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::flat_multiset

std::flat_multiset is a container that was introduced in the C++ STL that’s designed to store elements in a sorted order. Unlike std::multiset, which is typically implemented as a red-black tree, std::flat_multiset stores its elements in a contiguous memory block, similar to a std::vector container. This design choice offers improved cache performance due to data locality, making it efficient for scenarios where the container is not frequently modified after being filled.

Purpose and suitability

Std::flat_multiset is a container that stores elements in a sorted array, similar to std::flat_set, but allows for multiple occurrences of equivalent elements.

This container offers the following:

  • Efficient lookup times thanks to its sorted nature
  • Improved cache locality and predictability in memory usage

It’s especially suitable in the following scenarios:

  • When duplicates are permissible and you need sorted access
  • When...