=====copy=====
Syntax:

<code>
    #include <algorithm>
    output_iterator copy( input_iterator start, input_iterator end, output_iterator dest );
</code>

The copy() function copies the elements between start and end to dest. In other
words, after copy() has run,

<code>
   *dest == *start
   *(dest+1) == *(start+1)
   *(dest+2) == *(start+2)
   ...
   *(dest+N) == *(start+N)
</code>

The return value is the position in the destination range after the last element copied (i.e. dest+N+1).
copy() runs in [[/complexity|linear time]].

For example, the following code uses copy() to copy the contents of one vector
to another:

<code>
   vector<int> from_vector;
   for( int i = 0; i < 10; i++ ) {
     from_vector.push_back( i );
   }

   vector<int> to_vector(10);

   copy( from_vector.begin(), from_vector.end(), to_vector.begin() );

   cout << "to_vector contains: ";
   copy( to_vector.begin(), to_vector.end(), ostream_iterator<int>( cout, " " ) );

   cout << endl;
</code>

Related Topics: [[copy_backward]], [[copy_n]], [[generate]], [[remove_copy]], [[swap]], [[transform]]