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While we wait for this year’s event, we’re featuring videos of some of the 100+ talks from CppCon 2016 for you to enjoy. Here is today’s feature:

STL Algorithms - why you should use them, and how to write your own

by Marshall Clow

(watch on YouTube) (watch on Channel 9)

Summary of the talk:

One of the most powerful features of the C++ standard library is the collection of basic algorithms. Everyone knows about sort and copy, but there are is a lot of powerful capabilities in the other algorithms as well. In this talk, I will explore some of the algorithms in the library, and give a rationale for writing your own, along with examples.

The motivation for writing your own algorithms is that you can create generic building blocks that can be used over and over again in your library or application, and which will allow your to program at a higher level of abstraction. Instead of thinking, "how do I sort this vector", you just call std::sort. The same should apply to the algorithms that are specific to your domain - once you write them.