Finding the max value in a map

I've been doing a basic program to find the max, min, median, variance, mode etc. of a vector. Everything went fine until I got to the mode.

The way I see it, I should be able to loop through the vector, and for each number that occurs I increment a key on the map. Finding the key with the highest value would then be the one that occurred the most. Comparing to other keys would tell me if it's a single multiple or no mode answer.

Here's the chunk of code that's been causing me so much trouble.

map<int,unsigned> frequencyCount;
// This is my attempt to increment the values
// of the map everytime one of the same numebers 
for(size_t i = 0; i < v.size(); ++i)
    frequencyCount[v[i]]++;

unsigned currentMax = 0;
unsigned checked = 0;
unsigned maax = 0;
for(auto it = frequencyCount.cbegin(); it != frequencyCount.cend(); ++it )
    //checked = it->second;
    if (it ->second > currentMax)
    {
        maax = it->first;
    }
    //if(it ->second > currentMax){
    //v = it->first

cout << " The highest value within the map is: " << maax << endl;

The entire program can be seen here. http://pastebin.com/MzPENmHp

You can use std::max_element to find the highest map value (the following code requires C++11):

std::map<int, size_t> frequencyCount;
using pair_type = decltype(frequencyCount)::value_type;

for (auto i : v)
	frequencyCount[i]++;

auto pr = std::max_element
(
	std::begin(frequencyCount), std::end(frequencyCount),
	[] (const pair_type & p1, const pair_type & p2) {
		return p1.second < p2.second;
	}
);
std::cout << "A mode of the vector: " << pr->first << '\n';

You never changed currentMax in your code.

map<int,unsigned> frequencyCount;
for(size_t i = 0; i < v.size(); ++i)
    frequencyCount[v[i]]++;

unsigned currentMax = 0;
unsigned arg_max = 0;
for(auto it = frequencyCount.cbegin(); it != frequencyCount.cend(); ++it ) }
    if (it ->second > currentMax) {
        arg_max = it->first;
        currentMax = it->second;
    }
}
cout << "Value " << arg_max << " occurs " << currentMax << " times " << endl;

Another way to find the mode is to sort the vector and loop through it once, keeping track of the indices where the values change.

This can be done in few lines, here's a full working snippet:

#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <map>
int main() {
	std::map<char,int> x = { { 'a',1 },{ 'b',2 },{'c',0} };
	std::map<char,int>::iterator best
		= std::max_element(x.begin(),x.end(),[] (const std::pair<char,int>& a, const std::pair<char,int>& b)->bool{ return a.second < b.second; } );
	std::cout << best->first << " , " << best->second << "\n";
}

Here's a templated function based on Rob's excellent answer above.

template<typename KeyType, typename ValueType> 
std::pair<KeyType,ValueType> get_max( const std::map<KeyType,ValueType>& x ) {
  using pairtype=std::pair<KeyType,ValueType>; 
  return *std::max_element(x.begin(), x.end(), [] (const pairtype & p1, const pairtype & p2) {
        return p1.second < p2.second;
  }); 
}

Example:

std::map<char,int> x = { { 'a',1 },{ 'b',2 },{'c',0}}; 
auto max=get_max(x);
std::cout << max.first << "=>" << max.second << std::endl; 

Outputs: b=>2

We may reuse key or, value comparator objects as per requirements in place of comparator api, while fetching min/max/ranges over any STL iterator.

http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/map/multimap/key_comp/ http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/map/multimap/value_comp/

==

Example:

// multimap::key_comp
#include <iostream>
#include <map>

int main ()
{
  std::multimap<char,int> mymultimap;

  std::multimap<char,int>::key_compare mycomp = mymultimap.key_comp();

  mymultimap.insert (std::make_pair('a',100));
  mymultimap.insert (std::make_pair('b',200));
  mymultimap.insert (std::make_pair('b',211));
  mymultimap.insert (std::make_pair('c',300));

  std::cout << "mymultimap contains:\n";

  char highest = mymultimap.rbegin()->first;     // key value of last element

  std::multimap<char,int>::iterator it = mymultimap.begin();
  do {
    std::cout << (*it).first << " => " << (*it).second << '\n';
  } while ( mycomp((*it++).first, highest) );

  std::cout << '\n';

  return 0;
}


Output:
mymultimap contains:
a => 100
b => 200
b => 211
c => 300

==

you are almost there: simply add currentMax = it->second; after maax = it->first;

but using a map to locate the max is overkill: simply scan the vector and store the index where you find higher numbers: very similar to what you already wrote, just simpler.

We can easily do this by using max_element() function.

Code Snippet :

---

#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;

bool compare(const pair<int, int>&a, const pair<int, int>&b)
{
   return a.second<b.second;
}

int main(int argc, char const *argv[])
{
   int n, key, maxn;
   map<int,int> mp;

   cin>>n;

   for (int i=0; i<n; i++)
   {
  	 cin>>key;
	 mp[key]++;
   }

   maxn = max_element(mp.begin(), mp.end(), compare)->second;

   cout<<maxn<<endl;

   return 0;
 }

As someone accustomed to using Boost libraries, an alternative to using the anonymous function proposed by Rob is the following implementation of std::max_element:

std::map< int, unsigned >::const_iterator found = 
        std::max_element( map.begin(), map.end(),
                         ( boost::bind(&std::map< int, unsigned >::value_type::second, _1) < 
                           boost::bind(&std::map< int, unsigned >::value_type::second, _2 ) ) );

Beter use inner comparator map::value_comp().

For example:

#include <algorithm>
...
auto max = std::max_element(freq.begin(), freq.end(), freq.value_comp());
std::cout << max->first << "=>" << max->second << std::endl

will output:

Key => Value