C++11: how to use accumulate / lambda function to calculate the sum of all sizes from a vector of string? - string

Question

For a vector of strings, return the sum of each string's size.
I tried to use accumulate, together with a lambda function (Is it the best way of calculating what I want in 1-line?)
Codes are written in wandbox (https://wandbox.org/permlink/YAqXGiwxuGVZkDPT)
#include <iostream>
#include <numeric>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
int main() {
vector<string> v = {"abc", "def", "ghi"};
size_t totalSize = accumulate(v.begin(), v.end(), [](string s){return s.size();});
cout << totalSize << endl;
return 0;
}
I expect to get a number (9), however, errors are returned:
/opt/wandbox/gcc-head/include/c++/10.0.0/bits/stl_numeric.h:135:39: note: 'std::__cxx11::basic_string' is not derived from 'const __gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<_Iterator, _Container>'
135 | __init = _GLIBCXX_MOVE_IF_20(__init) + *__first;
I want to know how to fix my codes? Thanks.

Answer 1

That's because you do not use std::accumulate properly. Namely, you 1) did not specify the initial value and 2) provided unary predicate instead of a binary. Please check the docs.
The proper way to write what you want would be:
#include <iostream>
#include <numeric>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
int main() {
vector<string> v = {"abc", "def", "ghi"};
size_t totalSize = accumulate(v.begin(), v.end(), 0,
[](size_t sum, const std::string& str){ return sum + str.size(); });
cout << totalSize << endl;
return 0;
}
Both issues are fixed in this code:
0 is specified as initial value, because std::accumulate needs to know where to start, and
The lambda now accepts two parameters: accumulated value, and the next element.
Also note how std::string is passed by const ref into the lambda, while you passed it by value, which was leading to string copy on each invocation, which is not cool