Using the STL: The C++ Standard Template Library

I recently needed to do some work with the STL and at the time, this looked like the best book available based upon the editor's description and the comments I saw here.I needed to do some work with the sorting algortihms, and some basic collections. I also wrote some wrappers around the strings and collection for MFC programmers so they could use the MFC CString, CArray, CMap, and CList based classes without a dependance on MFC. I had no problems doing that with the book.I think there is a book out now on STL, called "STL from Scratch" or something like that. I am a big fan of Jesse Liberty and since that book has his endorsement I would have considered that book if it had been available at the time.My recommendation: I think this is a good book, but I would check out the other book I mentioned first and see what kind of reviews it has.

I found this book to be an easy read on the STL where a lot of others are just reference manuals on the subject. The author does a good job of giving examples of usage for many of the STL components as well as some more complex, closer-to-real-life examples towards the end of the book. The information was well organized which made the book enjoyable to read. There's a refernce at the end of the book, too. The only negative criticism I have is that some of the details weren't talked about or given examples (and some of the examples required a little massaging to compile with MSVC). If you have another book that goes into the details of every container and function or you make use of some other reference material (I wouldn't count the VC++ 5.0 documentation on STL as a good source, blah), this is a great book to learn from.