std::partial_sort

Defined in header `<algorithm>`
	(1)
template< class RandomIt > void partial_sort( RandomIt first, RandomIt middle, RandomIt last );		(until C++20)
template< class RandomIt > constexpr void partial_sort( RandomIt first, RandomIt middle, RandomIt last );		(since C++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class RandomIt > void partial_sort( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, RandomIt first, RandomIt middle, RandomIt last );	(2)	(since C++17)
	(3)
template< class RandomIt, class Compare > void partial_sort( RandomIt first, RandomIt middle, RandomIt last, Compare comp );		(until C++20)
template< class RandomIt, class Compare > constexpr void partial_sort( RandomIt first, RandomIt middle, RandomIt last, Compare comp );		(since C++20)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class RandomIt, class Compare > void partial_sort( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, RandomIt first, RandomIt middle, RandomIt last, Compare comp );	(4)	(since C++17)

Rearranges elements such that the range [first, middle) contains the sorted middle - first smallest elements in the range [first, last).

The order of equal elements is not guaranteed to be preserved. The order of the remaining elements in the range [middle, last) is unspecified.

1) Elements are compared using operator<.

3) Elements are compared using the given binary comparison function comp.

2,4) Same as (1,3), but executed according to policy. These overloads do not participate in overload resolution unless std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true

Parameters

first, last	-	the range of elements to sort
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
comp	-	comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the requirements of Compare) which returns `true` if the first argument is less than (i.e. is ordered before) the second. The signature of the comparison function should be equivalent to the following: `bool cmp(const Type1 &a, const Type2 &b);` While the signature does not need to have `const &`, the function must not modify the objects passed to it and must be able to accept all values of type (possibly const) `Type1` and `Type2` regardless of value category (thus, `Type1 &` is not allowed, nor is `Type1` unless for `Type1` a move is equivalent to a copy (since C++11)). The types `Type1` and `Type2` must be such that an object of type `RandomIt` can be dereferenced and then implicitly converted to both of them.
Type requirements
-`RandomIt` must meet the requirements of ValueSwappable and LegacyRandomAccessIterator.
-The type of dereferenced `RandomIt` must meet the requirements of MoveAssignable and MoveConstructible.

Return value

(none).

Complexity

Approximately (last-first)log(middle-first) applications of cmp.

Exceptions

The overloads with a template parameter named ExecutionPolicy report errors as follows:

If execution of a function invoked as part of the algorithm throws an exception and ExecutionPolicy is one of the standard policies, std::terminate is called. For any other ExecutionPolicy, the behavior is implementation-defined.
If the algorithm fails to allocate memory, std::bad_alloc is thrown.

Example

#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>
#include <array>
#include <iostream>
 
int main()
{
    std::array<int, 10> s{5, 7, 4, 2, 8, 6, 1, 9, 0, 3};
 
    std::partial_sort(s.begin(), s.begin() + 3, s.end());
    for (int a : s) {
        std::cout << a << " ";
    } 
}

Possible output:

0 1 2 7 8 6 5 9 4 3

nth_element	partially sorts the given range making sure that it is partitioned by the given element (function template)
partial_sort_copy	copies and partially sorts a range of elements (function template)
stable_sort	sorts a range of elements while preserving order between equal elements (function template)
sort	sorts a range into ascending order (function template)