Data Structure Library for C

[hzmonte]

It is easy to find some packages for data structures such as list, heap, etc on Internet. There is a GNU libavl for balanced binary trees. However, there is no GNU package for lists etc (see http://directory.fsf.org/GNU/). Are there too many already that people do not bother to contribute one to GNU? I may be wrong, but being on the GNU list somwhat lends credibility to a library. Can anyone recommend a good, or widely used, library for data structures such as lists and queues? I do not want to reinvent the wheel; on the other hand, I want something reputable. Thanks.

[Dave_Sinkula]

C++ was one solution. Is this out of the realm of possibility?

[hzmonte]

I want something that can be called by my C program. Can one call STL from a C program? Just curious, why is there a STL for C++ but not C?

[Dave_Sinkula]

Well, for one there is no T in STL for C. And another might be that C++ was this solution. But there may be ways that others may be better at addressing the part about being C callable. Perhaps there are simple methods that allow a C++ interface from C, but I'm no authority.

[cwr]

Can one call STL from a C program?

No.

Edit: elaboration:

Generally there are compiler specific methods for linking in C++ library calls to C code, but obviously when you start using C++ template semantics, you are no longer writing C code.

Just curious, why is there a STL for C++ but not C?

Because the STL uses templates, and C doesn't support templates, so the real question is "Why doesn't C support templates?". The answer is probably because C is not C++.

Edit: Too late.

[Prelude]

>I do not want to reinvent the wheel
That's admirable, but most uses of lists and queues and stacks and such are too simple to warrant a library (it seems), so programmers will take an ad hoc approach to it 9 times out of 10. I find that it's faster and cleaner to do it myself and not worry about some overly generic library cluttering up my code.

Now for more sophisticated data structures, a good library can save you oodles of time that could be better spent playing video games.