Data structure (Map-like implementation) in C++

Question

I wrote this code to implement a data structure in C++. It works perfectly, however, I am looking to improve its efficiency. Also, I'm just getting started in C++ so using code to explain your suggestions would be incredibly helpful.

Here is the class that implements the data structure:

class key_value_sequences {
public:
// YOU SHOULD USE C++ CONTAINERS TO AVOID RAW POINTERS
// IF YOU DECIDE TO USE POINTERS, MAKE SURE THAT YOU MANAGE MEMORY PROPERLY

// IMPLEMENT ME: SHOULD RETURN SIZE OF A SEQUENCE FOR GIVEN KEY
// IF NO SEQUENCE EXISTS FOR A GIVEN KEY RETURN -1
int size(int key) const
{
    for( int i=0; i<pairs.size(); i++)
    {
        if( pairs[i][0] == key )
        {
            return pairs[i].size() - 1;
        }
    }
    return -1;
}

// IMPLEMENT ME: SHOULD RETURN POINTER TO A SEQUENCE FOR GIVEN KEY
// IF NO SEQUENCE EXISTS FOR A GIVEN KEY RETURN nullptr
const int* data(int key) const
{
    int length = size(key);

    if( length == -1 )
    return nullptr;

    for( int i=0; i<pairs.size(); i++)
    {
        if( pairs[i][0] == key )
        {
        return &pairs[i][1];
        }
    }
    return nullptr;
}

// IMPLEMENT ME: INSERT VALUE INTO A SEQUENCE IDENTIFIED BY GIVEN KEY
void insert(int key, int value)
{
    bool found = false;
    int pos = -1;

    for( int i=0; i<pairs.size(); i++)
    {
        if( pairs[i][0] == key )
        {
            found = true;
            pos = i;
        }
    }

    // insert if found in old vector,
    // else make a new vector

    if( found )
    {
        pairs[pos].push_back(value);
    }
    else
    {
        // insert new value set for the key
        std::vector<int> v;
        v.push_back(key);
        v.push_back(value);
        pairs.push_back(v);
    }
}
private:

// list is stored as a vector and
std::vector< std::vector<int> > pairs;

}; // class key_value_sequences

Answer 1

You should implement a private function find, that returns the index of a key

const int find(const int key) const
{
    for (unsigned i=0; i < pairs.size(); ++i)
    {
        if(pairs[i][0] == key )
        {
            return i;
        }
    }
    return -1;
}

This should simplify your functions considerably

const int size(const int key) const
{
    const int index = find(key);
    if (index == -1)
        return -1;
    return pairs[index].size() - 1;  
}

const int* data(const int key) const
{
    const int index = find(key);

    if( index == -1 )
        return nullptr;
    return &pairs[index][1];
}

void insert(const int key, const int value)
{
    const int index = find(key);

    if( index != -1 )
    {
        pairs[index].push_back(value);
    }
    else
    {
        std::vector<int> v = {key, value};
        pairs.push_back(v);
    }
}

Generally i would strongly recommend to split keys and values. One possibility would be to create a std::pair

std::vector<std::pair<int, std::vector<int>>> pairs;

Otherwise you could split it into a map and a vector.