This page consolidates various documents I have prepared on the C++ std (STL) library for my courses CS 361 and CS 412/512, together with useful documents from other authors.
For some time, a committee has been working on an ISO/ANSI standard for the language C++. Part of this proposed standard involves the standard library (std) to be supported by all C++ compilers. Key components of this library are
The last three of these components are based upon a library called the Standard Template Library (STL) from researchers at Hewlett-Packard. Although the STL is only a part of the entire std library and has been modified somewhat in the transition into the standard, it has attracted so much attention that many people use the terms "STL", "std", and "C++ standard library" interchangably.
When I teach data structures and algorithms, I like my students to practice the style of programming that I would expect them to use in eventual professional practice. Consequently, I have been introducing the STL components as a set of "goals" --- ADT interfaces, whose implementation is one purpose of the lower-level data structures and algorithms that we study from the text.
Some documents from my data structures course:
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at zeil@cs.odu.edu