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

Partitioning

Partitioning, in its simplest form, is about organizing sequences based on specific criteria, ensuring that all elements for which the requirements hold true precede those for which it does not. It is about segregating data efficiently, optimizing its organization for rapid access, and enhancing computational efficiency.

The C++ STL offers a rich set of algorithms for partitioning tasks. While one might be tempted to use simple loops and conditionals to achieve such tasks, these STL functions are optimized, tested, and designed to offer the best performance. These algorithms are implemented by experts who have a deep understanding of the underlying system, handle the edge cases, and typically take advantage of compiler optimizations and even (potentially) parallelization.

std::partition and its power

One of the most foundational functions in this category is std::partition. This function reorganizes elements in a range based on a predicate. It ensures that all...