stl.md

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STL

1. Make judicious use of the containers and algorithms of the standard library. The STL is your friend. Do not reinvent the wheel.

2. Prefer using std::vector<> over std::list<>, std::deque<>, or any of the heap-based associative containers such as std::map<> or std::unordered_map<> in a performance-sensitive context.

   The node-based structure of these containers make them fairly cache un-friendly, so performance considerations should be carefully balanced against their ease of use. std::vector<> on the other hand provides great cache locality, since its data storage is guaranteed to be contiguous.

3. Strongly prefer algorithms over hand-written loops. Use STL algorithms wherever appropriate.

   • STL algorithms (headers <algorithm> and <numeric>) clearly express intent by their function name, and contain optimized implementations of their respective functionality. Using hand-written loops instead of an appropriate algorithm increases the risk of introducing bugs (due to reinventing the wheel, which is always bad).

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