Most commonly used utilities in Standard Template Library in C++

The most commonly used features of STL are :

1. Iterator

As described earlier, they are the tools used to access and iterate the values in the container class. To be specific, they are objects of the container class which are used to iterate through the container. Pointers are infact a type of iterators.

   *Syntax* : < container class > < data-type > :: iterator < iterator name >
    Example : stack < int > :: iterator itr;

2. Vector

It falls under the category of containers and is similar to array except the fact that its size can be changed or resized. It is often called dynamic array.

    // Code Snippet
    vector < int > v;
    vector < int >::iterator it;
    v.push_back(1); // inserting 1 to vector v
    v.push_back(2); // inserting 2 to vector v
    
    // printing the vector contents
    for(it = v.begin(); it != v.end();++it)
        cout << *it << ' ';
    
    // Output: 1 2

3. Stack

STL contains the implementation of Stack the LIFO data structure.It consists of push, pop, top, empty and size functions.

    // Code Snippet
    // declaration of stack
    stack < int > s;  

    // inserting elements in stack.
    for(int i = 0;i < 5; i++)
        s.push(i); // 0 1 2 3 4
                        
    //size of stack s
    cout<< ”Size of stack is: ” < < s.size( ) << endl;   // 5

    // top element from stack, it will be the last inserted element.
    cout<<”Top element of stack is: ” << s.top( ) << endl ;

    // deleting all elements from stack 
    for(int i = 0;i < 5;i++)
        s.pop( ); // 4 3 2 1 0

4. Queue

STL also contains the FIFO data structure called as Queue.It consist of push, pop, front, empty and size functions.

    // Code Snippet
    queue < int > q;
    for(int i = 0;i < 4;++i)
        q.push(i); // inserting elements to queue q
    
    while(!q.empty()) 
    {
        cout << q.front(); // 0 1 2 3
        q.pop(); 
    }

5. Priority Queue

Heaps are implemented in STL in the forms of Min-Heap and Max-Heap priority queueus which are used to extract the lowest and highest element in constant time O(1)

    // Code Snippet   
    priority_queue < int > pq; // Max-heap priority queue
    
    // inserting elements in priority queue
    pq.push(10);
    pq.push(22);
    pq.push(6);
    
    while(!pq.empty())
    {
        cout << pq.top() << " ";
        pq.pop();
    }

    Output : 22 10 6  

6. Map

It is a container which is used to store data of the form of key value pairs. Thus there is a one to one mapping and the key is used to uniquely identify the particular value.

    // Code Snippet
    // Mapping a,b,c.. with 1,2,3 etc.
    
    map < char,int > mp;
    mp['a'] = 1;
    mp['b'] = 2;
    mp['c'] = 3;

7. Set

Set is a container which is used to store only unique elements in it unlike vectors or arrays which store duplicates as well.

    // Code Snippet
    
    set < int > s;
    set < int > ::iterator itr;
    int A[] = {1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 3};
    for(int i = 0;i < 6;++i)
        s.insert(A[i]);
    for(it = s.begin();it != s.end();++it)
        cout << *it << ' ';  // Output : 1 2 3

8. Pair

Pair is a container that can be used to combine together two values which may be of different types. Pair thus provides a way to store two heterogeneous objects as a single unit.

    // Code Snippet
    
    pair < string, int > p;
    p = make_pair("Vimal", 97745');
    cout << p.first << ' ' <<  p.second << endl;