Are these two comparison expressions identical?
There seems to be some disagreement in another question about whether these two functions have identical logic:
bool operator<(const screenPoint& left, const screenPoint& right){
if (left.x < right.x) return true;
else return left.y < right.y;
}
bool operator<(const screenPoint& left, const screenPoint& right){
return left.x < right.x || left.y < right.y;
}
I have stared at these for quite a while and I cannot see how they would behave differently. In both, if
left.x < right.xtrueleft.y < right.yIf not, can someone please elaborate.
Also, it was suggested that the first of these is identical to the implementation of lexographical ordering in
std::tie
The two are identical to each other (if you fix the missing parenthesis in the first if), but they do not implement a strict weak ordering, so you probably don't want to use them (it would be invalid to use them in standard ordered containers and algorithms).
Proof: Consider the original relation for a=(1,3) b=(2,2). Then a < b and b < a. (asymmetric property violated)
A correct lexicographical ordering would look like this:
bool operator<(const screenPoint& left, const screenPoint& right){
if (left.x < right.x)
return true;
if (left.x > right.x)
return false;
return left.y < right.y;
}
If your members have only a < operator and not a > operator, replace left.x > right.x by !(right.x < left.x). This is how lexicographical comparison is implemented by std::pair and std::tuple (which is returned by std::tie).