The C++ standard library : a tutorial and reference

The Best-Selling C++ Resource Now Updated for C++11 The C++ standard library provides a set of common classes and interfaces that greatly extend the core C++ language. The library, however, is not self-explanatory. To make full use of its components–and to benefit from their power–you need a resource that does far more than list the classes and their functions. The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference, Second Edition, describes this library as now incorporated into the new ANSI/ISO C++ language standard (C++11). The book provides comprehensive documentation of each library component, including an introduction to its purpose and design; clearly written explanations of complex concepts; the practical programming details needed for effective use; traps and pitfalls; the exact signature and definition of the most important classes and functions; and numerous examples of working code. The book focuses in particular on the Standard Template Library (STL), examining containers, iterators, function objects, and STL algorithms. The book covers all the new C++11 library components, including • Concurrency • Fractional arithmetic • Clocks and timers • Tuples • New STL containers • New STL algorithms • New smart pointers • New locale facets • Random numbers and distributions • Type traits and utilities • Regular expressions The book also examines the new C++ programming style and its effect on the standard library, including lambdas, range-based for loops, move semantics, and variadic templates. An accompanying Web site, including source code, can be found at www.cppstdlib.com. The C++ Standard Library Contents Preface to the Second Edition Acknowledgments for the Second Edition Preface to the First Edition Acknowledgments for the First Edition 1 About This Book 1.1 Why This Book 1.2 Before Reading This Book 1.3 Style and Structure of the Book 1.4 How to Read This Book 1.5 State of the Art 1.6 Example Code and Additional Information 1.7 Feedback 2 Introduction to C++ and the Standard Library 2.1 History of the C++ Standards 2.1.1 Common Questions about the C++11 Standard 2.1.2 Compatibility between C++98 and C++11 2.2 Complexity and Big-O Notation 3 New Language Features 3.1 New C++11 Language Features 3.1.1 Important Minor Syntax Cleanups 3.1.2 Automatic Type Deduction with auto 3.1.3 Uniform Initialization and Initializer Lists 3.1.4 Range-Based for Loops 3.1.5 Move Semantics and Rvalue References 3.1.6 New String Literals 3.1.7 Keyword noexcept 3.1.8 Keyword constexpr 3.1.9 New Template Features 3.1.10 Lambdas 3.1.11 Keyword decltype 3.1.12 New Function Declaration Syntax 3.1.13 Scoped Enumerations 3.1.14 New Fundamental Data Types 3.2 Old “New” Language Features 3.2.1 Explicit Initialization for Fundamental Types 3.2.2 Definition of main() 4 General Concepts 4.1 Namespace std 4.2 Header Files 4.3 Error and Exception Handling 4.3.1 Standard Exception Classes 4.3.2 Members of Exception Classes 4.3.3 Passing Exceptions with Class exception_ptr 4.3.4 Throwing Standard Exceptions 4.3.5 Deriving from Standard Exception Classes 4.4 Callable Objects 4.5 Concurrency and Multithreading 4.6 Allocators 5 Utilities 5.1 Pairs and Tuples 5.1.1 Pairs 5.1.2 Tuples 5.1.3 I/O for Tuples 5.1.4 Conversions between tuples and pairs 5.2 Smart Pointers 5.2.1 Class shared_ptr 5.2.2 Class weak_ptr 5.2.3 Misusing Shared Pointers 5.2.4 Shared and Weak Pointers in Detail 5.2.5 Class unique_ptr 5.2.6 Class unique_ptr in Detail 5.2.7 Class auto_ptr 5.2.8 Final Words on Smart Pointers 5.3 Numeric Limits 5.4 Type Traits and Type Utilities 5.4.1 Purpose of Type Traits 5.4.2 Type Traits in Detail 5.4.3 Reference Wrappers 5.4.4 Function Type Wrappers 5.5 Auxiliary Functions 5.5.1 Processing the Minimum and Maximum 5.5.2 Swapping Two Values 5.5.3 Supplementary Comparison Operators 5.6 Compile-Time Fractional Arithmetic with Class ratio 5.7 Clocks and Timers 5.7.1 Overview of the Chrono Library 5.7.2 Durations 5.7.3 Clocks and Timepoints 5.7.4 Date and Time Functions by C and POSIX 5.7.5 Blocking with Timers 5.8 Header Files , , and 5.8.1 Definitions in 5.8.2 Definitions in 5.8.3 Definitions in 6 The Standard Template Library 6.1 STL Components 6.2 Containers 6.2.1 Sequence Containers 6.2.2 Associative Containers 6.2.3 Unordered Containers 6.2.4 Associative Arrays 6.2.5 Other Containers 6.2.6 Container Adapters 6.3 Iterators 6.3.1 Further Examples of Using Associative and Unordered Containers 6.3.2 Iterator Categories 6.4 Algorithms 6.4.1 Ranges 6.4.2 Handling Multiple Ranges 6.5 Iterator Adapters 6.5.1 Insert Iterators 6.5.2 Stream Iterators 6.5.3 Reverse Iterators 6.5.4 Move Iterators 6.6 User-Defined Generic Functions 6.7 Manipulating Algorithms 6.7.1 “Removing” Elements 6.7.2 Manipulating Associative and Unordered Containers 6.7.3 Algorithms versus Member Functions 6.8 Functions as Algorithm Arguments 6.8.1 Using Functions as Algorithm Arguments 6.8.2 Predicates 6.9 Using Lambdas 6.10 Function Objects 6.10.1 Definition of Function Objects 6.10.2 Predefined Function Objects 6.10.3 Binders 6.10.4 Function Objects and Binders versus Lambdas 6.11 Container Elements 6.11.1 Requirements for Container Elements 6.11.2 Value Semantics or Reference Semantics 6.12 Errors and Exceptions inside the STL 6.12.1 Error Handling 6.12.2 Exception Handling 6.13 Extending the STL 6.13.1 Integrating Additional Types 6.13.2 Deriving from STL Types 7 STL Containers 7.1 Common Container Abilities and Operations 7.1.1 Container Abilities 7.1.2 Container Operations 7.1.3 Container Types 7.2 Arrays 7.2.1 Abilities of Arrays 7.2.2 Array Operations 7.2.3 Using arrays as C-Style Arrays 7.2.4 Exception Handling 7.2.5 Tuple Interface 7.2.6 Examples of Using Arrays 7.3 Vectors 7.3.1 Abilities of Vectors 7.3.2 Vector Operations 7.3.3 Using Vectors as C-Style Arrays 7.3.4 Exception Handling 7.3.5 Examples of Using Vectors 7.3.6 Class vector 7.4 Deques 7.4.1 Abilities of Deques 7.4.2 Deque Operations 7.4.3 Exception Handling 7.4.4 Examples of Using Deques 7.5 Lists 7.5.1 Abilities of Lists 7.5.2 List Operations 7.5.3 Exception Handling 7.5.4 Examples of Using Lists 7.6 Forward Lists 7.6.1 Abilities of Forward Lists 7.6.2 Forward List Operations 7.6.3 Exception Handling 7.6.4 Examples of Using Forward Lists 7.7 Sets and Multisets 7.7.1 Abilities of Sets and Multisets 7.7.2 Set and Multiset Operations 7.7.3 Exception Handling 7.7.4 Examples of Using Sets and Multisets 7.7.5 Example of Specifying the Sorting Criterion at Runtime 7.8 Maps and Multimaps 7.8.1 Abilities of Maps and Multimaps 7.8.2 Map and Multimap Operations 7.8.3 Using Maps as Associative Arrays 7.8.4 Exception Handling 7.8.5 Examples of Using Maps and Multimaps 7.8.6 Example with Maps, Strings, and Sorting Criterion at Runtime 7.9 Unordered Containers 7.9.1 Abilities of Unordered Containers 7.9.2 Creating and Controlling Unordered Containers 7.9.3 Other Operations for Unordered Containers 7.9.4 The Bucket Interface 7.9.5 Using Unordered Maps as Associative Arrays 7.9.6 Exception Handling 7.9.7 Examples of Using Unordered Containers 7.10 Other STL Containers 7.10.1 Strings as STL Containers 7.10.2 Ordinary C-Style Arrays as STL Containers 7.11 Implementing Reference Semantics 7.12 When to Use Which Container 8 STL Container Members in Detail 8.1 Type Definitions 8.2 Create, Copy, and Destroy Operations 8.3 Nonmodifying Operations 8.3.1 Size Operations 8.3.2 Comparison Operations 8.3.3 Nonmodifying Operations for Associative and Unordered Containers 8.4 Assignments 8.5 Direct Element Access 8.6 Operations to Generate Iterators 8.7 Inserting and Removing Elements 8.7.1 Inserting Single Elements 8.7.2 Inserting Multiple Elements 8.7.3 Removing Elements 8.7.4 Resizing 8.8 Special Member Functions for Lists and Forward Lists 8.8.1 Special Member Functions for Lists (and Forward Lists) 8.8.2 Special Member Functions for Forward Lists Only 8.9 Container Policy Interfaces 8.9.1 Nonmodifying Policy Functions 8.9.2 Modifying Policy Functions 8.9.3 Bucket Interface for Unordered Containers 8.10 Allocator Support 8.10.1 Fundamental Allocator Members 8.10.2 Constructors with Optional Allocator Parameters 9 STL Iterators 9.1 Header Files for Iterators 9.2 Iterator Categories 9.2.1 Output Iterators 9.2.2 Input Iterators 9.2.3 Forward Iterators 9.2.4 Bidirectional Iterators 9.2.5 Random-Access Iterators 9.2.6 The Increment and Decrement Problem of Vector Iterators 9.3 Auxiliary Iterator Functions 9.3.1 advance() 9.3.2 next() and prev() 9.3.3 distance() 9.3.4 iter_swap() 9.4 Iterator Adapters 9.4.1 Reverse Iterators 9.4.2 Insert Iterators 9.4.3 Stream Iterators 9.4.4 Move Iterators 9.5 Iterator Traits 9.5.1 Writing Generic Functions for Iterators 9.6 Writing User-Defined Iterators 10 STL Function Objects and Using Lambdas 10.1 The Concept of Function Objects 10.1.1 Function Objects as Sorting Criteria 10.1.2 Function Objects with Internal State 10.1.3 The Return Value of for_each() 10.1.4 Predicates versus Function Objects 10.2 Predefined Function Objects and Binders 10.2.1 Predefined Function Objects 10.2.2 Function Adapters and Binders 10.2.3 User-Defined Function Objects for Function Adapters 10.2.4 Deprecated Function Adapters 10.3 Using Lambdas 10.3.1 Lambdas versus Binders 10.3.2 Lambdas versus Stateful Function Objects 10.3.3 Lambdas Calling Global and Member Functions 10.3.4 Lambdas as Hash Function, Sorting, or Equivalence Criterion 11 STL Algorithms 11.1 Algorithm Header Files 11.2 Algorithm Overview 11.2.1 A Brief Introduction 11.2.2 Classification of Algorithms 11.3 Auxiliary Functions 11.4 The for_each() Algorithm 11.5 Nonmodifying Algorithms 11.5.1 Counting Elements 11.5.2 Minimum and Maximum 11.5.3 Searching Elements 11.5.4 Comparing Ranges 11.5.5 Predicates for Ranges 11.6 Modifying Algorithms 11.6.1 Copying Elements 11.6.2 Moving Elements 11.6.3 Transforming and Combining Elements 11.6.4 Swapping Elements 11.6.5 Assigning New Values 11.6.6 Replacing Elements 11.7 Removing Algorithms 11.7.1 Removing Certain Values 11.7.2 Removing Duplicates 11.8 Mutating Algorithms 11.8.1 Reversing the Order of Elements 11.8.2 Rotating Elements 11.8.3 Permuting Elements 11.8.4 Shuffling Elements 11.8.5 Moving Elements to the Front 11.8.6 Partition into Two Subranges 11.9 Sorting Algorithms 11.9.1 Sorting All Elements 11.9.2 Partial Sorting 11.9.3 Sorting According to the nth Element 11.9.4 Heap Algorithms 11.10 Sorted-Range Algorithms 11.10.1 Searching Elements 11.10.2 Merging Elements 11.11 Numeric Algorithms 11.11.1 Processing Results 11.11.2 Converting Relative and Absolute Values 12 Special Containers 12.1 Stacks 12.1.1 The Core Interface 12.1.2 Example of Using Stacks 12.1.3 A User-Defined Stack Class 12.1.4 Class stack in Detail 12.2 Queues 12.2.1 The Core Interface 12.2.2 Example of Using Queues 12.2.3 A User-Defined Queue Class 12.2.4 Class queue in Detail 12.3 Priority Queues 12.3.1 The Core Interface 12.3.2 Example of Using Priority Queues 12.3.3 Class priority_queue in Detail 12.4 Container Adapters in Detail 12.4.1 Type Definitions 12.4.2 Constructors 12.4.3 Supplementary Constructors for Priority Queues 12.4.4 Operations 12.5 Bitsets 12.5.1 Examples of Using Bitsets 12.5.2 Class bitset in Detail 13 Strings 13.1 Purpose of the String Classes 13.1.1 A First Example: Extracting a Temporary Filename 13.1.2 A Second Example: Extracting Words and Printing Them Backward 13.2 Description of the String Classes 13.2.1 String Types 13.2.2 Operation Overview 13.2.3 Constructors and Destructor 13.2.4 Strings and C-Strings 13.2.5 Size and Capacity 13.2.6 Element Access 13.2.7 Comparisons 13.2.8 Modifiers 13.2.9 Substrings and String Concatenation 13.2.10 Input/Output Operators 13.2.11 Searching and Finding 13.2.12 The Value npos 13.2.13 Numeric Conversions 13.2.14 Iterator Support for Strings 13.2.15 Internationalization 13.2.16 Performance 13.2.17 Strings and Vectors 13.3 String Class in Detail 13.3.1 Type Definitions and Static Values 13.3.2 Create, Copy, and Destroy Operations 13.3.3 Operations for Size and Capacity 13.3.4 Comparisons 13.3.5 Character Access 13.3.6 Generating C-Strings and Character Arrays 13.3.7 Modifying Operations 13.3.8 Searching and Finding 13.3.9 Substrings and String Concatenation 13.3.10 Input/Output Functions 13.3.11 Numeric Conversions 13.3.12 Generating Iterators 13.3.13 Allocator Support 14 Regular Expressions 14.1 The Regex Match and Search Interface 14.2 Dealing with Subexpressions 14.3 Regex Iterators 14.4 Regex Token Iterators 14.5 Replacing Regular Expressions 14.6 Regex Flags 14.7 Regex Exceptions 14.8 The Regex ECMAScript Grammar 14.9 Other Grammars 14.10 Basic Regex Signatures in Detail 15 Input/Output Using Stream Classes 15.1 Common Background of I/O Streams 15.1.1 Stream Objects 15.1.2 Stream Classes 15.1.3 Global Stream Objects 15.1.4 Stream Operators 15.1.5 Manipulators 15.1.6 A Simple Example 15.2 Fundamental Stream Classes and Objects 15.2.1 Classes and Class Hierarchy 15.2.2 Global Stream Objects 15.2.3 Header Files 15.3 Standard Stream Operators < > 15.3.1 Output Operator < > 15.3.3 Input/Output of Special Types 15.4 State of Streams 15.4.1 Constants for the State of Streams 15.4.2 Member Functions Accessing the State of Streams 15.4.3 Stream State and Boolean Conditions 15.4.4 Stream State and Exceptions 15.5 Standard Input/Output Functions 15.5.1 Member Functions for Input 15.5.2 Member Functions for Output 15.5.3 Example Uses 15.5.4 sentry Objects 15.6 Manipulators 15.6.1 Overview of All Manipulators 15.6.2 How Manipulators Work 15.6.3 User-Defined Manipulators 15.7 Formatting 15.7.1 Format Flags 15.7.2 Input/Output Format of Boolean Values 15.7.3 Field Width, Fill Character, and Adjustment 15.7.4 Positive Sign and Uppercase Letters 15.7.5 Numeric Base 15.7.6 Floating-Point Notation 15.7.7 General Formatting Definitions 15.8 Internationalization 15.9 File Access 15.9.1 File Stream Classes 15.9.2 Rvalue and Move Semantics for File Streams 15.9.3 File Flags 15.9.4 Random Access 15.9.5 Using File Descriptors 15.10 Stream Classes for Strings 15.10.1 String Stream Classes 15.10.2 Move Semantics for String Streams 15.10.3 char* Stream Classes 15.11 Input/Output Operators for User-Defined Types 15.11.1 Implementing Output Operators 15.11.2 Implementing Input Operators 15.11.3 Input/Output Using Auxiliary Functions 15.11.4 User-Defined Format Flags 15.11.5 Conventions for User-Defined Input/Output Operators 15.12 Connecting Input and Output Streams 15.12.1 Loose Coupling Using tie() 15.12.2 Tight Coupling Using Stream Buffers 15.12.3 Redirecting Standard Streams 15.12.4 Streams for Reading and Writing 15.13 The Stream Buffer Classes 15.13.1 The Stream Buffer Interfaces 15.13.2 Stream Buffer Iterators 15.13.3 User-Defined Stream Buffers 15.14 Performance Issues 15.14.1 Synchronization with C’s Standard Streams 15.14.2 Buffering in Stream Buffers 15.14.3 Using Stream Buffers Directly 16 Internationalization 16.1 Character Encodings and Character Sets 16.1.1 Multibyte and Wide-Character Text 16.1.2 Different Character Sets 16.1.3 Dealing with Character Sets in C++ 16.1.4 Character Traits 16.1.5 Internationalization of Special Characters 16.2 The Concept of Locales 16.2.1 Using Locales 16.2.2 Locale Facets 16.3 Locales in Detail 16.4 Facets in Detail 16.4.1 Numeric Formatting 16.4.2 Monetary Formatting 16.4.3 Time and Date Formatting 16.4.4 Character Classification and Conversion 16.4.5 String Collation 16.4.6 Internationalized Messages 17 Numerics 17.1 Random Numbers and Distributions 17.1.1 A First Example 17.1.2 Engines 17.1.3 Engines in Detail 17.1.4 Distributions 17.1.5 Distributions in Detail 17.2 Complex Numbers 17.2.1 Class complex in General 17.2.2 Examples Using Class complex 17.2.3 Operations for Complex Numbers 17.2.4 Class complex in Detail 17.3 Global Numeric Functions 17.4 Valarrays 18 Concurrency 18.1 The High-Level Interface: async() and Futures 18.1.1 A First Example Using async() and Futures 18.1.2 An Example of Waiting for Two Tasks 18.1.3 Shared Futures 18.2 The Low-Level Interface: Threads and Promises 18.2.1 Class std::thread 18.2.2 Promises 18.2.3 Class packaged_task 18.3 Starting a Thread in Detail 18.3.1 async() in Detail 18.3.2 Futures in Detail 18.3.3 Shared Futures in Detail 18.3.4 Class std: :promise in Detail 18.3.5 Class std: :packaged_task in Detail 18.3.6 Class std: :thread in Detail 18.3.7 Namespace this_thread 18.4 Synchronizing Threads, or the Problem of Concurrency 18.4.1 Beware of Concurrency! 18.4.2 The Reason for the Problem of Concurrent Data Access 18.4.3 What Exactly Can Go Wrong (the Extent of the Problem) 18.4.4 The Features to Solve the Problems 18.5 Mutexes and Locks 18.5.1 Using Mutexes and Locks 18.5.2 Mutexes and Locks in Detail 18.5.3 Calling Once for Multiple Threads 18.6 Condition Variables 18.6.1 Purpose of Condition Variables 18.6.2 A First Complete Example for Condition Variables 18.6.3 Using Condition Variables to Implement a Queue for Multiple Threads 18.6.4 Condition Variables in Detail 18.7 Atomics 18.7.1 Example of Using Atomics 18.7.2 Atomics and Their High-Level Interface in Detail 18.7.3 The C-Style Interface of Atomics 18.7.4 The Low-Level Interface of Atomics 19 Allocators 19.1 Using Allocators as an Application Programmer 19.2 A User-Defined Allocator 19.3 Using Allocators as a Library Programmer Bibliography Newsgroups and Forums Books and Web Sites Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z The C++ Standard Library: Supplementary Chapter Contents S.1 Bitsets S.1.1 Examples of Using Bitsets S.1.2 Class bitset in Detail S.2 Valarrays S.2.1 Getting to Know Valarrays S.2.2 Valarray Subsets S.2.3 Class valarray in Detail S.2.4 Valarray Subset Classes in Detail S.3 Allocators and Memory Functions in Detail S.3.1 Scoped Allocators S.3.2 A User-Defined Allocator for C++98 S.3.3 The Default Allocator S.3.4 Allocators in Detail S.3.5 Utilities for Uninitialized Memory in Detail The Best-Selling Programmer Resource–Now Updated for C++11

The C++ standard library provides a set of common classes and interfaces that greatly extend the core C++ language. The library, however, is not self-explanatory. To make full use of its components–and to benefit from their power–you need a resource that does far more than list the classes and their functions.

The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference, Second Edition, describes this library as now incorporated into the new ANSI/ISO C++ language standard (C++11). The book provides comprehensive documentation of each library component, including an introduction to its purpose and design; clearly written explanations of complex concepts; the practical programming details needed for effective use; traps and pitfalls; the exact signature and definition of its classes and their functions; and numerous examples of working code. The book focuses in particular on the Standard Template Library (STL), examining containers, iterators, function objects, and STL algorithms.

The book covers all the new C++11 library components, including

• Concurrency
• Fractional arithmetic
• Clocks and Timers
• Random numbers and distributions
• New smart pointers
• Regular expressions
• New STL containers
• New STL algorithms
• Tuple

The book also examines the new C++ programming style and its effect on the standard library, including lambdas, range-based for loops, and variadic templates.

An accompanying Web site, including source code, can be found at http://www.josuttis.com/.

A proven best-seller, updated for the new standard: still the most practical C++ Standard Library tutorial and most complete reference * *Thoroughly documents each library component incorporated in the brand-new C++ standard. *Clearly explains complex concepts, and presents the practical detail programmers need to use the Standard Library effectively. *Contains many examples of working code, all available for download at an accompanying website. The C++ Standard Library, 2/e, doesn't just provide comprehensive documentation of every library component associated with the newest C++ standard: it also offers clearly-written explanations of complex concepts, reviews practical programming details needed for effective use, and presents many useful examples of working code - all of them available for download. Fully updated to reflect the newest elements of the C++ Standard Library incorporated into the full ANSI/ISO C++ language standard, this book examines containers, iterators, function objects, STL algorithms, special containers, strings, numerical classes, internationalization, the IOStream library, and much more. Every component is presented in depth: Josuttis explains its purpose and design, presents crystal-clear examples, identifies traps and pitfalls, and offers exact signatures and definitions of its classes and functions. Comprehensive, detailed, readable, and practical, Josuttis' The C++ Standard Library has established itself as the definitive book on the topic: working developers will find this new edition even more useful.