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

Essential requirements for compatibility

In this section, we focus on the foundational aspects that make a custom type truly compatible with the STL. Understanding and implementing the key elements we will outline is crucial for leveraging the full potential of STL’s robust and versatile toolkit. We will cover the essentials, such as the design of iterators, adherence to value semantics, operational guarantees, and the provision of size and capacity information, each playing a vital role in ensuring seamless integration with STL algorithms.

The goal here is to equip your custom types with the capability to not only interact with but also enhance the efficiency and functionality of STL algorithms. This requires an understanding of the STL’s expectations in terms of performance, behavior under operations, and exception safety. By meeting these requirements, you will be able to create custom types that are not just functional but also optimized for performance and reliability...