Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025
The std::unordered_map::insert() in C++ STL is a built-in function used to insert a key-value pair in unordered_map container. As unordered maps only store unique elements, this function does not insert elements with duplicate keys. In this article, we will learn about std::unordered_map::insert() in C++.
Example:
C++
// C++ program to illustrate the use of
// unordered_map::insert()
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int main() {
unordered_map<int, string> um;
// Insert single elements in random order
um.insert({1, "one"});
// Insert multiple elements
um.insert({{2, "two"}, {4, "four"}});
for (auto i : um)
cout << i.first << ": " << i.second << '\n';
return 0;
}
4: four 2: two 1: oneunordered_map::insert() Syntax
um.insert({k, v}) // For single element
um.insert(pos, {k, v}) // For single element near pos
um.insert({ {k1, v1}, {k2, v2}, ….}); // For multiple elements
um.insert(first, last); // For range
We can use these overloads for different ways to insert elements in std::map() in C++:
Insert a Single Elementunordered_map::insert() method can be used to insert the single key value pair in std::unordered_map container.
Syntaxum.insert({k, v});
Parameters
Return Value
// C++ program to insert a single element using
// unordered_map::insert method
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int main() {
unordered_map<int, string> um;
// Insert single elements one by one
um.insert({1, "one"});
um.insert({4, "four"});
um.insert({2, "two"});
// Trying to insert duplicate key
um.insert({2, "TWO"});
for (auto i : um)
cout << i.first << '\t' << i.second << '\n';
return 0;
}
2 two 4 four 1 one
Time Complexity: O(1) average, O(n) worst, where n is the number of elements in unordered_map
Auxiliary Space: O(1)
We can also use the unordered_map::insert() function to insert the key-value pair near the given position. The std::unordered_map are stored according to their hash codes. We cannot force the insertion at any particular position, so the given position only gives a hint to unordered_map::insert() function.
Syntaxum.insert(pos, {k, v});
Parameters
Return Value
// C++ program to insert a pair near some given
// position using unordered_map::insert()
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int main() {
unordered_map<int, string> um;
um.insert({1, "one"});
um.insert({4, "four"});
// Finding the position to insert
auto it = um.find(4);
// Inserting {2, "two"} starting the search
// from position where 4 is present
um.insert(it, {2, "two"});
for (auto i : um)
cout << i.first << '\t' << i.second << '\n';
return 0;
}
2 two 4 four 1 one
Time Complexity: O(1) average, O(n) worst, where n is the number of elements in unordered_map
Auxiliary Space: O(1)
We can also use the std::unordered_map::insert() method to insert multiple elements at once using initializer list.
Syntaxum.insert({ {k1, v1}, {k2, v2}, …});
Parameters
Return Value
// C++ program to insert multiple key-value pairs
// using initializer list with unordered_map::insert()
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int main() {
unordered_map<int, string> um;
// Insert multiple key-value pairs using
// initializer list
um.insert({{1, "one"}, {2, "two"}, {4, "four"}});
// Display the elements of the unordered_map
for (auto i : um)
cout << i.first << '\t' << i.second << '\n';
return 0;
}
4 four 2 two 1 one
Time Complexity: O(k) average, O(n * k) worst, where n is the number of elements in unordered_map.
Auxiliary Space: O(k), where k is the number of elements to be inserted.
The unordered_map::insert() function can also be used to insert elements from the given range. This range can by any STL container or an array.
Syntaxum.insert(first, last);
Parameters
Return Value
// C++ program to insert multiple elements from
// given range using unordered_map::insert()
#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int main() {
unordered_map<int, string> um;
// Vector of pairs to insert into unordered_map
vector<pair<int, string>> v = {{1, "one"},
{2, "two"}, {4, "four"}};
// Insert elements from the defined range
um.insert(v.begin(), v.end());
for (auto i : um)
cout << i.first << '\t' << i.second << '\n';
return 0;
}
4 four 2 two 1 one
Time Complexity: O(k) average, O(n * k) worst, where n is the number of elements in unordered_map.
Auxiliary Space: O(k), where k is the number of elements to be inserted.
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