Visual C++ 6 Unleashed

By MICKEY WILLIAMS and David Bennett

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Authors
  • About the Contributors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • How to Use This Book
  • What You Need to Use This Book
  • What's New in Visual C++ 6.0
  • Contacting the Main Author
  • Part I: Introduction
  • Chapter 1. The Visual C++ 6.0 Environment
  • Part II: MFC Programming
  • Chapter 2. MFC Class Library Overview
  • Chapter 3. MFC Message Handling Mechanism
  • Chapter 4. The Document View Architecture
  • Chapter 5. Creating and Using Dialog Boxes
  • Chapter 6. Working with Device Contexts and GDI Objects
  • Chapter 7. Creating and Using Property Sheets
  • Chapter 8. Working with the File System
  • Chapter 9. Using Serialization with File and Archive Objects
  • Part III: Internet Programming with MFC
  • Chapter 10. MFC and the Internet Server API (ISAPI)
  • Chapter 11. The WinInet API
  • Chapter 12. MFC HTML Support
  • Part IV: Advanced Programming Topics
  • Chapter 13. Using the Standard C++ Library
    • Standard C++ Library
    • Standard Template Library (STL)
    • Containers
    • Iterators
    • Algorithms
    • Using STL with MFC and ATL
    • Summary
  • Chapter 14. Error Detection and Exception Handling Techniques
  • Chapter 15. Debugging and Profiling Strategies
  • Chapter 16. Multithreading
  • Chapter 17. Using Scripting and Other Tools to Automate the Visual C++ IDE
  • Part V: Database Programming
  • Chapter 18. Creating Custom AppWizards
  • Chapter 19. Database Overview
  • Chapter 20. ODBC Programming
  • Chapter 21. MFC Database Classes
  • Chapter 22. Using OLE DB
  • Chapter 23. Programming with ADO
  • Part VI: MFC Support for COM and ActiveX
  • Chapter 24. Overview of COM and Active Technologies
  • Chapter 25. Active Documents
  • Chapter 26. Active Containers
  • Chapter 27. Active Servers
  • Chapter 28. ActiveX Controls
  • Part VII: Using the Active Template Library
  • Chapter 29. ATL Architecture
  • Chapter 30. Creating COM Objects Using ATL
  • Chapter 31. Creating ActiveX Controls Using ATL
  • Chapter 32. Using ATL to Create MTS and COM+ Components
  • Part VIII: Finishing Touches
  • Chapter 33. Adding Windows Help
  • Part IX: Appendix

Standard Template Library (STL)

The STL consists of several kinds of components; the most important are containers, algorithms, and iterators. The main purpose of the STL was to establish a standard software library without loss of performance.

Why templates? The main advantage of templates is that they allow the use of types as parameters when creating classes. Developers therefore can create the desired class by specifying the proper parameters. In other words, data structures and functions will behave exactly the same, regardless of the data type. Sorting a collection of numbers or a collection of characters is done exactly the same: The language knows how to implement the proper method for each (number sort or character sort) by the parameter that was sent. This is hidden from the developer and allows for generic programming.

A container manages the storage and processing of data. You can think of it as an object that holds other objects. Containers are implemented by template classes to allow them to hold different kinds of data in an easy manner. The STL contains the most common containers that programmers find useful when handling common programming tasks.

Iterators provide methods to traverse the contents of a container and are used to access individual elements in a container. Similar to pointers, iterators can be incremented to point to the next element, and they can be dereferenced to obtain the value of the element to which it points. Iterators allow algorithms and containers to connect and create the bond that enables them to work together.

Algorithms allow functions to be performed on the containers. They are not container-specific or members of the containers; instead, they are standalone functions that are general in nature. The algorithms may be used on containers you create yourself or C++ arrays. Algorithms are represented by template functions.

Share This