Sets, Maps, Multisets, and MultiMaps

Abstract

In Chapter 2 and in 3 through 7, we studied container mechanisms in which there was a direct linear, or sequential, structure. Elements had a physical order. When we sort them we make their logical order conform in some way with the physical order. STL sorted containers are quite different. These containers are always kept logically sorted, so that if we write them out the values are reported in increasing order according to some rule. When we insert into a sorted container, it is placed somewhere internally consistent with that logical order. As we shall see, however, there is no necessary physical relationship between the logical position and its physical location. In fact, many different physical arrangements can be equivalent to the same logical one, since the physical structure is not sequential.