STL for C++ Programmers - Softcover

Ammeraal, Leen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0471971812 ISBN 13: 9780471971818

Publisher: Wiley, 1997

Synopsis

"It is the first book that I have read that makes STL quickly usable by working programmers" Francis Glassborow, Chair of The Association of C & C++ Users (ACCU) STL for C++ programmers Leen Ammeraal The Standard Template Library (STL) provides many useful and generally applicable programming tools. This book combines reference material and a well-paced tutorial to get you past the basics quickly. Small, complete programs illustrate the key STL features such as containers, algorithms, iterators and function objects. A section is devoted to the new string data type. All STL algorithms are formally presented by their prototypes and then informally described to show how to use them in practice. Concepts are well illustrated with a large number of example programs all of which are available via ftp (for access details please refer to the preface of the book or Wiley's website). Finally, special examples are given to explain the advanced notions of function objects and function adaptors, including predicates, binders and negators.

About this title

Review

The Standard Template Library (STL) is one of the most powerful features of C++: It allows for fast, flexible data structures with a minimum of programming overhead. However, because of STL's well-deserved reputation for difficult syntax and obscure design principals based on "generic programming" techniques, not all C++ programmers take full advantage of STL's features. STL for C++ Programmers, by Leen Ammeraal, is a very useful guide to the fundamental and advanced features of STL. The book shows the power and extensibility of STL with readable programming examples that are tailored to Borland C++ 5.x, but should work with other C++ compilers.

STL for C++ Programmers starts out with the basics of using STL, including the pitfalls of "name collisions," which can make it difficult for programmers to get STL to work with existing code libraries, such as Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC). Basic container types such as vectors, lists, double-ended queues (deques), maps, and sets are introduced. The author then begins to show STL's particular strengths in supporting extensible sets of functions and objects that can manipulate items inside a collection--a topic that is unexplored in many other texts. The rest of the book is devoted to exploring these algorithms in STL. It closes with a very useful application of STL--a class library that arbitrarily processes large numbers (treated as strings), which are used here to calculate the numerical value of pi. STL for C++ Programmers fills a gap in the programming literature with a readable introduction to how to get started in STL programming without a lot of syntactic mumbo jumbo. It also shows how powerful STL can be for advanced users who are willing to delve into the details of this rich class library.

From the Publisher

"It is the first book that I have read that makes STL quickly usable by working programmers." - Francis Glassborow, Chair of The Association of C & C++ Users (ACCU). The Standard Template Library (STL) provides many useful and generally applicable programming tools. This book combines reference material and a well-paced tutorial to get you past the basics quicukly. Small, complete programs illustrate the key STL features such as containers, algorithms, iterators and function objects. A section is devoted to the new string data type. All STL algorithms are formally presented by their prototypes and then informally described to show how to use them in practice. Concepts are well illustrated with a large number of example programs all of which are available via ftp. Finally, special examples are given to explain the advanced notions of function objects and function adaptors.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0471971812
• ISBN 13: 9780471971818
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240