A standard template library (STL) collection.
Within the standard template library, collection classes are often described as containers. A container stores a collection of other objects and provides certain basic functionality that supports the use of generic algorithms. Containers come in two basic flavors: sequences, and associative containers. They are further distinguished by the type of iterator they support.
A sequence supports a linear arrangement of single elements. vector, list, deque, bitset, and string fall into this category. Associative containers map values onto keys, which provides efficient retrieval of the values based on the keys. The STL provides the map, multimap, set and multiset associative containers. map and multimap store the value and the key separately and allow for fast retrieval of the value, based upon fast retrieval of the key. set and multiset store only keys allowing fast retrieval of the key itself.
Containers within the STL must meet the following requirements. Sequences and associative containers must also meet their own separate sets of requirements. The requirements for containers are:
A container allocates all storage for the objects it holds.
A container X of objects of type T provides the following types:
| X::value_type | a T |
| X::reference | lvalue of T |
| X::const_reference | const lvalue of T |
| X::iterator | an iterator type pointing to T. X::iterator cannot be an output iterator. |
| X::const_iterator | an iterator type pointing to const T. x::iterator cannot be an output iterator. |
| X::difference_type | a signed integral type (must be the same as the distance type for X::iterator and X::const_iterator |
| X::size_type | an unsigned integral type representing any non-negative value of difference_type |
A container provides a default constructor, a copy constructor, an assignment operator, and a full complement of comparison operators (==, !=, <, >, <=, >=).
A container provides the following member functions:
| begin() | Returns an iterator or a const_iterator pointing to the first element in the collection. |
| end() | Returns an iterator or a const_iterator pointing just beyond the last element in the collection. |
| swap(container) | Swaps elements between this container and the swap's argument. |
| clear() | Deletes all the elements in the container. |
| size() | Returns the number of elements in the collection as a size_type. |
| max_size() | Returns the largest possible number of elements for this type of container as a size_type. |
| empty() | Returns true if the container is empty, false otherwise. |
A container may be reversible. Essentially, a reversible container provides a reverse iterator that allows traversal of the collection in a direction opposite that of the default iterator. A reversible container must meet the following requirements in addition to those listed above:
A reversible container provides the following types:
| X::reverse_iterator | An iterator type pointing to T. |
| X::const_reverse_iterator | An iterator type pointing to const T |
A reversible container provides the following member functions:
| rbegin() | Returns a reverse_iterator or a const_reverse_iterator pointing past the end of the collection |
| rend() | Returns a reverse_iterator or a const_reverse_iterator pointing to the first element in the collection. |
In addition to the requirements for containers, the following requirements hold for sequences:
iterator and const_iterator must be forward iterators, bidirectional iterators or random access iterators.
A sequence provides the following constructors:
| X(n, t) | Constructs a container with n copies of t. |
| X(i, j) | Constructs a container with elements from the range [i,j). |
A sequence provides the following member functions:
| insert(p,t) | Inserts the element t in front of the position identified by the iterator p. |
| insert(p,n,t) | Inserts n copies of t in front of the position identified by the iterator p. |
| insert(p,i,j) | Inserts elements from the range [i,j) in front of the position identified by the the iterator p. |
| erase(q) | Erases the element pointed to by the iterator q. |
| erase(q1,q2) | Erases the elements in the range [q1,q2). |
A sequence may also provide the following member functions if they can be implemented with constant time complexity.
| front() | Returns the element pointed to by begin() |
| back() | Returns the element pointed to by end() |
| push_front(x) | Inserts the element x at begin() |
| push_back(x) | Inserts the element x at end() |
| pop_front() | Erases the element at begin() |
| pop_back() | Erases the element at end() -1 |
| operator[](n) | Returns the element at a.begin() + n |
In addition to the requirements for a container, the following requirements hold for associative containers:
For an associative container iterator and const_iterator must be bidirectional iterators. Associative containers are inherently sorted. Their iterators proceed through the container in the non-descending order of keys (where non-descending order is defined by the comparison object that was used to construct the container).
An associative container provides the following types:
| X::key_type | the type of the Key |
| X::key_compare | the type of the comparison to use to put the keys in order |
| X::value_compare | the type of the comparison used on values |
The default constructor and copy constructor for associative containers use the template parameter comparison class.
An associative container provides the following additional constructors:
| X(c) | Construct an empty container using c as the comparision object |
| X(i,j,c) | Constructs a container with elements from the range [i,j) and the comparison object c. |
| X(i, j) | Constructs a container with elements from the range [i,j) using the template parameter comparison object. |
An associative container provides the following member functions:
| key_comp() | Returns the comparison object used in constructing the associative container. |
| value_comp() | Returns the value comparison object used in constructing the associative container. |
| insert(t) | Inserts t if and only if there is no element in the container with key equal to the key of t. Returns a pair<iterator,bool>. The bool component of the returned pair indicates the success or failure of the operation and the iterator component points to the element with key equal to key of t. |
| insert(p,t) | If the container does not support redundant key values then this function only inserts t if there is no key present that is equal to the key of t. If the container does support redundant keys then this function always inserts the element t. The iterator p serves as a hint of where to start searching, allowing for some optimization of the insertion. It does not restrict the algorithm from inserting ahead of that location if necessary. |
| insert(i,j) | Inserts elements from the range [i,j). |
| erase(k) | Erases all elements with key equal to k. Returns number of erased elements. |
| erase(q) | Erases the element pointed to by q. |
| erase(q1,q2) | Erases the elements in the range [q1,q2). |
| find(k) | Returns an iterator pointing to an element with key equal to k or end() if such an element is not found. |
| count(k) | Returns the number of elements with key equal to k. |
| lower_bound(k) | Returns an iterator pointing to the first element with a key greater than or equal to k. |
| upper_bound(k) | Returns an iterator pointing to the first element with a key less than or equal to k. |
| equal_range(k) | Returns a pair of iterators such that the first element of the pair is equivalent to lower_bound(k) and the second element equivelent to upper_bound(k). |
bitset, deque, list, map, multimap, multiset, priority_queue, queue, set, stack, vector