Containers

Same level pages:
Containers
Classes
Iterators
Algorithms

Parent level pages:
STL
FAQs
Headers
Libraries

All containers manage a sequence of elements. Such elements can be of any type that is assignable and default constructible.

Containers are supported by non-member functions which conform to the following declarations:

template<class T> class Cont;
template<class T> bool operator==(const Cont<T>& lhs, const Cont<T>& rhs);
template<class T> bool operator!=(const Cont<T>& lhs, const Cont<T>& rhs);
template<class T> bool operator< (const Cont<T>& lhs, const Cont<T>& rhs);
template<class T> bool operator> (const Cont<T>& lhs, const Cont<T>& rhs);
template<class T> bool operator<=(const Cont<T>& lhs, const Cont<T>& rhs);
template<class T> bool operator>=(const Cont<T>& lhs, const Cont<T>& rhs);
template<class T> void swap(const Cont<T>& lhs, const Cont<T>& rhs);

Forward Container

A forward container supports an iterator that allows traversal of the data in the container in one direction via a begin() iterator (pointing to the beginning of the sequence) and an end() iterator(pointing "just beyond" the end of the sequence) via member functions like the following :

iterator begin();
const iterator begin() const;
iterator end();
const iterator end() const;

Reversible Container

A reversibile container is a forward container that also supports iterators that allow traversal of the data in the reverse direction member functions like the following:

reverse_iterator rbegin();
const reverse_iterator rbegin() const;
reverse_iterator rend();
const reverse_iterator rend() const;

Random Access Container

A random access container is a reversible container that also can be randomly accessed by member functions such as the following:

template<class T> class Cont;
T& at(unsigned pos);
const T& at(unsigned pos) const;
T& operator[](unsigned pos);
const T& operator[](unsigned pos);

The operator[] is "syntactic sugar" for the at() member function which is available even in language systems that support STL-like functionality but do not support operator overloading as fully as C++.

ŠPaul Buis & Ball State University

Author: Paul Buis (peb@bsu.edu)

Last Modified:10/12/00 06:19 PM

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