made for a question on SO

find_contiguous_block.cpp

//!
//! @author Yue Wang
//! @date   15 Oct 2014
//! @note   for a question on SO:
//! http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26353067/how-to-recursively-compare-vectors/26359781#26359781
//!

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>

/**
 * @brief find_contiguous_block
 * @complx  O(n)
 */
template<typename Iter>
bool find_contiguous_block(Iter first_a, Iter last_a, Iter first_b, Iter last_b)
{
    if(first_a == last_a)
        return true;

    auto found = std::find(first_b, last_b, *first_a);
    if(found == last_b)
        return false;
    else
        return find_contiguous_block(++first_a, last_a, found, last_b);
}

int main()
{
    std::vector<int> a{5,6,7};
    std::vector<int> b{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8};
    std::cout << find_contiguous_block(a.begin(),a.end(),b.begin(),b.end());

    return 0;
}