Algorithms

Standard Library algorithms are function templates that perform such common data manipulations as searching, sorting and comparing elements or entire containers. The Standard Library provides many algorithms. Most of them use iterators to access container elements. Each algorithm has minimum requirements for the types of iterators that can be used with it. We’ll see that containers support specific iterator types, some more powerful than others. A container’s supported iterator type determines whether the container can be used with a specific algorithm. Iterators encapsulate the mechanisms used to access container elements. This encapsulation enables many of the algorithms to be applied to various containers independently of the underlying container implementation. This also enables you to create new algorithms that can process the elements of multiple container types.