STL Container IB Reference

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Revision as of 21:38, 29 November 2011

Core Functions

These are the main functions you will use for each container.

Vector

stlPushBack( <container-name>, <data> ) adds an element to the end of the vector
stlPopBack( <container-name> ) removes the element at the end of the vector
stlFront( <container-name> ) gets the element at the front of the vector
stlBack( <container-name> ) gets the element at the end of the vector
stlGet( <container-name>, <index> ) gets the element at the index specified
stlSet( <container-name> <index> <data>) sets the element at the index specified

Similar to arrays, vectors are mostly used to access data based on a numeric index, thus stlGet and stlSet are going to be your bread and butter functions for this container. stlPushBack is a great way to programatically build a vector - it will append the specified data to the end of the vector, and increase its size by 1. If you want to remove the last element, you would use stlPopBack. Then the stlFront and stlBack functions have been included as shortcuts for accessing the first and last elements respectively.

List

stlPushBack( <container-name>, <data> ) adds an element to the end of the list
stlPopBack( <container-name> ) removes the element at the end of the list
stlPushFront( <container-name>, <data> ) adds an element to the beginning of the list
stlPopFront( <container-name> ) removes the element at the beginning of the list
stlFront( <container-name> ) gets the element at the beginning of the list
stlBack( <container-name> ) gets the element at the end of the list

Lists are designed to be accessed sequentially, that is each element is associated with the preceding and following elements in the container. As such, the core functions provided are used to add, remove, and get the elements at the front and back of the list. The real power of lists is utilized during iteration - they are the most efficient container for inserting and erasing elements in the middle of the container.

Map

stlGet( <container-name>, <key> ) gets the element at the key specified
stlSet( <container-name> <key> <data>) sets the element at the key specified

Maps are used to relate an element to a key (string index). Similar to vectors, to access a value, the key must be specified.

Stack/Queue

stlPush( <container-name>, <data> ) adds an element to the container
stlPop( <container-name> ) removes the next element from the container
stlPeek( <container-name> ) gets the next element from the container
stlGet( <container-name>, <index> ) gets the element at the index specified
stlSet( <container-name> <index> <data>) sets the element at the index specified

Both stacks and queues utilize the same set of functions, but perform differently depending on which container you have implemented. In general, the stlPush, stlPop, and stlPeek functions are going to be the most important of these functions. They perform the basic operations associated with these containers. For stacks, stlPush and stlPop adds and removes from the end of the container. For queues, stlPush adds to the end of the container, and stlPop removes from the front of the container. For both containers, stlPeek will get the "next" element in the container (i.e. the last element for stacks, the first element for queues).

Because these containers are implemented with deques internally, we also provide access via numeric indexes with the stlSet() and stlGet() operators. These functions behave similarly to the vector functions of the same name, by getting and setting the elements at the specified index.

Iteration Functions

These functions are used to iterate over the elements of a container.

General:

stlBegin( <container-name> ) sets the iterator position at the beginning
stlEnd( <container-name> ) sets the iterator position at the end
stlNext( <container-name> ) moves the iterator position forward one element
stlPrev( <container-name> ) moves the iterator position back one element
stlRead( <container-name> ) gets the element at the current iterator position
stlWrite( <container-name>, <data> ) - sets the element at the current iterator position

Maps only:

stlReadKey( <container-name> ) gets the key at the current iterator position

Lists only:

stlInsert( <container-name>, <data> ) inserts the element BEFORE the current iterator position
stlErase( <container-name> ) erases the element at the current iterator position
(stlErase will subsequently move the iterator position to the next element)

Utility Functions

These are basic functions that return information about the specified container.

stlSize( <container-name> ) returns the size of the container
stlEmpty( <container-name> ) returns whether the container is empty
stlClear( <container-name> ) empties the specified container
stlReset( <container-name> ) resets the container to its initial values

Meta Functions

These functions perform some action either on all of the elements in the container, or using all the elements in the container.