How to Design a Custom STL Container that Properly Integrates with the Standard Library?

The Guidelines for Writing a Custom STL Container

When designing a new container that adheres to the STL conventions, it's crucial to follow certain guidelines to ensure its proper behavior and integration with the STL library.

Iterator Interface:

• Define an iterator class with an appropriate iterator_category tag, such as input_iterator_tag, output_iterator_tag, forward_iterator_tag, bidirectional_iterator_tag, or random_access_iterator_tag.
• Provide member functions for comparison (==, !=), increment/decrement ( , --), arithmetic ( , -), and dereferencing (*, ->) operations.

Const Iterator:

• Provide a const_iterator class nested within the iterator class, allowing for iteration over constant containers.
• Define the same member functions as the non-const iterator, but with const references and pointers.

Comparison and Assignment:

• Implement comparison operators (==, !=, <, >, <=, >=) for the container itself.
• Provide an assignment operator that takes a reference to another container.

Capacity and Access:

• Include member functions such as empty(), size(), max_size() to manage container size and capacity.
• Provide begin(), end(), cbegin(), cend(), rbegin(), rend(), crbegin(), and crend() for accessing iterators representing the container's elements.
• Define functions like front(), back(), at(), and operator[] to access or modify elements.

Insertions and Deletions:

• Implement emplace_front(), emplace_back(), push_front(), push_back(), pop_front(), and pop_back() for element insertion and deletion.
• Provide emplace(), insert(), and erase() member functions for inserting and removing elements within the container.

Miscellaneous:

• Include a swap() member function to exchange the contents of two containers of the same type.
• Implement get_allocator() to retrieve the allocator associated with the container.
• Define a free-standing swap() function for swapping containers of the same type.

Testing:

To ensure the reliability of your container, use a testing class like the provided tester class to verify that:

• Object lifetime is properly managed.
• Function calls do not modify the object's state unexpectedly.
• The container functions correctly when created with and without global objects.

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