template Iterator parallel_find(Iterator first,Iterator last,MatchType match) { struct find_element { void operator()(Iterator begin,Iterator end, MatchType match, std::promise* result, std::atomic* done_flag) { try { for(;(begin!=end) && !done_flag->load();++begin) { if(*begin==match) { result->set_value(begin); done_flag->store(true); return; } } } catch(...) { try { result->set_exception(std::current_exception()); done_flag->store(true); } catch(...) {} } } }; unsigned long const length=std::distance(first,last); if(!length) return last; unsigned long const min_per_thread=25; unsigned long const max_threads= (length+min_per_thread-1)/min_per_thread; unsigned long const hardware_threads= std::thread::hardware_concurrency(); unsigned long const num_threads= std::min(hardware_threads!=0?hardware_threads:2,max_threads); unsigned long const block_size=length/num_threads; std::promise result; std::atomic done_flag(false); std::vector threads(num_threads-1); { join_threads joiner(threads); Iterator block_start=first; for(unsigned long i=0;i<(num_threads-1);++i) { Iterator block_end=block_start; std::advance(block_end,block_size); threads[i]=std::thread(find_element(), block_start,block_end,match, &result,&done_flag); block_start=block_end; } find_element()(block_start,last,match,&result,&done_flag); } if(!done_flag.load()) { return last; } return result.get_future().get(); }