Book Image

Data Structures and Algorithms with the C++ STL

By : John Farrier
5 (2)
Book Image

Data Structures and Algorithms with the C++ STL

5 (2)
By: John Farrier

Overview of this book

While the Standard Template Library (STL) offers a rich set of tools for data structures and algorithms, navigating its intricacies can be daunting for intermediate C++ developers without expert guidance. This book offers a thorough exploration of the STL’s components, covering fundamental data structures, advanced algorithms, and concurrency features. Starting with an in-depth analysis of the std::vector, this book highlights its pivotal role in the STL, progressing toward building your proficiency in utilizing vectors, managing memory, and leveraging iterators. The book then advances to STL’s data structures, including sequence containers, associative containers, and unordered containers, simplifying the concepts of container adaptors and views to enhance your knowledge of modern STL programming. Shifting the focus to STL algorithms, you’ll get to grips with sorting, searching, and transformations and develop the skills to implement and modify algorithms with best practices. Advanced sections cover extending the STL with custom types and algorithms, as well as concurrency features, exception safety, and parallel algorithms. By the end of this book, you’ll have transformed into a proficient STL practitioner ready to tackle real-world challenges and build efficient and scalable C++ applications.
Table of Contents (30 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Part 1: Mastering std::vector
7
Part 2: Understanding STL Data Structures
13
Part 3: Mastering STL Algorithms
19
Part 4: Creating STL-Compatible Types and Algorithms
23
Part 5: STL Data Structures and Algorithms: Under the Hood

std::unordered_map

Think of this container as an unsorted version of std::map. It associates keys with values but without imposing any order. Instead, it banks on hashing for swift operations.

Purpose and suitability

std::unordered_map is a hash table-based key-value container in the STL. Its core strengths are as follows:

  • Fast average-case key-based access, insertion, and removal
  • Ability to maintain a key-value association

This container is the go-to in the following circumstances:

  • When insertions, deletions, and lookups must be swift on average
  • When the order of elements isn’t a concern

Ideal use cases

The following are some of the ideal use cases for std::unordered_map:

  • Fast associative lookups: When you need quick access to values based on unique keys, std::unordered_map provides average constant-time complexity for search, insert, and delete operations
  • Cache systems: When implementing cache mechanisms where the...