{"id":2156,"date":"2025-01-28T19:19:55","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T19:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/PracticalCPlusPlusProgramming\/?page_id=2156"},"modified":"2025-01-28T21:33:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T21:33:04","slug":"whats-the-problem","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bhiggs.x10hosting.com\/PracticalCPlusPlusProgramming\/index.php\/topics\/c-details\/the-standard-template-library-2\/whats-the-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s The Problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/span>What’s the Problem?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every programming language needs a standard library of functionality to make it useful — perhaps more than one library (after all, it makes sense to break functionality up into understandable and easily accessible pieces). C++ is no exception, but it took a while before C++ received a library beyond what was a kind of implied library of functions from C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, we’ve seen many places in our earlier coverage where we’ve created our own classes for Vector<\/strong>, Queue<\/strong>, Stack<\/strong>, and others. But these are pretty standard data structures, and we shouldn’t have to implement our own versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in the interests of software reuse, and correct and efficient implementation, the C++ Standard committee decided to include a set of pre-implemented versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These classes, and more, are included in the Standard Template Library<\/em> (STL)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>History<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The original work on the STL was done by Alexander Stepanov<\/em> and Meng Lee <\/em>at Hewlett-Packard, with major contributions from David Musser<\/em>, at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was proposed to the C++ Standard committee in November, 1993, and is now part of the approved C++ standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It implements a set of classes and algorithms that constitute an approach called generic programming<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

STL contains the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n