Effective STL: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Use of the Standard Template Library (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

always been a challenge. Until now. In this book, best-selling author Scott Meyers (Effective C++, and More Effective C++) reveals the critical rules of thumb employed by the experts - the things they almost always do or almost always avoid doing - to get the most out of the library.Other books describe what's in the STL. Effective STL shows you how to use it. Each of the book's 50 guidelines is backed by Meyers' legendary analysis and incisive examples, so you'll learn not only what to do, but also when to do it - and why.Highlights of Effective STL include:Advice on choosing among standard STL containers (like vector and list), nonstandard STL containers (like hash\_set and hash\_map), and non-STL containers (like bitset).Techniques to maximize the efficiency of the STL and the programs that use it.Insights into the behavior of iterators, function objects, and allocators, including things you should not do. Guidance for the proper use of algorithms and member functions whose names are the same (e.g., find), but whose actions differ in subtle (but important) ways.Discussions of potential portability problems, including straightforward ways to avoid them. Like Meyers' previous books, Effective STL is filled with proven wisdom that comes only from experience. Its clear, concise, penetrating style makes it an essential resource for every STL programmer. Effective STL: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Use of Standard Template Library......Page 1 Content......Page 2 1. Choose your containers with care......Page 6 2. Beware illusion of container-independent code......Page 9 3. Make copying cheap & correct for objects in containers......Page 14 4. Call empty instead of checking size() against zero......Page 16 5. Prefer range member functions to their single-element counterparts......Page 17 6. Be alert for C++'s most vexing parse......Page 25 7. When using containers of newed pointers, remember to delete pointers before container is destroyed......Page 27 8. Never create containers of auto_ptrs......Page 32 9. Choose carefully among erasing options......Page 34 10. Be aware of allocator conventions & restrictions......Page 39 11. Understand legitimate uses of custom allocators......Page 45 12. Have realistic expectations about thread safety of STL containers......Page 48 13. Prefer vector & string to dynamically allocated arrays......Page 53 14. Use reserve to avoid unnecessary reallocations......Page 55 15. Be aware of variations in string implementations......Page 57 16. Know how to pass vector & string data to legacy APIs.......Page 62 17. Use "swap trick" to trim excess capacity......Page 65 18. Avoid using vector ......Page 67 19. Understand difference between equality & equivalence......Page 70 20. Specify comparison types for associative containers of pointers......Page 74 21. Always have comparison functions return false for equal values......Page 78 22. Avoid in-place key modification in set & multiset......Page 81 23. Consider replacing associative containers with sorted vectors......Page 86 24. Choose carefully between map::operator[] & map-insert when efficiency is important......Page 92 25. Familiarize yourself with nonstandard hashed containers......Page 96 26. Prefer iterator to const iterator, reverse_iterator & const_reverse_iterator......Page 100 27. Use distance & advance to convert container's const_iterators to iterators......Page 103 28. Understand how to use reverse_iterator's base iterator......Page 106 29. Consider istreambuf_iterators for character-by-character input......Page 108 30. Make sure destination ranges are big enough......Page 111 31. Know your sorting options......Page 116 32. Follow remove-like algorithms by erase if you really want to remove something......Page 121 33. Be wary of remove-like algorithms on containers of pointers......Page 125 34. Note which algorithms expect sorted ranges......Page 128 35. Implement simple case-insensitive string comparisons via mismatch or lexicographical compare......Page 131 36. Understand proper implementation of copy_if......Page 135 37. Use accumulate or for_each to summarize ranges......Page 137 38. Design functor classes for pass-by-value......Page 143 39. Make predicates pure functions......Page 146 40. Make functor classes adaptable......Page 149 41. Understand reasons for ptr_fun, mem_fun & mem_fun_ref......Page 153 42. Make sure less means operator