Calculate Dot Product of Two Vectors in C++

1. Use std::inner_product to Calculate Dot Product of Two Vectors in C++
2. Use std::transform_reduce to Calculate Dot Product of Two Vectors in C++
3. Use std::transform_reduce and std::execution::par Calculate Dot Product of Two Vectors

This article will demonstrate multiple methods to calculate the dot product of two vectors in C++.

The dot product is the sum of the products of the corresponding elements of the two vectors. Suppose we have two vectors - {1, 2, 3} and {4, 5, 6}, and the dot product of these vectors is 1*4 + 2*5 + 3*6 = 32.

Use std::inner_product to Calculate Dot Product of Two Vectors in C++

std::inner_product is part of the C++ numeric algorithms library included in the <numeric> header. The method calculates the sum of products on two ranges, the first of which is specified with begin/end iterators and the second range with only begin. The function also takes init as the fourth parameter to initialize the accumulator value. The return value is the final dot product value of the given ranges. Note that std::inner_product always performs operations in a given order.

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <numeric>
#include <iterator>

using std::cout;
using std::endl;
using std::vector;
using std::copy;

int main(){
    vector<int> vec1 { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
    vector<int> vec2 { 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 };

    copy(vec1.begin(), vec1.end(),
         std::ostream_iterator<int>(cout,"; "));
    cout << endl;

    copy(vec2.begin(), vec2.end(),
         std::ostream_iterator<int>(cout,"; "));
    cout << endl;

    cout << "Scalar product is: "
              << inner_product(vec1.begin(), vec1.end(), vec2.begin(), 0);
    cout << endl;

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Output:

1; 2; 3; 4; 5;
2; 4; 6; 8; 10;
Scalar product is: 110

Use std::transform_reduce to Calculate Dot Product of Two Vectors in C++

Unlike the previous method, std::transform_reduce can perform operations on ranges out of order, thus maximizing performance. std::transform_reduce is essentially the parallelized version of the std::inner_product algorithm. The following example demonstrates the function’s execution with the same arguments as passed in the previous example.

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <numeric>
#include <iterator>

using std::cout;
using std::endl;
using std::vector;
using std::copy;
using std::inner_product;

int main(){
    vector<int> vec1 { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
    vector<int> vec2 { 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 };

    copy(vec1.begin(), vec1.end(),
         std::ostream_iterator<int>(cout,"; "));
    cout << endl;

    copy(vec2.begin(), vec2.end(),
         std::ostream_iterator<int>(cout,"; "));
    cout << endl;

    cout << "Scalar product is: "
            << std::transform_reduce(vec1.begin(),
             vec1.end(), vec2.begin(), 0);

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Output:

1; 2; 3; 4; 5;
2; 4; 6; 8; 10;
Scalar product is: 110

Use std::transform_reduce and std::execution::par Calculate Dot Product of Two Vectors

Alternatively, one can additionally specify an execution policy for the std::transform_reduce algorithm. This method offers more control to the programmer as the program flow can be customized with rules of execution as defined in this manual. Even though there are performance gains in using transform_reduce, one should always mind potential race conditions when specifying parallel execution policy.

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <numeric>
#include <iterator>
#include <execution>

using std::cout;
using std::endl;
using std::vector;
using std::copy;
using std::inner_product;

int main(){
    vector<int> vec1 { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
    vector<int> vec2 { 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 };

    copy(vec1.begin(), vec1.end(),
         std::ostream_iterator<int>(cout,"; "));
    cout << endl;

    copy(vec2.begin(), vec2.end(),
         std::ostream_iterator<int>(cout,"; "));
    cout << endl;

    cout << "Scalar product is: "
            << std::transform_reduce(std::execution::par,
                        vec1.begin(), vec1.end(),
                        vec2.begin(), 0);

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Output:

1; 2; 3; 4; 5;
2; 4; 6; 8; 10;
Scalar product is: 110

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