvp : items)
{
    itemKeys.emplace_back(kvp.first);
    std::cout << kvp.first << std::endl;
}

The following functor retrieves the key set of a map:

#include <vector>
#include <iterator>
#include <algorithm>

template <class _Map>
std::vector<typename _Map::key_type> keyset(const _Map& map)
{
    std::vector<typename _Map::key_type> result;
    result.reserve(map.size());
    std::transform(map.cbegin(), map.cend(), std::back_inserter(result), [](typename _Map::const_reference kvpair) {
        return kvpair.first;
    });
    return result;
}

Bonus: The following functors retrieve the value set of a map:

#include <vector>
#include <iterator>
#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>

template <class _Map>
std::vector<typename _Map::mapped_type> valueset(const _Map& map)
{
    std::vector<typename _Map::mapped_type> result;
    result.reserve(map.size());
    std::transform(map.cbegin(), map.cend(), std::back_inserter(result), [](typename _Map::const_reference kvpair) {
        return kvpair.second;
    });
    return result;
}

template <class _Map>
std::vector<std::reference_wrapper<typename _Map::mapped_type>> valueset(_Map& map)
{
    std::vector<std::reference_wrapper<typename _Map::mapped_type>> result;
    result.reserve(map.size());
    std::transform(map.begin(), map.end(), std::back_inserter(result), [](typename _Map::reference kvpair) {
        return std::ref(kvpair.second);
    });
    return result;
}

Usage:

int main()
{
    std::map<int, double> map{
        {1, 9.0},
        {2, 9.9},
        {3, 9.99},
        {4, 9.999},
    };
    auto ks = keyset(map);
    auto vs = valueset(map);
    for (auto& k : ks) std::cout << k << '\n';
    std::cout << "------------------\n";
    for (auto& v : vs) std::cout << v << '\n';
    for (auto& v : vs) v += 100.0;
    std::cout << "------------------\n";
    for (auto& v : vs) std::cout << v << '\n';
    std::cout << "------------------\n";
    for (auto& [k, v] : map) std::cout << v << '\n';

    return 0;
}

Expected output:

1
2
3
4
------------------
9
9.9
9.99
9.999
------------------
109
109.9
109.99
109.999
------------------
109
109.9
109.99
109.999

Also, if you have Boost, use transform_iterator to avoid making a temporary copy of the keys.

@DanDan's answer, using C++11 is:

using namespace std;
vector<int> keys;

transform(begin(map_in), end(map_in), back_inserter(keys), 
            [](decltype(map_in)::value_type const& pair) {
    return pair.first;
}); 

and using C++14 (as noted by @ivan.ukr) we can replace decltype(map_in)::value_type with auto.

//c++0x too
std::map<int,int> mapints;
std::vector<int> vints;
for(auto const& imap: mapints)
    vints.push_back(imap.first);

With the structured binding (“destructuring”) declaration syntax of C++17,

you can do this, which is easier to understand.

// To get the keys
std::map<int, double> map;
std::vector<int> keys;
keys.reserve(map.size());
for(const auto& [key, value] : map) {
    keys.push_back(key);
}

// To get the values
std::map<int, double> map;
std::vector<double> values;
values.reserve(map.size());
for(const auto& [key, value] : map) {
    values.push_back(value);
}

(I'm always wondering why std::map does not include a member function for us to do so.)

Because it can't do it any better than you can do it. If a method's implementation will be no superior to a free function's implementation then in general you should not write a method; you should write a free function.

It's also not immediately clear why it's useful anyway.

You can use the versatile boost::transform_iterator. The transform_iterator allows you to transform the iterated values, for example in our case when you want to deal only with the keys, not the values. See http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_36_0/libs/iterator/doc/transform_iterator.html#example

The best non-sgi, non-boost STL solution is to extend map::iterator like so:

template<class map_type>
class key_iterator : public map_type::iterator
{
public:
    typedef typename map_type::iterator map_iterator;
    typedef typename map_iterator::value_type::first_type key_type;

    key_iterator(const map_iterator& other) : map_type::iterator(other) {} ;

    key_type& operator *()
    {
        return map_type::iterator::operator*().first;
    }
};

// helpers to create iterators easier:
template<class map_type>
key_iterator<map_type> key_begin(map_type& m)
{
    return key_iterator<map_type>(m.begin());
}
template<class map_type>
key_iterator<map_type> key_end(map_type& m)
{
    return key_iterator<map_type>(m.end());
}

and then use them like so:

        map<string,int> test;
        test["one"] = 1;
        test["two"] = 2;

        vector<string> keys;

//      // method one
//      key_iterator<map<string,int> > kb(test.begin());
//      key_iterator<map<string,int> > ke(test.end());
//      keys.insert(keys.begin(), kb, ke);

//      // method two
//      keys.insert(keys.begin(),
//           key_iterator<map<string,int> >(test.begin()),
//           key_iterator<map<string,int> >(test.end()));

        // method three (with helpers)
        keys.insert(keys.begin(), key_begin(test), key_end(test));

        string one = keys[0];

The SGI STL has an extension called select1st. Too bad it's not in standard STL!

I think the BOOST_FOREACH presented above is nice and clean, however, there is another option using BOOST as well.

#include <boost/lambda/lambda.hpp>
#include <boost/lambda/bind.hpp>

std::map<int, int> m;
std::vector<int> keys;

using namespace boost::lambda;

transform(      m.begin(), 
                m.end(), 
                back_inserter(keys), 
                bind( &std::map<int,int>::value_type::first, _1 ) 
          );

copy( keys.begin(), keys.end(), std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, "\n") );

Personally, I don't think this approach is as clean as the BOOST_FOREACH approach in this case, but boost::lambda can be really clean in other cases.

C++0x has given us a further, excellent solution:

std::vector<int> keys;

std::transform(
    m_Inputs.begin(),
    m_Inputs.end(),
    std::back_inserter(keys),
    [](const std::map<int,int>::value_type &pair){return pair.first;});

With atomic map example

#include <iostream>
#include <map>
#include <vector> 
#include <atomic>

using namespace std;

typedef std::atomic<std::uint32_t> atomic_uint32_t;
typedef std::map<int, atomic_uint32_t> atomic_map_t;

int main()
{
    atomic_map_t m;

    m[4] = 456;
    m[2] = 45678;

    vector<int> v;
    for(map<int,atomic_uint32_t>::iterator it = m.begin(); it != m.end(); ++it) {
      v.push_back(it->second);
      cout << it->first << " "<<it->second<<"\n";
    }

    return 0;
}

There is a boost range adaptor for this purpose:

#include <boost/range/adaptor/map.hpp>
#include <boost/range/algorithm/copy.hpp>
vector<int> keys;
boost::copy(m | boost::adaptors::map_keys, std::back_inserter(keys));

There is a similar map_values range adaptor for extracting the values.

Your solution is fine but you can use an iterator to do it:

std::map<int, int> m;
m.insert(std::pair<int, int>(3, 4));
m.insert(std::pair<int, int>(5, 6));
for(std::map<int, int>::const_iterator it = m.begin(); it != m.end(); it++)
{
    int key = it->first;
    int value = it->second;
    //Do something
}

Here's a nice function template using C++11 magic, working for both std::map, std::unordered_map:

template<template <typename...> class MAP, class KEY, class VALUE>
std::vector<KEY>
keys(const MAP<KEY, VALUE>& map)
{
    std::vector<KEY> result;
    result.reserve(map.size());
    for(const auto& it : map){
        result.emplace_back(it.first);
    }
    return result;
}

Check it out here: http://ideone.com/lYBzpL

I found the following three lines of code as the easiest way:

// save keys in vector

vector<string> keys;
for (auto & it : m) {
    keys.push_back(it.first);
}

It is a shorten version of the first way of this answer.