Thread: Noob STL question about Containers.

Originally Posted by Swerve

Are containers simply like Arrays?

In the sense that they contain objects, yes. In particular, std::vector is a dynamic array container, and you will also encounter a fixed size array container example that is now available in somewhat different form as std::tr1::array.

Originally Posted by Swerve

For things like Ints, Floats and Chars, but the advantage of them is that they offer greater functionality, with things like begin() and end() etc? Is this where the STL come in, it offers greater functionality?

Yes, and not only for the built-in types, but for your own class types as well, assuming that they satisfy certain pre-conditions, e.g., they are copyable.

Originally Posted by Swerve

Reading it, it comes across to me like they are the opposite of OO design.

The standard containers are more an example of generic programming than object oriented programming. In particular, note that there is no inheritance, and that they do not have virtual functions.