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

Declaring and initializing std::vector

Having established the foundational knowledge of std::vector in C++ development, it’s time to delve into its practical applications—expressly, how to declare and initialize vectors.

The essence of std::vector lies in its dynamic nature. Unlike traditional arrays with fixed sizes, vectors can grow or shrink as necessary, making them a versatile tool for developers.

Declaring a vector

The performance of std::vector stems from its design, which combines the benefits of a contiguous memory layout (such as arrays) with the flexibility of dynamic resizing. It reserves memory to hold that many elements when initialized with a specified size. But if the vector fills up and more capacity is needed, it allocates a larger memory block, transfers the existing elements, and deallocates the old memory. This dynamic resizing process is optimized to reduce overhead, ensuring that vectors remain efficient. The fusion of contiguous storage...