C++ standard library - when should I use it and when shouldn't I?

Question

I was wondering how often people actually use much of the standard c++ library, particularly the stuff in the <algorithm> and <numeric> headers. The text books seem to recommend them, but I haven't seen any of them used at all in various projects I've sifted through (coincidence?) and personally it seems easier to just write appropriate simple algorithms myself each time rather than memorize or consult a reference to these headers each time. Am just being lazy or stubborn? Is there actually performance gains etc when using these libraries?

Thanks,

R

Answer 1

It's possible you're being lazy or stubborn. Personally, I use them all the time in production code.

I don't do this to be fancy, and I don't do this because I like writing "space-age code." Rather, I do this because I am a paranoid programmer, and I know that production environments are hostile places that will mutilate code and reduce my programs to smoking piles of worthless bytes, if given a chance.

I do this because I live by the motto, "The best code, is the code you never write." It takes time to learn how to use the STL & Std Lib effectively, but once you do you'll find that it can be used so that what now is 1000 lines of code becomes perhaps 100. Those 100 might take as long to write as the original 1000, but there are fewer failure points. The code can be more robust, if you stand on the shoulders of others.

Answer 2

You should use stl as much as possible.
It has been written by pretty sophisticated programmers and it is very unlikely that you can write a more optimized version of any of stl stuff.
Do not re-invent the wheel