Arthur O’Dwyer - Mastering the C++17 STL: Make full use of the standard library components in C++17

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

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First published: September 2017

Production reference: 1250917

ISBN 978-1-78712-682-4

www.packtpub.com

Arthur O'Dwyer has used modern C++ in his day job for about ten years--since the days when "modern C++" meant "classic C++." Between 2006 and 2011 he worked on the Green Hills C++ compiler. Since 2014 he has organized a weekly C++ meetup in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he speaks regularly on topics such as those to be found in this book. Later this year, he will attend an ISO C++ committee meeting for the second time.

This is his first book.

Will Brennan is a C++/Python developer based in London with experience working on high performance image processing and machine learning applications. You can visit his GitHub link at https://github.com/WillBrennan.

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The C++ language has a long history, dating back to the 1980s. Recently it has undergone a renaissance, with major new features being introduced in 2011 and 2014. At press time, the C++17 standard is just around the corner.

C++11 practically doubled the size of the standard library, adding such headers as , , and . C++17 doubles the library again, with additions such as , , and . A programmer whos been spending time writing code instead of watching the standardization process might fairly feel that the standard library has gotten away from him--that theres so many new things in the library that he'll never be able to master the whole thing, or even to sort the wheat from the chaff. After all, who wants to spend a month reading technical documentation on std::locale and std::ratio, just to find out that they aren't useful in your daily work?

In this book, I'll teach you the most important features of the C++17 standard library. In the interest of brevity, I omit some parts, such as the aforementioned ; but we'll cover the entire modern STL (every standard container and every standard algorithm), plus such important topics as smart pointers, random numbers, regular expressions, and the new-in-C++17 library.

I'll teach by example. You'll learn to build your own iterator type; your own memory allocator using std::pmr::memory_resource; your own thread pool using std::future.

I'll teach concepts beyond what you'd find in a reference manual. You'll learn the difference between monomorphic, polymorphic, and generic algorithms (, Vocabulary Types); and what we might expect from future C++ standards in 2020 and beyond.

I assume that you are already reasonably familiar with the core language of C++11; for example, that you already understand how to write class and function templates, the difference between lvalue and rvalue references, and so on.

, Classical Polymorphism and Generic Programming, covers classical polymorphism (virtual member functions) and generic programming (templates).

, Iterators and Ranges, explains the concept of iterator as a generalization of pointer, and the utility of half-open ranges expressed as a pair of iterators.

, The Iterator-Pair Algorithms, explores the vast variety of standard generic algorithms that operate on ranges expressed as iterator-pairs.

, The Container Zoo, explores the almost equally vast variety of standard container class templates, and which containers are suitable for which jobs.

, Vocabulary Types, walks you through algebraic types such as std::optional. and ABI-friendly type-erased types such as std::function.

, Smart Pointers