std::clamp

 

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Defined in header <algorithm>
template< class T > constexpr const T& clamp( const T& v, const T& lo, const T& hi );	(1)	(since C++17)
template< class T, class Compare > constexpr const T& clamp( const T& v, const T& lo, const T& hi,                           Compare comp );	(2)	(since C++17)

If the value of v is within [lo, hi], returns v; otherwise returns the nearest boundary.

1) Uses operator<(until C++20)std::less{}(since C++20) to compare the values.

If T is not LessThanComparable, the behavior is undefined.

2) Uses the comparison function comp to compare the values.

If lo is greater than hi, the behavior is undefined.

Parameters

v	-	the value to clamp
lo, hi	-	the boundaries to clamp v to
comp	-	comparison function object (i.e. an object that satisfies the requirements of Compare) which returns true if the first argument is less than 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 T can be implicitly converted to both of them.

Return value

Reference to lo if v is less than lo, reference to hi if hi is less than v, otherwise reference to v.

Complexity

1) At most two comparisons using operator<(until C++20)std::less{}(since C++20).

2) At most two applications of the comparison function comp.

Possible implementation

clamp (1)
template<class T> constexpr const T& clamp(const T& v, const T& lo, const T& hi) { return clamp(v, lo, hi, less{}); }
clamp (2)
template<class T, class Compare> constexpr const T& clamp(const T& v, const T& lo, const T& hi, Compare comp) { return comp(v, lo) ? lo : comp(hi, v) ? hi : v; }

Notes

Capturing the result of std::clamp by reference produces a dangling reference if one of the parameters is a temporary and that parameter is returned:

int n = -1;
const int& r = std::clamp(n, 0, 255); // r is dangling

If v compares equivalent to either bound, returns a reference to v, not the bound.

Feature-test macro	Value	Std	Feature
__cpp_lib_clamp	201603L	(C++17)	std::clamp

Example

Run this code

#include <algorithm>
#include <cstdint>
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
 
int main()
{
    std::cout << "[raw] "
                 "[" << INT8_MIN << ',' << INT8_MAX << "] "
                 "[0," << UINT8_MAX << "]\n";
 
    for (const int v : {-129, -128, -1, 0, 42, 127, 128, 255, 256})
        std::cout << std::setw(4) << v
                  << std::setw(11) << std::clamp(v, INT8_MIN, INT8_MAX)
                  << std::setw(8) << std::clamp(v, 0, UINT8_MAX) << '\n';
}

Output:

[raw] [-128,127] [0,255]
-129       -128       0
-128       -128       0
  -1         -1       0
   0          0       0
  42         42      42
 127        127     127
 128        127     128
 255        127     255
 256        127     255

See also

min	returns the smaller of the given values (function template)
max	returns the greater of the given values (function template)
in_range (C++20)	checks if an integer value is in the range of a given integer type (function template)
ranges::clamp (C++20)	clamps a value between a pair of boundary values (niebloid)