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How do I sort a vector of custom objects?

Submitted by: @import:stackoverflow-api·Mar 10, 2026·

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howsortobjectsvectorcustom

Problem

How does one go about sorting a std::vector containing custom (i.e. user-defined) objects?

Probably, you can use the standard library algorithm std::sort along with a predicate (a function or a function object) which would operate on one of the data members (as a key for sorting) in the custom object.

Am I on the right track?

Solution

A simple example using std::sort

struct MyStruct
{
    int key;
    std::string stringValue;

    MyStruct(int k, const std::string& s) : key(k), stringValue(s) {}
};

struct less_than_key
{
    inline bool operator() (const MyStruct& struct1, const MyStruct& struct2)
    {
        return (struct1.key  vec;

vec.push_back(MyStruct(4, "test"));
vec.push_back(MyStruct(3, "a"));
vec.push_back(MyStruct(2, "is"));
vec.push_back(MyStruct(1, "this"));

std::sort(vec.begin(), vec.end(), less_than_key());

Edit: As Kirill V. Lyadvinsky pointed out, instead of supplying a sort predicate, you can implement the operator operator and changing call of sort a bit:

struct MyStruct
{
    int key;
    std::string stringValue;

    MyStruct(int k, const std::string& s) : key(k), stringValue(s) {}

    bool operator > (const MyStruct& str) const
    {
        return (key > str.key);
    }
};

And you should call sort as:

std::sort(vec.begin(), vec.end(),greater());

Code Snippets

struct MyStruct
{
    int key;
    std::string stringValue;

    MyStruct(int k, const std::string& s) : key(k), stringValue(s) {}
};

struct less_than_key
{
    inline bool operator() (const MyStruct& struct1, const MyStruct& struct2)
    {
        return (struct1.key < struct2.key);
    }
};

std::vector < MyStruct > vec;

vec.push_back(MyStruct(4, "test"));
vec.push_back(MyStruct(3, "a"));
vec.push_back(MyStruct(2, "is"));
vec.push_back(MyStruct(1, "this"));

std::sort(vec.begin(), vec.end(), less_than_key());

struct MyStruct
{
    int key;
    std::string stringValue;

    MyStruct(int k, const std::string& s) : key(k), stringValue(s) {}

    bool operator < (const MyStruct& str) const
    {
        return (key < str.key);
    }
};

std::sort(vec.begin(), vec.end());

struct MyStruct
{
    int key;
    std::string stringValue;

    MyStruct(int k, const std::string& s) : key(k), stringValue(s) {}

    bool operator > (const MyStruct& str) const
    {
        return (key > str.key);
    }
};

std::sort(vec.begin(), vec.end(),greater<MyStruct>());

Context

Stack Overflow Q#1380463, score: 457

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