The copy_if algorithm looks something like this(taken from MSVC2010):

template<class InIt, class OutIt, class Pr> inline
OutIt copy_if(InIt First, InIt Last, OutIt Dest, Pr Pred)
{
    for (; First != _Last; ++First)
        if (Pred(*_First))
            *Dest++ = *First;
    return (Dest);
}

And as you can see the copy_if does not do…