STL Containers

1. Every container allocates and manages its own storage.
2. Type definitions common to all containers:

• C::value_type type of values held in container
• C::reference value_type&
• C::const_reference
• C::iterator
• C::const_iterator
• C::reverse_iterator
• C::const_reverse_iterator
• C::difference_type difference between iterators
• C::size_type size of container

3. Member functions common to all containers:

• C( ) – default constructor
• C(c), C c2(c1) – copy constructor
• ~C( ) – destructor
• c.begin() – returns an iterator to first element
• c.end() – returns an iterator after last element
• c.rbegin() – returns a reverse iterator to last elem.
• c.rend() – returns a reverse iterator before first elem.
• c1 == c2 – equality comparison for same type cont.
• c1 != c2 – inequality comparison for same type cont.
• c.size() – returns number of elements. in cont.
• c.max_size() – returns size() of largest number of elements.
• c.empty() – returns true if cont. is empty
• c1 < c2 – lexicographic comparison
• c1 > c2 – same
• c1 <= c2 – same
• c1 >= c2 – same
• c1 = c2 – assignment operation
• c1.swap(c2) – swaps two containers

4. Sequence containers

• vector – simulates an expandable array, occupying contiguous memory
• list – based on doubly linked list
• deque – a double ended queue, which uses a directory managing blocks of contiguous memory

5. Member functions common to all sequence containers:

• C(n,t) – constructs a sequence of n copies of t
• C(iter1,iter2) – constructs a sequence equal to the range [iter1,iter2)
• c.insert(iter,t) – inserts a copy of t before iter. Returns an iter to t.
• c.insert(iter,n,t) – inserts n copies of t before iter.
• c.insert(iter1,iter2,iter3) – inserts the sequence [iter2,iter3) before iter1
• c.erase(iter) – erases the element pointed to by iter
• c.erase(iter1,iter2) – erases elements in range [iter1,iter2)