Summary
In this chapter, you should have learned the following concepts:
- The Standard Template Library (STL) is a powerful collection of programming code that provides containers, algorithms, and iterators.
- Containers are objects that let you store and access collections of values of the same type.
- Algorithms defined in the STL can be used with its containers and provide common functions for working with groups of objects.
- Iterators are objects that identify elements in containers and can be manipulated to move among elements.
- Iterators are the key to using containers to their fullest. Many of the container member functions require iterators, and the STL algorithms require them too.
- To get the value referenced by an iterator, you must dereference the iterator using the dereference operator (*).
- A vector is one kind of sequential container provided by the STL. It acts like a dynamic array.
- It’s very efficient to iterate through a vector. It’s also very efficient to insert or remove an element from the end of a vector.
- It can be inefficient to insert or delete elements from the middle of a vector, especially if the vector is large.
- Pseudocode, which falls somewhere between English and a programming language, is used to plan programs.
- Stepwise refinement is a process used to rewrite pseudocode to make it ready for implementation.