what is time complexity of min_element()

The time complexity of the min_element() function in C++ is O(n), where n is the number of elements in the range.

The min_element() function is used to find the minimum element in a range defined by two iterators. It returns an iterator pointing to the smallest element in the range.

Here is a step-by-step explanation of the time complexity:

1. The function starts by comparing the first element with the rest of the elements in the range.
2. For each comparison, the function checks if the current element is smaller than the current minimum element found so far.
3. If the current element is smaller, it becomes the new minimum element.
4. The function continues this process for each element in the range until it reaches the end.
5. Finally, it returns the iterator pointing to the minimum element.

The time complexity of each comparison operation is O(1). However, since the function needs to compare each element in the range with the current minimum element, the overall time complexity becomes O(n), where n is the number of elements in the range.

This means that as the number of elements in the range increases, the time taken by the min_element() function also increases linearly.