std::uninitialized_move

Defined in header `<memory>`
template< class InputIt, class NoThrowForwardIt > NoThrowForwardIt uninitialized_move( InputIt first, InputIt last, NoThrowForwardIt d_first );	(1)	(since C++17)
template< class ExecutionPolicy, class ForwardIt, class NoThrowForwardIt > NoThrowForwardIt uninitialized_move( ExecutionPolicy&& policy, ForwardIt first, ForwardIt last, NoThrowForwardIt d_first );	(2)	(since C++17)

1) Moves elements from the range [first, last) to an uninitialized memory area beginning at d_first as if by
for (; first != last; ++d_first, (void) ++first)
::new (static_cast<void*>(std::addressof(*d_first)))
typename std::iterator_traits<NoThrowForwardIt>::value_type(std::move(*first));

If an exception is thrown during the initialization, some objects in [first, last) are left in a valid but unspecified state, and the objects already constructed are destroyed in an unspecified order.

If d_first + [0, std::distance(first, last)) overlaps with [first, last), the behavior is undefined.

(since C++20)

2) Same as (1), but executed according to policy. This overload does not participate in overload resolution unless

std::is_execution_policy_v<std::decay_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true.	(until C++20)
std::is_execution_policy_v<std::remove_cvref_t<ExecutionPolicy>> is true.	(since C++20)

Parameters

first, last	-	the range of the elements to move
d_first	-	the beginning of the destination range
policy	-	the execution policy to use. See execution policy for details.
Type requirements
- `InputIt` must meet the requirements of LegacyInputIterator.
- `ForwardIt` must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.
- `NoThrowForwardIt` must meet the requirements of LegacyForwardIterator.
- No increment, assignment, comparison, or indirection through valid instances of `NoThrowForwardIt` may throw exceptions.

Return value

Iterator to the element past the last element moved.

Complexity

Linear in the distance between first and last.

Exceptions

The overload with a template parameter named ExecutionPolicy reports errors as follows:

If execution of a function invoked as part of the algorithm throws an exception and ExecutionPolicy is one of the standard policies, std::terminate is called. For any other ExecutionPolicy, the behavior is implementation-defined.
If the algorithm fails to allocate memory, std::bad_alloc is thrown.

Possible implementation

template<class InputIt, class NoThrowForwardIt>
NoThrowForwardIt uninitialized_move(InputIt first, InputIt last, NoThrowForwardIt d_first)
{
    using Value = typename std::iterator_traits<NoThrowForwardIt>::value_type;
    NoThrowForwardIt current = d_first;
    try
    {
        for (; first != last; ++first, (void) ++current)
            ::new (static_cast<void*>(std::addressof(*current))) Value(std::move(*first));
        return current;
    }
    catch (...)
    {
        std::destroy(d_first, current);
        throw;
    }
}

Example

Run this code

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iomanip>
#include <iostream>
#include <memory>
#include <string>
 
void print(auto rem, auto first, auto last)
{
    for (std::cout << rem; first != last; ++first)
        std::cout << std::quoted(*first) << ' ';
    std::cout << '\n';
}
 
int main()
{
    std::string in[]{"Home", "Work!"};
    print("initially, in: ", std::begin(in), std::end(in));
 
    if (
        constexpr auto sz = std::size(in);
        void* out = std::aligned_alloc(alignof(std::string), sizeof(std::string) * sz))
    {
        try
        {
            auto first{static_cast<std::string*>(out)};
            auto last{first + sz};
            std::uninitialized_move(std::begin(in), std::end(in), first);
 
            print("after move, in: ", std::begin(in), std::end(in));
            print("after move, out: ", first, last);
 
            std::destroy(first, last);
        }
        catch (...)
        {
            std::cout << "Exception!\n";
        }
        std::free(out);
    }
}

Possible output:

initially, in: "Home" "Work!"
after move, in: "" ""
after move, out: "Home" "Work!"

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 3870	C++20	this algorithm might create objects on a const storage	kept disallowed

Compiler support
Freestanding and hosted
Language
Standard library
Standard library headers
Named requirements
Feature test macros (C++20)
Language support library
Concepts library (C++20)
Metaprogramming library (C++11)
Diagnostics library
General utilities library
Strings library
Containers library
Iterators library
Ranges library (C++20)
Algorithms library
Numerics library
Localizations library
Input/output library
Filesystem library (C++17)
Regular expressions library (C++11)
Concurrency support library (C++11)
Technical specifications
Symbols index
External libraries

uninitialized_copy	copies a range of objects to an uninitialized area of memory (function template)
uninitialized_move_n (C++17)	moves a number of objects to an uninitialized area of memory (function template)
ranges::uninitialized_move (C++20)	moves a range of objects to an uninitialized area of memory (niebloid)