The Standard Template

Library

G

C++ is endowed with the standard template library (STL), which offers a
variety of utility functions and data structures generalized as templates and
coined containers.

A comprehensive reference manual of the STL can be found at the Inter-
net sites:

http://cppreference.com

http://www.josuttis.com/libbook/idx.html

The contents of STL can be broadly classified into the following categories:

• Algorithmscontaining various subroutines and utility functions


• Sequence containers(vectors, lists) holding sequences of data elements


• Associative containers(maps and multimaps) containing key/value pairs
  that provide access to values by way of keys


• Ordered sets(sets and multisets) storing elements in an orderly fashion


• Container adapters(stacks, queues, and priority queues) used to enforce
  access rules


• Specialized containers(bitsets, strings, valarrays) offering limited yet ef-
  ficient implementations for specific data types

A vectorcontains contiguous elements stored in an array. Accessing
members or appending elements requires constant time, as in RAM; locating a
specific element or inserting elements requires linear time.

Astringis similar to avector, but enjoys an extended menu of
utility functions.

Adouble-ended queueoffers fast insertion and deletion at the beginning
and end of a vector.