The Standard Template Library in C++
Explore the C++ Standard Template Library and the use of templates to create generalized functions and classes. Understand how templates enable generic programming by allowing type-independent code and see practical examples using the FindMax function and a Stack class implementation.
Introduction to the Standard Template Library
The C++ Standard Template Library (STL) is a vast topic we can’t discuss entirely in a small lesson. So here, we’ll compare it with the Java Collections Framework.
The STL mainly deals with three main components:
- Containers
- Algorithms
- Iterators
However, before getting too deep in STL, we’ll discuss templates. In C++, we use templates to create generalized functions and classes.
Why do we need generalized functions and classes? There are many reasons, but the biggest is that we can use any data type, such as integers, floating-point values, characters, etc., through generalized functions and classes. We can also use user-defined data.
Theoretically, templates are the foundations of generic programming. We can write code in a way that is ...