C++ Standard Library

• The STL (Standard Type Library)

The STL contains:

· class templates for containers, (e.g stack, queue )

· generic algorithms using the containers (e.g. sort, reverse )

· iterators for traversing a container

Some of the class templates in the STL are:

stack

queue

list linked list

map hash table

vector dynamic sized array

set

E.g.

template class<T> class stack

{

public:

stack();

stack( const stack& );

void push( const T& );

void pop();

T& top();

bool empty() const;

unsigned int size() const;

stack& operator=( const stack& );

bool operator==( const stack&, const stack& );

...

private:

...

};

The generic algorithms are function templates that can be used with STL class templates.

For example: find( begin, end, item )

template< class Titerator, class Titem >

Titerator find( Titerator begin, Titerator end, const Titem& item );

For an int[] array, Titem is int, and Titerator is int*.

#include <iostream>

#include <algorithm>

using namespace std;

int main()

{

int a[] = { 12, 14, 10 };

int* pos = find( a, a+3, 14 );

cout << *pos;

}

More generally, find() uses an iterator

#include <iostream>

#include <algorithm>

#include <list>

using namespace std;

int main()

{

list<int> myList;

myList.push_back( 12 ); // enqueue

myList.push_back( 14 );

myList.push_back( 10 );

for (list<int>::iterator iter = myList.begin();

iter != myList.end();

iter++)

{

cout << *iter << ' ';

}

}