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::span

std::span is a template class introduced in C++20 that provides a view of a contiguous sequence of elements, similar to a lightweight, non-owning reference. It represents a range over some contiguous storage, such as an array or a portion of a vector, without owning the underlying data.

The primary purpose of std::span is to safely and efficiently pass arrays of data to functions without needing to pass the size explicitly, as the size information is encapsulated within the std::span object. It can be considered a safer, more flexible alternative to raw pointer-and-size or pointer-and-length parameter passing.

Purpose and suitability

std::span is a non-owning view of a contiguous sequence, often an array or a segment of another container. It is a lightweight, flexible, and safe way to refer to such sequences, ensuring no extraneous copies.

std::span is best suited in the following scenarios:

  • When a temporary view of data is needed
  • When the underlying...