Book Image

C++ Fundamentals

By : Antonio Mallia, Francesco Zoffoli
Book Image

C++ Fundamentals

By: Antonio Mallia, Francesco Zoffoli

Overview of this book

C++ Fundamentals begins by introducing you to the C++ compilation model and syntax. You will then study data types, variable declaration, scope, and control flow statements. With the help of this book, you'll be able to compile fully working C++ code and understand how variables, references, and pointers can be used to manipulate the state of the program. Next, you will explore functions and classes — the features that C++ offers to organize a program — and use them to solve more complex problems. You will also understand common pitfalls and modern best practices, especially the ones that diverge from the C++98 guidelines. As you advance through the chapters, you'll study the advantages of generic programming and write your own templates to make generic algorithms that work with any type. This C++ book will guide you in fully exploiting standard containers and algorithms, understanding how to pick the appropriate one for each problem. By the end of this book, you will not only be able to write efficient code but also be equipped to improve the readability, performance, and maintainability of your programs.
Table of Contents (9 chapters)
C++ Fundamentals
Preface

Associative Containers


Associative containers are containers that allow for the fast lookup of elements. Additionally, the elements are always kept in a sorted order. The order is determined by the value of the element and a comparison function. The comparison function is called a comparator, and by default this is the operator<, although the user can supply a Functor (function object) as a parameter to specify how the elements should be compared. The <functional> header contains many such objects that can be used to sort the associative containers, like std::less or std::less.

Figure 5.10: Table presenting associative containers and their descriptions

Typically, associative containers are implemented as variations of binary trees, providing fast element lookup by exploiting the logarithmic complexity of the underlying structure.

Set and Multiset

A Set is a container that contains a unique group of sorted elements. A Multiset is similar to Set, but it allows duplicate elements:

Figure...