Sams Teach Yourself C++ in One Hour a Day, Seventh Edition

Lesson 25. Working with Bit Flags Using STL

Bits can be a very efficient way of storing settings and flags. The Standard Template Library (STL) supplies classes that help organize and manipulate bitwise information. This lesson introduces you to

• The bitset class

• The vector<bool>

The bitset Class

std::bitset is the STL class designed for handling information in bits and bit flags. std::bitset is not an STL container class because it cannot resize itself. This is a utility class that is optimized for working with a sequence of bits whose length is known at compile time.

Tip

To use class std::bitset, include header:

#include <bitset>

Instantiating the std::bitset

This template class requires you to supply one template parameter that contains ...