C++ Vector erase()

In this C++ tutorial, you will learn about vector::erase() function, its syntax, and how to use this function to remove an element at specific index in the vector, with example programs.

C++ Vector erase() function

erase() function removes an element at specific index, or removes a range of elements from specific start to end indices.

Syntax

The syntax of erase() function to remove an element at specific index is

iterator erase( const_iterator index );

The syntax of erase() function to remove all the elements from given start index until the end index is

iterator erase( const_iterator start, const_iterator end );

Please note that the position of element to be deleted has to be given as const_iterator.

Examples

1. Remove element from vector at specific index

In the following C++ program, we initialise a vector names with five elements, and then remove the element at index=3.

C++ Program

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    vector<string> names{ "apple", "banana", "cherry", "mango" , "orange" };
    names.erase( std::next(names.begin(), 2) );
    for ( string x: names ) {
        cout << x << endl;
    }
}

Output

apple
banana
mango
orange
Program ended with exit code: 0

The element at index=2 has been removed from the vector.

2. Remove elements from vector in the index range [start, end)

In the following C++ program, we initialise a vector names with five elements, and then remove the elements starting from index=2 up until index=4.

C++ Program

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    vector<string> names{ "apple", "banana", "cherry", "mango" , "orange" };
    int start = 2;
    int end = 4;
    names.erase( std::next(names.begin(), start),
                std::next(names.begin(), end) );
    for ( string x: names ) {
        cout << x << endl;
    }
}

Output

apple
banana
orange
Program ended with exit code: 0

Conclusion

In this C++ Tutorial, we learned the syntax of erase() function, and how to use this erase() function to remove an element from specific position or remove a range of elements present in the given index range.