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Introduction

The Standard Template Library provides a set of well structured generic C++ components that work together in a seamless way. Special care has been taken to ensure that all the template algorithms work not only on the data structures in the library, but also on built-in C++ data structures. For example, all the algorithms work on regular pointers. The orthogonal design of the library allows programmers to use library data structures with their own algorithms, and to use library algorithms with their own data structures. The well specified semantic and complexity requirements guarantee that a user component will work with the library, and that it will work efficiently. This flexibility ensures the widespread utility of the library.

Another important consideration is efficiency. C++ is successful because it combines expressive power with efficiency. Much effort has been spent to verify that every template component in the library has a generic implementation that performs within a few percentage points of the efficiency of the corresponding hand-coded routine.

The third consideration in the design has been to develop a library structure that, while being natural and easy to grasp, is based on a firm theoretical foundation.