C++ Standard Library

In the C++ programming language, the C++ Standard Library is a collection of classes and functions, which are written in the core language and part of the C++ ISO Standard itself.^[1]

Overview

The C++ Standard Library provides several generic containers, functions to use and manipulate these containers, function objects, generic strings and streams (including interactive and file I/O), support for some language features, and functions for common tasks such as finding the square root of a number. The C++ Standard Library also incorporates most headers of the ISO C standard library ending with ".h", but their use was deprecated (reverted the deprecation since C++23^[2]).^[3] C++23 instead considers these headers as useful for interoperability with C, and recommends against their usage outside of programs that are intended to be both valid C and C++ programs. No other headers in the C++ Standard Library end in ".h". Features of the C++ Standard Library are declared within the std namespace.

The C++ Standard Library is based upon conventions introduced by the Standard Template Library (STL), and has been influenced by research in generic programming and developers of the STL such as Alexander Stepanov and Meng Lee.^[4][5] Although the C++ Standard Library and the STL share many features, neither is a strict superset of the other.^{[citation needed]}

A noteworthy feature of the C++ Standard Library is that it not only specifies the syntax and semantics of generic algorithms, but also places requirements on their performance.^[6] These performance requirements often correspond to a well-known algorithm, which is expected but not required to be used. In most cases this requires linear time O(n) or linearithmic time O(n log n), but in some cases higher bounds are allowed, such as quasilinear time O(n log² n) for stable sort (to allow in-place merge sort). Previously, sorting was only required to take O(n log n) on average, allowing the use of quicksort, which is fast in practice but has poor worst-case performance, but introsort was introduced to allow both fast average performance and optimal worst-case complexity, and as of C++11, sorting is guaranteed to be at worst linearithmic. In other cases requirements remain laxer, such as selection, which is only required to be linear on average (as in quickselect),^[7] not requiring worst-case linear as in introselect.

The C++ Standard Library underwent ISO standardization as part of the C++ ISO Standardization effort in the 1990s. Since 2011, it has been expanded and updated every three years^[8] with each revision of the C++ standard.

Since C++23, the C++ Standard Library can be imported using modules, which were introduced in C++20.

Implementations

Name	Organization	Homepage	Acronym	Licence	Latest release
GNU C++ Standard Library	GNU Project and Free Software Foundation		libstdc++	GPLv3 with GCC Runtime Library Exception	New major release once per year
LLVM C++ Standard Library	LLVM Developer Group		libc++	Apache License 2.0 with LLVM Exceptions	Every 2 weeks
NVIDIA C++ Standard Library	Nvidia		libcudacxx	Apache License 2.0 with LLVM Exceptions	September 4, 2024; 3 months ago (2024-09-04)
Microsoft C++ Standard Library	Microsoft		MSVC STL	Apache License 2.0 with LLVM Exceptions	Daily
HPX C++ Standard Library for Parallelism and Concurrency	STELLAR Group		HPX	Boost Software License 1.0	May 29, 2024; 6 months ago (2024-05-29)
Electronic Arts Standard Template Library	Electronic Arts		EASTL	BSD 3-Clause License	August 31, 2024; 3 months ago (2024-08-31)
Dinkum C++ Library	Dinkumware		Unknown	Commercial	Unknown
Cray C++ Standard Library	Cray User Group		Unknown	Commercial	Unknown

Discontinued

Apache C++ Standard Library

The Apache C++ Standard Library is another open-source implementation. It was originally developed commercially by Rogue Wave Software and later donated to the Apache Software Foundation.^[9] However, after more than five years without a release, the board of the Apache Software Foundation decided to end this project and move it to Apache Attic.^[10]

See also

The following libraries implement much of the C++ Standard Library:

Name	Homepage	Description
Abseil		An open source collection of libraries used internally by Google
Folly		A variety of C++14 libraries that are used extensively by Facebook
Bareflank Support Library		A C++ library where everything can be executed at compile time

Standard modules

Ever since the modules were introduced in C++20, there has been no support for standard library modules until C++23. These named modules were added to include all items declared in both global and std namespaces provided by the importable standard headers. Macros are not allowed to be exportable, so users have to manually include or import headers that emit macros for use.

The C++ standard has reserved std and std.* as module names.^[11]

The current standard library modules defined by the standard as of C++23 are:

Name	Description
std	Exports all declarations in namespace std and global storage allocation and deallocation functions that are provided by the importable C++ library headers including C library facilities (although declared in standard namespace).
std.compat	Exports the same declarations as the named module std, and additionally exports functions in global namespace in C library facilities. It thus contains "compat" in the name, meaning compatibility with C.

The above modules export the entire C++ standard library, meaning that as of currently, the standard library must be imported in its entirety. Furthermore, modules do not allow for granular imports of specific namespaces or classes within a module, nor does it allow for using wildcard imports, unlike Java or Rust which do allow for the aforementioned.

Like Java's packages, C++ modules do not have a hierarchical system, but typically use a hierarchical naming convention. In other words, C++ does not have "submodules", meaning the . symbol which may be included in a module name bears no syntactic meaning and is used only to suggest the association of a module. This means that std.compat is not a submodule of std.

It has been proposed that additional modules providing other subsets of the standard library be added, which may eventually be included in a future revision.^[12][13] These include:

Name	Description
std.fundamental	Exports the utility facilities within the C++ standard library.
std.core	Exports everything in std.fundamental, as well as container facilities and the Standard Template Library (STL), and other data types such as strings, regular expressions, and smart pointers.
std.io	Exports facilities for input/output.
std.os	Exports facilities for interfacing with the operating system.
std.concurrency	Exports facilities for concurrent programming.
std.math	Exports facilities for mathematics and pseudorandom number generation.

Standard headers

The following files contain the declarations of the C++ Standard Library.

Legend:
 : Deprecated
 : Removed

General

Components that C++ programs may use for increased features.

Name	Description
<any>	Added in C++17. Provides a type-erased class std::any.
<atomic>	Added in C++11. Provides class template std::atomic, its several template specializations, and more atomic operations.
<chrono>	Provides time elements, such as std::chrono::duration, std::chrono::time_point, and clocks. Since C++20, a hefty amount of temporal features were added: calendars, time zones, more clocks, and string chrono formatting.
<concepts>	Added in C++20. Provides fundamental library concepts.
<expected>	Added in C++23. Provides class template std::expected, a result type.
<functional>	Provides several function objects, designed for use with the standard algorithms.
<generator>	Added in C++23. Provides a coroutine generator that additionally supports nested yield operations on ranges.
<memory>	Provides facilities for memory management in C++, including the class template std::unique_ptr.
<memory_resource>	Added in C++17. Provides facilities for creating polymorphic memory allocators whose behaviors can change at runtime.[14]
<optional>	Added in C++17. Provides class template std::optional, an optional type.
<scoped_allocator>	Added in C++11. Provides std::scoped_allocator_adaptor.
<stacktrace>	Added in C++23. Provides stack trace operations.
<stdexcept>	Contains standard exception classes such as std::logic_error and std::runtime_error, both derived from std::exception.
<system_error>	Added in C++11. Defines std::error_code
<tuple>	Added in C++11 and TR1. Provides a class template std::tuple, a tuple.
<type_traits>	Added in C++11. Provides metaprogramming facilities working with types.
<utility>	Provides various utilities: class template std::pair (two-member tuples), compile-time integer sequences, helpers in constructing vocabulary types, functions such as std::move and std::forward, and many more. The namespace std::rel_ops for automatically generating comparison operators is deprecated in C++20 in favor of new defaulted comparison operators.
<variant>	Added in C++17. Provides a class template std::variant, a tagged union type.

Language support

Components that C++ programs may use for support during development.

Name	Description
<compare>	Added in C++20. Provides three-way comparison operator support.
<coroutine>	Added in C++20. Provides coroutine support.
<debugging>	Added in C++26. Provides debugging support.
<exception>	Provides several types and functions related to exception handling, including std::exception, the base class of all exceptions thrown by the Standard Library.
<initializer_list>	Added in C++11. Provides initializer list support.
<limits>	Provides the class template std::numeric_limits, used for describing properties of fundamental numeric types.
<new>	Provides operators new and delete and other functions and types composing the fundamentals of C++ memory management.
<source_location>	Added in C++20. Provides capturing source location information as alternative to predefined macros such as __LINE__.
<stdfloat>	Added in C++23. Provides conditional support for extended floating-point types.
<typeinfo>	Provides facilities for working with C++ run-time type information.
<version>	Added in C++20. Provides information about the implementation of the C++ standard library.[15]

Containers

See also: Standard Template Library

Components that C++ programs may use for container data structures.

Name	Description
<array>	Added in C++11 and TR1. Provides the container class template std::array, a container for a fixed sized array.
<bitset>	Provides the specialized container class std::bitset, a bit array.
<deque>	Provides the container class template std::deque, a double-ended queue.
<flat_map>	Added in C++23. Provides the container adapter class templates std::flat_map and std::flat_multimap.
<flat_set>	Added in C++23. Provides the container adapter class templates std::flat_set and std::flat_multiset.
<forward_list>	Added in C++11 and TR1. Provides the container class template std::forward_list, a singly linked list.
<inplace_vector>	Added in C++26. Provides the class std::inplace_vector, analogous to std::vector with a fixed capacity defined at compile time.
<map>	Provides the container class templates std::map and std::multimap, sorted associative array and multimap.
<mdspan>	Added in C++23. Provides the class template std::mdspan, analogous to std::span but the view is multidimensional.
<queue>	Provides the container adapter class std::queue, a single-ended queue, and std::priority_queue, a priority queue.
<set>	Provides the container class templates std::set and std::multiset, sorted associative containers or sets.
<span>	Added in C++20. Provides the class template std::span, a non-owning view that refers to any contiguous range.
<stack>	Provides the container adapter class std::stack, a stack.
<unordered_map>	Added in C++11 and TR1. Provides the container class template std::unordered_map and std::unordered_multimap, hash tables.
<unordered_set>	Added in C++11 and TR1. Provides the container class template std::unordered_set and std::unordered_multiset.
<vector>	Provides the container class template std::vector, a dynamic array.

Iterators and ranges

Components that C++ programs may use to manipulate iterators, ranges, and algorithms over ranges and containers.

Name	Description
<algorithm>	Provides definitions of many algorithms for use with containers and other ranges.
<execution>	Added in C++17. Provides execution policies for parallelized algorithms.
<iterator>	Provides classes and templates for working with iterators.
<numeric>	Generalized numeric algorithms.
<ranges>	Added in C++20. Provides ranges facilities and lazily evaluated adapters.

Localisation

Components that C++ programs may use for localisation and character encoding manipulation.

Name	Description
<codecvt>	Provides code conversion facets for various character encodings. Deprecated since C++17, removed in C++26.
<locale>	Defines classes and declares functions that encapsulate and manipulate the information peculiar to a locale.
<text_encoding>	Added in C++26. Provides text encoding identifications.

Strings

Components that C++ programs may use for string manipulation.

Name	Description
<charconv>	Added in C++17. Provides a locale-independent, non-allocating, and non-throwing string conversion utilities from/to integers and floating point.
<format>	Added in C++20. Provides a modern way of formatting strings including std::format.
<string>	Provides the C++ standard string classes and templates.
<string_view>	Added in C++17. Provides class template std::basic_string_view, an immutable non-owning view to any string.
<regex>	Added in C++11. Provides utilities for pattern matching strings using regular expressions.

Streams, files, and input/output

Components that C++ programs may use for input/output manipulation and file manipulation.

Name	Description
<filesystem>	Added in C++17. Provides facilities for file system operations and their components.
<fstream>	Provides facilities for file-based input and output. See fstream.
<iomanip>	Provides facilities to manipulate output formatting, such as the base used when formatting integers and the precision of floating-point values.
<ios>	Provides several types and functions basic to the operation of iostreams.
<iosfwd>	Provides forward declarations of several I/O-related class templates.
<iostream>	Provides C++ input and output fundamentals. See iostream.
<istream>	Provides std::istream and other supporting classes for input.
<ostream>	Provides std::ostream and other supporting classes for output.
<print>	Added in C++23. Provides formatted output utilities such as std::print supported for both C and C++ streams.
<spanstream>	Added in C++23. Provides std::spanstream and other fixed character buffer I/O streams.
<sstream>	Provides std::stringstream and other supporting classes for string manipulation.
<streambuf>	Provides reading and writing functionality to/from certain types of character sequences, such as external files or strings.
<strstream>	Provides input/output operations on array-backed streams. Deprecated in C++98, removed in C++26.
<syncstream>	Added in C++20. Provides std::osyncstream and other supporting classes for synchronized output streams.

Thread support library

Components that C++ programs may use for threading and concurrent programming.

Name	Description
<barrier>	Added in C++20. Provides std::barrier, a reusable thread barrier.
<future>	Added in C++11. In 32.9.1-1, this section describes components that a C++ program can use to retrieve in one thread the result (value or exception) from a function that has run in the same thread or another thread.
<hazard_pointer>	Added in C++26. Provides std::hazard_pointer.
<latch>	Added in C++20. Provides std::latch, a single-use thread barrier.
<mutex>	Added in C++11. In 32.5-1, this section provides mechanisms for mutual exclusion: mutexes, locks, and call once.
<rcu>	Added in C++26. Provides read-copy-update mechanisms.
<shared_mutex>	Added in C++14. Provides facility for shared mutual exclusion.
<semaphore>	Added in C++20. Provides semaphore that models non-negative resource count.
<stop_token>	Added in C++20. In 32.3.1-1, this section describes components that can be used to asynchronously request that an operation stops execution in a timely manner, typically because the result is no longer required. Such a request is called a stop request.
<thread>	Added in C++11. Provide class and namespace for working with threads.

Numerics library

Components that C++ programs may use to perform seminumerical or mathematical operations.

Name	Description
<bit>	New in C++20. Provides bit manipulation facilities.
<complex>	Defines a class template std::complex, and numerous functions for representing and manipulating complex numbers.
<linalg>	Added in C++26. Provides linear algebra facilities.
<numbers>	Added in C++20. Provides mathematical constants defined in namespace std::numbers.
<simd>	Added in C++26. Provides data-parallel types and operations on these types.
<random>	Added in C++11. Facility for generating (pseudo-)random numbers and distributions.
<ratio>	Added in C++11. Provides compile-time rational arithmetic based on class templates.
<valarray>	Defines five class templates (std::valarray, std::slice_array, std::gslice_array, std::mask_array, and std::indirect_array), two classes (std::slice and std::gslice), and a series of related function templates for representing and manipulating arrays of values.

C standard library

Main article: C standard library

Each header from the C Standard Library is included in the C++ Standard Library under a different name, generated by removing the '.h' file extension, and adding a 'c' at the start; for example, 'time.h' becomes 'ctime'. The only difference between these headers and the traditional C Standard Library headers is that where possible the functions should be placed into the std:: namespace. In ISO C, functions in the standard library are allowed to be implemented by macros, which is not allowed by ISO C++.

Usage of the C headers with the '.h' file extension is legal in C++ and used for compatibility.

Name	Description
<cassert>	Related to <assert.h>. Declares the assert macro, used to assist with detecting logical errors and other types of bugs while debugging a program.
<ccomplex>	Related to <complex.h>. Defines a set of functions for manipulating complex numbers. Deprecated in C++17, removed in C++20.
<cctype>	Related to <ctype.h>. Defines set of functions used to classify characters by their types or to convert between upper and lower case in a way that is independent of the used character set (typically ASCII or one of its extensions, although implementations utilizing EBCDIC are also known).
<cerrno>	Related to <errno.h>. For testing error codes reported by library functions.
<cfenv>	Related to <errno.h>. Defines a set of functions for controlling floating-point environment.
<cfloat>	Related to <float.h>. Defines macro constants specifying the implementation-specific properties of the floating-point library.
<cinttypes>	Related to <inttypes.h>. Defines exact-width integer types.
<ciso646>	Related to <iso646.h>. Defines several macros that implement alternative ways to express several standard tokens. For programming in ISO 646 variant character sets. Removed in C++20.
<climits>	Related to <limits.h>. Defines macro constants specifying the implementation-specific properties of the integer types.
<clocale>	Related to <locale.h>. Defines localization functions.
<cmath>	Related to <math.h>. Defines common mathematical functions. Extends <math.h>, containing special mathematical functions such as Bessel functions and the Riemann zeta function.
<csetjmp>	Related to <setjmp.h>. Declares the macros setjmp and longjmp, which are used for non-local exits.
<csignal>	Related to <signal.h>. Defines signal-handling functions.
<cstdalign>	Related to <stdalign.h>. For querying and specifying the alignment of objects. Deprecated in C++17, removed in C++20.
<cstdarg>	Related to <stdarg.h>. For atomic operations on data shared between threads.
<cstdbool>	Related to <stdbool.h>. Defines a Boolean data type. Deprecated in C++17, removed in C++20.
<cstddef>	Related to <stddef.h>. Defines several useful types and macros.
<cstdint>	Related to <stdint.h>. Defines exact-width integer types.
<cstdio>	Related to <stdio.h>. Defines core input and output functions.
<cstring>	Related to <string.h>. Defines string-handling functions.
<ctgmath>	Related to <tgmath.h>. Defines type-generic mathematical functions. Deprecated in C++17, removed in C++20.
<ctime>	Related to <time.h>. Defines date- and time-handling functions.
<cuchar>	Related to <uchar.h>. Types and functions for manipulating Unicode characters.
<cwchar>	Related to <wchar.h>. Defines wide-string-handling functions.
<cwctype>	Related to <wctype.h>. Defines set of functions used to classify wide characters by their types or to convert between upper and lower case.

The following headers are special C compatibility headers which do not have a corresponding C++ naming convention, meaning that the C headers must be used if the header is necessary.

Name	Description
<stdatomic.h>	Added in C++23. Related to <stdatomic.h>. For atomic operations on data shared between threads.

The C headers <stdnoreturn.h> and <threads.h> do not have C++ equivalents and their C headers are not supported in C++.

See also

• Boost (C++ libraries)
• C POSIX library
• C standard library
• Standard library
• C++ Technical Report 1

References

1. ISO/IEC 14882:2003(E) Programming Languages – C++ §17-27
2. Köppe, Thomas (11 June 2021). "Clarifying the status of the "C headers"".
3. ISO/IEC 14882:2003(E) Programming Languages – C++ §D.5
4. Stroustrup, Bjarne (1994). The Design and Evolution of C++ §8.5. Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-54330-3.
5. Stepanov, Alexander; Lee, Meng (1 August 1994). "The Standard Template Library". HP Labs. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
6. "Generic Algorithms", David Musser
7. "std::nth_element". cppreference.com. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
8. "C++ IS Schedule", Herb Sutter
9. Apache C++ Standard Library
10. Porter, Brett (18 July 2013). "Apache C++ Standard Library and the Attic". stdcxx-dev mailing list. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
11. C++ Standards Committee. (2022). P2465R3 - C++ Modules: Design and Evolution. Retrieved from https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2022/p2465r3.pdf
12. C++ Standards Committee. (2018). P0581R1 - Modules for C++. Retrieved from https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2018/p0581r1.pdf
13. C++ Standards Committee. (2021). P2412R0 - Further refinements to the C++ Modules Design. Retrieved from https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2021/p2412r0.pdf
14. Filipek, Bartlomiej. "Polymorphic Allocators, std::vector Growth and Hacking". Retrieved 30 April 2021.
15. "Working Draft, Standard for Programming Language C++" (PDF). open-std.org. ISO/IEC. 1 April 2020. p. 492. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 April 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2021.

Further reading

• Stroustrup, Bjarne (2013). The C++ Programming Language. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0321563842.
• Josuttis, Nicolai (2012). The C++ Standard Library – A Tutorial and Reference. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-321-62321-8.
• Van Weert, Peter; Gregoire, Marc (14 June 2016). C++ Standard Library Quick Reference. Apress. ISBN 978-1484218754. Archived from the original on 16 May 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2017.

External links

• C++ Standard Library reference
• Microsoft C++ Standard Library Reference
• Rogue Wave SourcePro C++ documentation
• Apache C++ Standard Library Wiki, retired 15 May 2014 (based on Rogue Wave C++ Standard Library 4.1.0)
• STLport C++ Standard Library documentation
• The GNU C++ Library online documentation
• LLVM/Clang C++ Standard Library documentation