---
id: shorten-cpp
title: Shortening C++ Code
author: Benjamin Qi
description: How to make your code (un?)readable.
---
## Introduction
Read before checking code below.
reference
## [My Template](https://github.com/bqi343/USACO/blob/master/Implementations/content/contest/template.cpp)
Some comments about specific parts:
### Pairs
```cpp
typedef pair pi;
#define mp make_pair
#define f first
#define s second
```
Pretty annoying to keep typing `first` and `second` (especially if you have nested pairs ...)
### Vectors
```cpp
typedef vector vi;
#define sz(x) (int)x.size()
#define all(x) begin(x), end(x)
```
It's generally a good idea to convert a size to a signed integer before doing anything with it to avoid cases like the following.
```cpp
vi x;
cout << x.size()-1 << "\n"; // 18446744073709551615
cout << sz(x)-1 << "\n"; // -1
```
`all(v)` makes sorting part or all of a vector a bit shorter.
```cpp
vi v = {2,4,1,5,3};
sort(1+all(v)); // {2,1,3,4,5}
sort(all(v)); // {1,2,3,4,5}
```
### Constants
```cpp
const int MOD = 1e9+7; // 998244353;
const int MX = 2e5+5;
const ll INF = 1e18;
const ld PI = acos((ld)-1);
```
$10^9+7$ is a prime that appears quite frequently in programming contests. Interestingly, $(10^9+7-1)/2=5\cdot 10^8+3$ is also prime. On the other hand, $998244353-1$ is divisible by $2^{23}$, which is useful for [NTT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrete_Fourier_transform_(general)#Number-theoretic_transform).
Almost all USACO problems satisfy $N\le 2\cdot 10^5$, so that's what `MX` is for.
### Generating Random Numbers
```cpp
mt19937 rng((uint32_t)chrono::steady_clock::now().time_since_epoch().count());
```
See [neal's blog](https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/61587) about why `rand()` is bad. Use `rng()` instead.
### Template
```cpp
template bool ckmin(T& a, const T& b) {
return b < a ? a = b, 1 : 0; }
template bool ckmax(T& a, const T& b) {
return a < b ? a = b, 1 : 0; }
```
See [negCyc](https://github.com/bqi343/USACO/blob/master/Implementations/content/graphs%20(12)/Basics/NegativeCycle%20(7.3).h) for an example of usage.
### Lambda Expressions
(describe more)