Is it impossible to use an STL map together with a struct as key?

Question

I have the following code:

struct Node
{
  int a;
  int b;
};

Node node;
node.a = 2;
node.b = 3;

map<int, int> aa;
aa[1]=1; // OK.

map<Node, int> bb;
bb[node]=1; // Compile error.

When I tried to map an instance of my struct Node to an int, I got a compile error. Why?

Answer 1

For a thing to be usable as a key in a map, you have to be able to compare it using operator<(). You need to add such an operator to your node class:

struct Node
{
 int a;
 int b;

 bool operator<( const Node & n ) const {
   return this->a < n.a;   // for example
 }
};

Of course, what the real operator does depends on what comparison actually means for your struct.