10.5. Structure of Generic Algorithms

The most fundamental property of any algorithm is the list of operations it requires from its iterator(s). Some algorithms, such as find, require only the ability to access an element through the iterator, to increment the iterator, and to compare two iterators for equality. Others, such as sort, require the ability to read, write, and randomly access elements. The iterator operations required by the algorithms are grouped into five iterator categories listed in Table 10.5. Each algorithm specifies what kind of iterator must be supplied for each of its iterator parameters.

Table 10.5. Iterator Categories

A second way is to classify the algorithms (as we did in the beginning of this chapter) is by whether they read, write, or reorder the elements in the sequence. Appendix A covers all the algorithms according to this classification.

The algorithms also share a set of parameter-passing conventions and a set of naming conventions, which we shall cover after looking at iterator categories.