The standard library provides no fewer than ten alternative forms of container. In this section we will briefly describe the varieties, considering the characteristics of each, and discuss how you might go about selecting which container to use in solving a particular problem. Subsequent sections will then go over each of the different containers in more detail.
The following chart shows the ten container types provided by the standard library, and gives a short description of the most significant characteristic for each.
|
Name |
Characteristic |
|
vector |
random access to elements, efficient insertions at end |
|
list |
efficient insertion and removal throughout |
|
deque |
random access, efficient insertion at front or back |
|
set |
elements maintained in order, efficient test for inclusion, insertion and removal |
|
multiset |
set with repeated copies |
|
map |
access to values via keys, efficient insertion and removal |
|
multimap |
map permitting duplicate keys |
|
stack |
insertions and removals only from top |
|
queue |
insertion at back, removal from front |
|
priority queue |
efficient access and removal of largest value |