Best way to append vector to vector

Question

std::vector<int> a;
std::vector<int> b;
std::vector<int> c;

I would like to concatenate these three vectors by appending b's and c's elements to a. Which is the best way to do this, and why?

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1) By using vector::insert:

a.reserve(a.size() + b.size() + c.size());
a.insert(a.end(), b.begin(), b.end());
a.insert(a.end(), c.begin(), c.end());
b.clear();
c.clear();

2) By using std::copy:

a.reserve(a.size() + b.size() + c.size());
std::copy(b.begin(), b.end(), std::inserter(a, a.end()));
std::copy(c.begin(), c.end(), std::inserter(a, a.end()));
b.clear();
c.clear();

3) By using std::move (from C++11):

a.reserve(a.size() + b.size() + c.size());
std::move(b.begin(), b.end(), std::inserter(a, a.end()));
std::move(c.begin(), c.end(), std::inserter(a, a.end()));
b.clear();
c.clear();

Answer 1

In my opinion, your first solution is the best way to go.

vector<>::insert is designed to add element so it's the most adequate solution.

You could call reserve on the destination vector to reserve some space, but unless you add a lot of vector together, it's likely that it wont provide much benefits: vector<>::insert know how many elements will be added, you will avoid only one reserve call.

Note: If those were vector of more complex type (ie a custom class, or even std::string), then using std::move could provide you with a nice performance boost, because it would avoid the copy-constructor. For a vector of int however, it won't give you any benefits.

Note 2: It's worth mentioning that using std::move will cause your source vector's content to be unusable.