Introduction to Containers |
 |
Standard Template Library containers are template classes that hold collections of items, such as objects, pointers to objects, or primitive data types. Because the containers are templatized, all of the items in a container must be of the same type.
Items can be added to a container, removed from a container, or moved around inside a container.
Containers have no base classes and make no use of virtual functions. This was a conscious decision made during design to increase the efficiency, performance, and flexibility of containers.
This chapter provides an overview of containers, as well as the topics listed below.
- A diagram of the interface hierarchy
- A high level discussion of container class groups
- A discussion of container class common functions
- An overview of the minimal requirements for inclusion in an STL container
- A discussion of
typedefs