Smallest Greater Element on Right Side

Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025

3Given an array of distinct elements, print the closest greater element for every element. The closest greater element for an element x is the smallest element on the right side of x in array which is greater than x. Elements for which no greater element exist, consider next greater element as -1. 

Examples: 

Input: arr[] = {4, 5, 2, 25}
Output: 
Element       NGE
   4      -->   5
   5      -->   25
   2      -->   25
   25     -->   -1

Input: arr[] = {4, 10, 7}
Output: 
Element       NGE
   4       -->  7
   10      -->   -1
   7       -->   -1

Approach: In this post, we will be discussing how to find the Next Greater Element using C++ STL(set). 

Finding the smallest greater element on the right side will be like finding the first greater element of the current element in a list that is sorted. 
Consider example 1, The sorted list would look like 2, 4, 5, 25. 

Here for element 4, the greater element is 5 as it is next to it, so we print 5 and remove 4 because it would not be greater to the other elements since it is no longer on anyone's right. 
Similarly, for 5 it is 25 and we remove 5 from the list, as 5 will not be on the right side of 2 or 25, so it can be deleted.

Given below are the steps to find the Next Greater Element of every index element. 

  • Insert all the elements in a Set, it will store all the elements in an increasing order.
  • Iterate on the array of elements, and for each index, find the upper_bound of the current index element. The upper_bound() returns an iterator which can point to the following position. 
    1. If the iterator is pointing to a position past the last element, then there exists no NGE to the current index element.
    2. If the iterator points to a position referring to an element, then that element is the NGE to the current index element.
  • Find the position of current index element at every traversal and remove it from the set using >lower_bound() and erase() functions of set.

Implementation:

C++
// C++ program to print the 
// NGE's of array elements using 
// C++ STL 
#include <bits/stdc++.h> 
using namespace std; 

// Function to print the NGE 
void printNGE(int a[], int n) 
{ 

    set<int> ms; 

    // insert in the multiset container 
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) 
        ms.insert(a[i]); 

    cout << "Element "
        << "NGE"; 

    // traverse for all array elements 
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) { 

        // find the upper_bound in set 
        auto it = ms.upper_bound(a[i]); 

        // if points to the end, then 
        // no NGE of that element 
        if (it == ms.end()) { 
            cout << "\n " << a[i] 
                << " ----> " << -1; 
        } 

        // print the element at that position 
        else { 
            cout << "\n " << a[i] 
                << " ----> " << *it; 
        } 

        // find the first occurrence of 
        // the index element and delete it 
        it = ms.lower_bound(a[i]); 

        // delete one occurrence 
        // from the container 
        ms.erase(it); 
    } 
} 

// Driver Code 
int main() 
{ 
    int a[] = { 4, 5, 2, 25 }; 
    int n = sizeof(a) / sizeof(a[0]); 

    // Function call to print the NGE 
    printNGE(a, n); 
    return 0; 
} 
Java
// C++ program to print the
// NGE's of array elements using
import java.util.TreeSet;

class Geeks {

    // Function to print the NGE
    static void printNGE(int[] a, int n)
    {

        // Tree Set is an ordered set used to
        // store elements in a sorted manner
        TreeSet<Integer> t = new TreeSet<>();

        // Adding elements into the set
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
            t.add(a[i]);

        System.out.println("ELEMENT     NGE");

        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {

            // If the elements does not have an upper bound
            // or an element greater than it,
            // higher method of TreeSet class will return NULL
            if (t.higher(a[i]) == null)
                System.out.println(a[i] + " ----> "
                                   + "-1");

            // Otherwise print the upper bound of that element
            else
                System.out.println(a[i] + " ----> " + t.higher(a[i]));

            // Remove the current element from the set
            t.remove(a[i]);
        }
    }

    // Driver code
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        int a[] = { 4, 5, 2, 25 };
        int n = a.length;

        printNGE(a, n);
    }
}
Python3
# Python3 program to print the
# NGE's of array elements
from bisect import bisect_right as upper_bound, \
                   bisect_left as lower_bound

# Function to print the NGE
def printNGE(a: list, n):
    ms = set()

    # insert in the multiset container
    for i in range(n):
        ms.add(a[i])

    print("Element NGE", end = "")

    # Required because Python sets
    # are not sorted
    new_arr = list(ms)
    new_arr.sort()

    # traverse for all array elements
    for i in range(n):

        # find the upper_bound in set
        it = upper_bound(new_arr, a[i])

        # if points to the end, then
        # no NGE of that element
        if (it == len(new_arr)):
            print("\n %d ----> -1" % a[i], end = "")

        # print the element at that position
        else:
            print("\n %d ----> %d" % (a[i], 
                    new_arr[it]), end = "")

        # find the first occurrence of
        # the index element and delete it
        it = lower_bound(new_arr, a[i])

        # delete one occurrence
        # from the container
        new_arr.remove(new_arr[it])

# Driver Code
if __name__ == "__main__":
    a = [4, 5, 2, 25]
    n = len(a)

    # Function call to print the NGE
    printNGE(a, n)

# This code is contributed by
# sanjeev2552
C#
// C# program for the above approach

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Geeks
{
    // Function to print the NGE 
    static void printNGE(int[] a, int n)
    {
        // insert in the multiset container of array a
        SortedSet<int> s = new SortedSet<int>(a);

        Console.WriteLine("Element NGE");
            
        // traverse for all array elements 
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            SortedSet<int>.Enumerator enumr = s.GetViewBetween(a[i] + 1, int.MaxValue).GetEnumerator();
                
            
            // if points to the end, then 
            // no NGE of that element 
            if (!enumr.MoveNext()) {
                Console.WriteLine($"{a[i]} ----> -1");
            }
            // print the element at that position 
            else {
                Console.WriteLine($"{a[i]} ----> {enumr.Current}");
            }
            
            // delete one occurrence 
            // from the container 
            s.Remove(a[i]);
        }
    }
        
        
    // Driver Code
    public static void Main()
    {
        
        int[] a = { 4, 5, 2, 25 };
        int n = a.Length;
        
        // Function call to print the NGE 
        printNGE(a, n);
    }
}

// This code is contributed by codebraxnzt
JavaScript
<script>
// Javascript program to print the
// NGE's of array elements using

    // Function to print the NGE
    function printNGE(a , n) {

        // Tree Set is an ordered set used to
        // store elements in a sorted manner
        var t = new Set();

        // Adding elements into the set
        for (var i = 0; i < n; i++)
            t.add(a[i]);

        document.write("ELEMENT     NGE<br/>");

        for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {

            // If the elements does not have an upper bound
            // or an element greater than it,
            // higher method of TreeSet class will return NULL
            if (upper_bound(t,a[i]) == null)
                document.write(a[i] + " ----> " + "-1"+"<br/>");

            // Otherwise print the upper bound of that element
            else
                document.write(a[i] + " ----> " + upper_bound(t,a[i])+"<br/>");

            // Remove the current element from the set
            t.delete(a[i]);
        }
    }
    function upper_bound(s, val)
    {
        let temp = [...s];
        temp.sort((a, b) => b - a);
        return temp[temp.indexOf(val) + 1];
    }
    
    // Driver code
        var a = [ 4, 5, 2, 25 ];
        var n = a.length;

        printNGE(a, n);

// This code contributed by Rajput-Ji
</script>

Output
Element NGE
 4 ----> 5
 5 ----> 25
 2 ----> 25
 25 ----> -1

Complexity Analysis:

  • Time Complexity: O(N*logN), as we are using a loop to traverse N times and in each traversal we are inserting to the set which will cost us logN time.
  • Auxiliary Space: O(N), as we are using extra space for set ms.
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