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# QSet Class Reference

The QSet class is a template class that provides a hash-table-based set. More...

    #include <QSet>

Part of the QtCore module.

Note: All the functions in this class are reentrant.

- List of all members, including inherited members

### Public Types

- class const_iterator
- typedef ConstIterator

### Public Functions

- QSet ()
- QSet ( const QSet<T> & other )
- const_iterator begin () const
- int capacity () const
- void clear ()
- const_iterator constBegin () const
- const_iterator constEnd () const
- bool contains ( const T & value ) const
- int count () const
- bool empty () const
- const_iterator end () const
- const_iterator insert ( const T & value )
- QSet<T> & intersect ( const QSet<T> & other )
- bool isEmpty () const
- bool remove ( const T & value )
- void reserve ( int size )
- int size () const
- void squeeze ()
- QSet<T> & subtract ( const QSet<T> & other )
- QList<T> toList () const
- QSet<T> & unite ( const QSet<T> & other )
- QList<T> values () const
- bool operator!= ( const QSet<T> & other ) const
- QSet<T> operator& ( const QSet<T> & other )
- QSet<T> & operator&= ( const QSet<T> & other )
- QSet<T> operator+ ( const QSet<T> & other )
- QSet<T> & operator+= ( const QSet<T> & other )
- QSet<T> operator- ( const QSet<T> & other )
- QSet<T> & operator-= ( const QSet<T> & other )
- QSet<T> & operator<< ( const T & value )
- QSet<T> & operator= ( const QSet<T> & other )
- bool operator== ( const QSet<T> & other ) const
- QSet<T> operator| ( const QSet<T> & other )
- QSet<T> & operator|= ( const QSet<T> & other )

### Static Public Members

- QSet<T> fromList ( const QList<T> & list )

### Related Non-Members

- QDataStream & operator<< ( QDataStream & out, const QSet<T> & set )
- QDataStream & operator>> ( QDataStream & in, QSet<T> & set )

## Detailed Description

The QSet class is a template class that provides a hash-table-based set.

QSet<T> is one of Qt's generic container classes. It stores values in an unspecified order and provides very fast lookup of the values. Internally, QSet<T> is implemented as a QHash.

Here's an example QSet with QString values:

        QSet<QString> set;

To insert a value into the set, use insert():

        set.insert("one");
        set.insert("three");
        set.insert("seven");

Another way to insert items into the set is to use operator<<():

        set << "twelve" << "fifteen" << "nineteen";

To test whether an item belongs to the set or not, use contains():

        if (!set.contains("ninety-nine"))
            ...

If you want to navigate through all the values stored in a QSet, you can use an iterator. QSet supports both Java-style iterators (QSetIterator) and STL-style iterators (QSet::const_iterator). Here's how to iterate over a QSet<QWidget *> using a Java-style iterator:

        QSetIterator<QWidget *> i(set);
        while (i.hasNext())
            qDebug() << i.next();

Here's the same code, but using an STL-style iterator:

        QSet<QWidget *>::const_iterator i = set.begin();
        while (i != set.end()) {
            qDebug() << *i;
            ++i;
        }

QSet is unordered, so an iterator's sequence cannot be assumed to be predictable. If ordering by key is required, use a QMap.

To navigate through a QSet, you can also use foreach:

        QSet<QString> set;
        ...
        foreach (QString value, set)
            qDebug() << value;

Items can be removed from the set using remove(). There's also a clear() function that removes all items.

QSet's value data type must be an assignable data type. You cannot, for example, store a QWidget as a value; instead, store a QWidget *. In addition, the type must provide `operator==()`, and there must also be a global qHash() function that returns a hash value for an argument of the key's type. See the QHash documentation for a list of types supported by qHash().

Internally, QSet uses a hash table to perform lookups. The hash table automatically grows and shrinks to provide fast lookups without wasting too much memory. You can still control the size of the hash table by calling reserve() if you already know approximately how many elements the QSet will contain, but this isn't necessary to obtain good performance. You can also call capacity() to retrieve the hash table's size.

See also QSetIterator, QHash, and QMap.

## Member Type Documentation

### typedef QSet::ConstIterator

Qt-style synonym for QSet::const_iterator.

## Member Function Documentation

### QSet::QSet ()

Constructs an empty set.

See also clear().

### QSet::QSet ( const QSet<T> & other )

Constructs a copy of other.

This operation occurs in constant time, because QSet is implicitly shared. This makes returning a QSet from a function very fast. If a shared instance is modified, it will be copied (copy-on-write), and this takes linear time.

See also operator=().

### const_iterator QSet::begin () const

Returns a const STL-style iterator pointing to the first item in the set.

See also end().

### int QSet::capacity () const

Returns the number of buckets in the QSet's internal hash table.

The sole purpose of this function is to provide a means of fine tuning QSet's memory usage. In general, you will rarely ever need to call this function. If you want to know how many items are in the set, call size().

See also reserve() and squeeze().

### void QSet::clear ()

Removes all elements from the set.

See also remove().

### const_iterator QSet::constBegin () const

Same as begin(). Provided for consistency with other container classes.

See also constEnd().

### const_iterator QSet::constEnd () const

Same as end(). Provided for consistency with other container classes.

See also constBegin().

### bool QSet::contains ( const T & value ) const

Returns true if the set contains item value; otherwise returns false.

See also insert() and remove().

### int QSet::count () const

Same as size().

### bool QSet::empty () const

This function is provided for STL compatibility. It is equivalent to isEmpty().

### const_iterator QSet::end () const

Returns a STL-style iterator pointing to the imaginary item after the last item in the set.

See also begin().

### QSet<T> QSet::fromList ( const QList<T> & list ) `[static]`

Returns a QSet object with the data contained in list. Since QSet doesn't allow duplicates, the resulting QSet might be smaller than the original list was.

Example:

        QStringList list;
        list << "Julia" << "Mike" << "Mike" << "Julia" << "Julia";

        QSet<QString> set = QSet<QString>::fromList(list);
        set.contains("Julia");  // returns true
        set.contains("Mike");   // returns true
        set.size();             // returns 2

See also toList() and QList::toSet().

### const_iterator QSet::insert ( const T & value )

Inserts a new item value. If value already exists in the set, nothing happens.

See also operator<<(), remove(), and contains().

### QSet<T> & QSet::intersect ( const QSet<T> & other )

Removes any items in this set that don't exist in the other set.

See also operator&=(), unite(), and subtract().

### bool QSet::isEmpty () const

Returns true if the set contains no elements; otherwise returns false.

See also size().

### bool QSet::remove ( const T & value )

Removes any occurrence of item value from the set. Returns true if an item was actually removed; otherwise returns false.

See also contains() and insert().

### void QSet::reserve ( int size )

Ensures that the QSet's internal hash table consists of at least size buckets.

This function is useful for code that needs to build a huge set and wants to avoid repeated reallocation. For example:

        QSet<QString> set;
        set.reserve(20000);
        for (int i = 0; i < 20000; ++i)
            set.insert(values[i]);

Ideally, size should be slightly more than the maximum number of elements expected in the set. size doesn't have to be prime, because QSet will use a prime number internally anyway. If size is an underestimate, the worst that will happen is that the QSet will be a bit slower.

In general, you will rarely ever need to call this function. QSet's internal hash table automatically shrinks or grows to provide good performance without wasting too much memory.

See also squeeze() and capacity().

### int QSet::size () const

Returns the number of items in the set.

See also isEmpty() and count().

### void QSet::squeeze ()

Reduces the size of the QSet's internal hash table to save memory.

The sole purpose of this function is to provide a means of fine tuning QSet's memory usage. In general, you will rarely ever need to call this function.

See also reserve() and capacity().

### QSet<T> & QSet::subtract ( const QSet<T> & other )

Removes all the items in the other set from this set.

See also operator-=(), unite(), and intersect().

### QList<T> QSet::toList () const

Returns a QList object with the data contained in this QSet. The order of the elements in the QList is undefined.

Example:

        QSet<double> set;
        set << "red" << "green" << "blue" << ... << "black";

        QList<double> list = set.toList();
        qSort(list);

See also fromList(), QList::fromSet(), and qSort().

### QSet<T> & QSet::unite ( const QSet<T> & other )

Inserts all the items in the other set into this set.

See also operator|=(), intersect(), and subtract().

### QList<T> QSet::values () const

Returns a QList object with the data contained in this QSet. The order of the elements in the QList is undefined.

This is the same as toList().

See also fromList(), QList::fromSet(), and qSort().

### bool QSet::operator!= ( const QSet<T> & other ) const

Returns true if other is not equal to this set; otherwise returns false.

Two sets are considered equal if they contain the same elements.

This function requires the value type to implement `operator==()`.

See also operator==().

### QSet<T> QSet::operator& ( const QSet<T> & other )

Returns the intersection of this set and other.

See also intersect(), operator&=(), operator|(), and operator-().

### QSet<T> & QSet::operator&= ( const QSet<T> & other )

Syntactic sugar for intersect(other).

See also operator&(), operator|=(), and operator-=().

### QSet<T> QSet::operator+ ( const QSet<T> & other )

Returns the union of this set and other.

See also unite(), operator|=(), operator&(), and operator-().

### QSet<T> & QSet::operator+= ( const QSet<T> & other )

Syntactic sugar for unite(other).

See also operator|(), operator&=(), and operator-=().

### QSet<T> QSet::operator- ( const QSet<T> & other )

Returns the set difference of this set with other.

See also subtract(), operator-=(), operator|(), and operator&().

### QSet<T> & QSet::operator-= ( const QSet<T> & other )

Syntactic sugar for subtract(other).

See also operator-(), operator|=(), and operator&=().

### QSet<T> & QSet::operator<< ( const T & value )

Inserts a new item value and returns a reference to this set. If value already exists in the set, the set is left unchanged.

See also insert().

### QSet<T> & QSet::operator= ( const QSet<T> & other )

Assigns other to this set and returns a reference to this set.

### bool QSet::operator== ( const QSet<T> & other ) const

Returns true if other is equal to this set; otherwise returns false.

Two sets are considered equal if they contain the same elements.

This function requires the value type to implement `operator==()`.

See also operator!=().

### QSet<T> QSet::operator| ( const QSet<T> & other )

Returns the union of this set and other.

See also unite(), operator|=(), operator&(), and operator-().

### QSet<T> & QSet::operator|= ( const QSet<T> & other )

Syntactic sugar for unite(other).

See also operator|(), operator&=(), and operator-=().

## Related Non-Members

### QDataStream & operator<< ( QDataStream & out, const QSet<T> & set )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Writes the set set to stream out.

This function requires the value type to implement `operator<<()`.

See also Format of the QDataStream operators.

### QDataStream & operator>> ( QDataStream & in, QSet<T> & set )

This is an overloaded member function, provided for convenience. It behaves essentially like the above function.

Reads a set from stream in into set.

This function requires the value type to implement `operator>>()`.

See also Format of the QDataStream operators.