containers (3C++std) - Tru64 UNIX
Standard C++ LibraryCopyright 1996, Rogue Wave Software, Inc.
NAME
Containers - A standard template library (STL) collection.
DESCRIPTION
Within the standard template library, collection classes are often
described as containers. A container stores a collection of other objects
and provides certain basic functionality that supports the use of generic
algorithms. Containers come in two basic flavors: sequences, and
associative containers. They are further distinguished by the type of
iterator they support.
A sequence supports a linear arrangement of single elements. vector, list,
deque, bitset, and string fall into this category. Associative containers
map values onto keys, which provides efficient retrieval of the values
based on the keys. The STL provides the map, multimap, set and multiset
associative containers. map and multimap store the value and the key
separately and allow for fast retrieval of the value, based upon fast
retrieval of the key. set and multiset store only keys allowing fast
retrieval of the key itself.
CONTAINER REQUIREMENTS
Containers within the STL must meet the following requirements. Sequences
and associative containers must also meet their own separate sets of
requirements. The requirements for containers are:
• A container allocates all storage for the objects it holds.
• A container X of objects of type T provides the following types:.HP
0
X::value_type a T
X::reference lvalue of T
X::const_reference const lvalue of T
X::iterator an iterator type pointing to T. X::iterator cannot be
an output iterator.
X::const_iterator an iterator type pointing to const T.
x::iterator cannot be an output iterator.
X::difference_type a signed integral type (must be the same as the
distance type for X::iterator and X::const_iterator
X::size_type an unsigned integral type representing any non-
negative value of difference_type
X::allocatr_type type of allocator used to obtain storage for
elements stored in the container
• A container provides a default constructor, a copy constructor, an
assignment operator, and a full complement of comparison operators
(==, !=, <, >, <=, >=).
• A container provides the following member functions:
begin() Returns an iterator or a const_iterator pointing to the
first element in the collection.
end() Returns an iterator or a const_iterator pointing just beyond
the last element in the collection.
swap(container) Swaps elements between this container and the swap's
argument.
clear() Deletes all the elements in the container.
size() Returns the number of elements in the collection as a
size_type.
max_size() Returns the largest possible number of elements for this
type of container as a size_type.
empty() Returns true if the container is empty, false otherwise.
get_allocator() Returns the allocator used by this container
REVERSIBLE CONTAINERS
A container may be reversible. Essentially, a reversible container
provides a reverse iterator that allows traversal of the collection in a
direction opposite that of the default iterator. A reversible container
must meet the following requirements in addition to those listed above:
• A reversible container provides the following types:.HP 0
X::reverse_iterator An iterator type pointing to T.
X::const_reverse_iterator An iterator type pointing to const T
• A reversible container provides the following member functions:
rbegin() Returns a reverse_iterator or a const_reverse_iterator
pointing past the end of the collection
rend() Returns a reverse_iterator or a const_reverse_iterator
pointing to the first element in the collection.
SEQUENCES
In addition to the requirements for containers, the following requirements
hold for sequences:
• iterator and const_iterator must be forward iterators,
bidirectional iterators or random access iterators.
• A sequence provides the following constructors:.HP 0
X(n, t) Constructs a container with n copies of t.
X(i, j) Constructs a container with elements from the range [i,j).
• A sequence provides the following member functions:
insert(p,t) Inserts the element t in front of the position
identified by the iterator p.
insert(p,n,t) Inserts n copies of t in front of the position
identified by the iterator p.
insert(p,i,j) Inserts elements from the range [i,j) in front of the
position identified by the iterator p.
erase(q) Erases the element pointed to by the iterator q.
erase(q1,q2) Erases the elements in the range [q1,q2).
• A sequence may also provide the following member functions if they
can be implemented with constant time complexity.
front() Returns the element pointed to by begin()
back() Returns the element pointed to by end()
push_front(x) Inserts the element x at begin()
push_back(x) Inserts the element x at end()
pop_front() Erases the element at begin()
pop_back() Erases the element at end() -1
operator[](n) Returns the element at a.begin() + n
ASSOCIATIVE CONTAINERS
In addition to the requirements for a container, the following requirements
hold for associative containers:
• For an associative container iterator and const_iterator must be
bidirectional iterators. Associative containers are inherently
sorted. Their iterators proceed through the container in the non-
descending order of keys (where non-descending order is defined by the
comparison object that was used to construct the container).
• An associative container provides the following types:.HP 0
X::key_type the type of the Key
X::key_compare the type of the comparison to use to put the keys in
order
X::value_compare the type of the comparison used on values
• The default constructor and copy constructor for associative
containers use the template parameter comparison class.
• An associative container provides the following additional
constructors:
X(c) Construct an empty container using c as the comparison
object
X(i,j,c) Constructs a container with elements from the range [i,j)
and the comparison object c.
X(i, j) Constructs a container with elements from the range [i,j)
using the template parameter comparison object.
• An associative container provides the following member functions:
key_comp() Returns the comparison object used in constructing the
associative container.
value_comp() Returns the value comparison object used in
constructing the associative container.
insert(t) Inserts t if and only if there is no element in the
container with key equal to the key of t. Returns a
pair<iterator,bool>. The bool component of the returned
pair indicates the success or failure of the operation and
the iterator component points to the element with key
equal to key of t.
insert(p,t) If the container does not support redundant key values
then this function only inserts t if there is no key
present that is equal to the key of t. If the container
does support redundant keys then this function always
inserts the element t. The iterator p serves as a hint of
where to start searching, allowing for some optimization
of the insertion. It does not restrict the algorithm from
inserting ahead of that location if necessary.
insert(i,j) Inserts elements from the range [i,j).
erase(k) Erases all elements with key equal to k. Returns number of
erased elements.
erase(q) Erases the element pointed to by q.
erase(q1,q2) Erases the elements in the range [q1,q2).
find(k) Returns an iterator pointing to an element with key equal to
k or end() if such an element is not found.
count(k) Returns the number of elements with key equal to k.
lower_bound(k) Returns an iterator pointing to the first element
with a key greater than or equal to k.
upper_bound(k) Returns an iterator pointing to the first element
with a key less than or equal to k.
equal_range(k) Returns a pair of iterators such that the first
element of the pair is equivalent to lower_bound(k) and
the second element equivalent to upper_bound(k).
SEE ALSO
bitset, deque, list, map, multimap, multiset, priority_queue, queue, set,
stack, vector
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
ANSI X3J16/ISO WG21 Joint C++ Committee
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