Thread: Efficiently scanning through a vector.

Hello all, again.

I have the following code that searches a vector for a particular item. If it exists already in the vector, it doesn't add the current entry. Otherwise, it adds it:

Code:

if(mMapLinks.size() == 0)
	mMapLinks.push_back(new mapLink(mFilesystem, target, type, x, y, width, height, dstx, dsty));
else
{
	vector<mapLink*>::iterator i = mMapLinks.begin();
	bool exists = false;
	for(; i != mMapLinks.end(); i++)
	{
		if((*i)->getTargetMap() == target)
		{
			exists = true;
			break;
		}
	}

	if(!exists)
		mMapLinks.push_back(new mapLink(mFilesystem, target, type, x, y, width, height, dstx, dsty));
}

where mMapLinks is defined as 'vector<mapLink*> mMapLinks' and target is defined as 'string'.

This code does the job but feels clunky and potentially inefficient. I'd like to stick with a vector as I need very fast linear iteration although I'm not opposed to other suggestions.