algo: add minimises linear search

CMakeLists.txt

@@ -189,6 +189,7 @@ list (
     APPEND UTIL_FILES
     adapter.hpp
     adapter.cpp
+    algo/search.hpp
     algo/sort.cpp
     algo/sort.hpp
     alloc/fwd.hpp
@@ -508,6 +509,7 @@ if (TESTS)
     list (
         APPEND TEST_BIN
         ascii
+        algo/search
         algo/sort
         alloc/aligned/foreign
         alloc/aligned/direct

algo/search.hpp

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+/*
+ * This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+ * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
+ * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
+ *
+ * Copyright:
+ *      2018, Danny Robson <danny@nerdcruft.net>
+ */
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <functional>
+
+
+namespace cruft::search {
+    /// Performs a linear search to discover the iterator corresponding to
+    /// the value which minimises a function.
+    ///
+    /// Useful as a mechanism to avoid possibly expensive comparison
+    /// calculations; eg recomputing path distances when testing a series of
+    /// possible routes.
+    ///
+    /// The provided function will be invoked with the supplied argument pack
+    /// as the first arguments and the dereferenced iterator as the final
+    /// argument.
+    template <typename InputT, typename FunctionT, typename ...Args>
+    InputT
+    minimises (InputT first, InputT last, FunctionT &&func, Args &&...args)
+    {
+        auto best_score = std::invoke (func, args..., *first);
+        auto best_item = first;
+
+        for (++first; first != last; ++first) {
+            auto this_score = std::invoke (func, args..., *first);
+            if (this_score < best_score) {
+                best_score = this_score;
+                best_item = first;
+            }
+        }
+
+        return best_item;
+    }
+}

test/algo/search.cpp

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+/*
+ * This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+ * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
+ * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
+ *
+ * Copyright:
+ *      2018, Danny Robson <danny@nerdcruft.net>
+ */
+
+#include <cruft/util/algo/search.hpp>
+#include <cruft/util/tap.hpp>
+#include <cruft/util/point.hpp>
+
+
+int
+main (void)
+{
+    cruft::TAP::logger tap;
+
+    // Check that 'minimises' uses the distance2 metric to correctly find the
+    // closest point to the origin.
+    {
+        cruft::point3f const dst { 0, 0, 0 };
+
+        cruft::point3f const src[] {
+            {  9, 9,  9 },
+            {  3, 4, 55 },
+            {  5, 1,  1 },
+            { 13, 4,  6 },
+        };
+
+
+        auto best = cruft::search::minimises (
+            std::begin (src),
+            std::end   (src),
+            [] (auto const a, auto const b) { return cruft::distance2 (a, b); },
+            dst
+        );
+
+        tap.expect_eq (best, src + 2, "minimises point3 using distance2");
+    }
+
+
+    return tap.status ();
+}