Inside STL: Understanding the Design of C++ Deque

The article provides an in-depth understanding of the design of the C++ standard library deque. It explains that a deque is a double-ended queue that allows efficient addition and removal of items from both the front and the back. The article presents a simple version of a deque that stores its elements in an array and discusses the basic operations of a deque. However, it points out that this design becomes inefficient when the deque grows larger. To address this issue, the implementations of deque in major C++ standard library implementations use fixed-sized blocks instead of a single giant array. This allows for more efficient expansion of the deque by allocating new blocks. The article concludes by mentioning that the next article will delve into the specific implementations of deque, which can be complex. This article is a valuable resource for developers looking to understand the design considerations and trade-offs involved in implementing a deque.