Standard Template Library Programmer's Guide

access the first element, in amortized constant time. Front Insertion Sequences have special member functions as a shorthand for those operations.

Refinement of

Sequence

Associated types

None, except for those of Sequence.

Notation

X A type that is a model of Front Insertion Sequence

a Object of type X

T The value type of X

t Object of type T

Valid expressions

In addition to the expressions defined in Sequence, the following expressions must be valid.

Name	Expression	Type requirements	Return type
Front	a.front() [1]		reference if a is mutable, otherwise const_reference.
Push front	a.push_front(t)	a is mutable.	void
Pop front	a.pop_front()	a is mutable.	void

Expression semantics

Name	Expression	Precondition	Semantics	Postcondition
Front	a.front() [1]	!a.empty()	Equivalent to *(a.begin()).
Push front	a.push_front(t)		Equivalent to a.insert(a.begin(), t) a.size is incremented by 1.	a.front() is a copy of t.
Pop front	a.pop_front()	!a.empty()	Equivalent to a.erase(a.begin())	a.size() is decremented by 1.

Complexity guarantees

Front, push front, and pop front are amortized constant time. [2]

Invariants

Symmetry of push and pop

push_front() followed by pop_front() is a null operation.

Models

• list
• deque

Notes

[1] Front is actually defined in Sequence, since it is always possible to implement it in amortized constant time. Its definition is repeated here, along with push front and pop front, in the interest of clarity.

[2] This complexity guarantee is the only reason that front(), push_front(), and pop_front() are defined: they provide no additional functionality. Not every sequence must define these operations, but it is guaranteed that they are efficient if they exist at all.

See also

Container, Sequence, Back Insertion Sequence, deque, list, slist

Back Insertion Sequence