Programming Tips - C/C++: How to prepend to a std::vector

Date: 2017aug24 Update: 2026sep19 Language: C++ Keywords: push_back, push_front, append Q. C/C++: How to prepend to a std::vector<> A. Its slow but this is how you do it:
std::vector<int> a; a.push_back(200); // Append at the end a.insert(a.begin(), 100); // Insert at the beginning (prepend)
If you need to do this a lot use a different container like std::list or std::deque. They have push_front(); Example Use:
#include <vector> #include <string> std::vector<std::string> a; int main() { a.push_back("one"); a.push_back("two"); a.push_back("three"); a.insert(a.begin(), "zero"); // *prepend* for (auto &s: a) { printf("element=%s\n", s.c_str()); } }
Output:
element=zero element=one element=two element=three