C++ Primer, Fifth Edition

Chapter Summary

The standard library defines about 100 type-independent algorithms that operate on sequences. Sequences can be elements in a library container type, a built-in array, or generated (for example) by reading or writing to a stream. Algorithms achieve their type independence by operating in terms of iterators. Most algorithms take as their first two arguments a pair of iterators denoting a range of elements. Additional iterator arguments might include an output iterator denoting a destination, or another iterator or iterator pair denoting a second input sequence.

Iterators are categorized into one of five categories depending on the operations they support. The iterator categories are input, output, forward, bidirectional, and random ...