2.2 Class Groups

The Essential Tools Module classes are grouped into eleven sets of classes:

• Date and Time Classes (Section 2.2.1)

• String Processing Classes (Section 2.2.2)

• Virtual Stream Classes (Section 2.2.3)

• Traditional Collection Classes (Section 2.2.4)

• STL-based Collection Classes (Section 2.2.4)

• STL Extension-based Collection Classes (Section 2.2.4)

• RWCollectable Classes (Section 2.2.4)

• Internationalization Classes (Section 2.2.5)

• File System Classes (Section 2.2.6)

• Miscellaneous Classes (Section 2.2.7)

• Generic Classes (deprecated) (Section 2.2.8)

This manual is organized to reflect these class groups. This section summarizes the classes in each of these groups. A list of the classes that are in each group are at the start of each class group chapter in this manual (Chapter 3 through Chapter 7), and in Chapter 2 of the Essential Tools Module Reference Guide.

Classes in the Date and Time Classes group let you perform tasks such as calculating the number of days between two dates, calculating the day of the week a date represents, or reading and writing days or times in arbitrary formats.

Chapter 3 explains the Date and Time Classes.

Classes in the String Processing Classes group let you perform string processing operations such as manipulating single and multibyte strings with class RWCString's full suite of operators and functions, or choosing class RWWString for wide character strings. These classes make it easy to do concatenation, comparison, indexing (with optional bounds checking), I/O, case changes, stripping, and many other functions.

Chapter 4 explains the String Processing Classes.

Classes in the Virtual Stream Classes group let you perform streaming operations such as transferring information between operating systems with the efficiency of a binary stream. The endian streams mechanism, which keeps a record of the operating environment where information originates, allows the stream to be read on any system regardless of its native size or byte order.

Chapter 5 explains the Virtual Stream Classes.

The Essential Tools Module is a rich, robust, and versatile C++ foundation class library that offers over 58 collection classes, including 38 template-based collections and 20 Smalltalk-like collections. In addition, 20 iterators make it simple to traverse the items of a collection. Collection classes range from simple single- or double-linked lists to sophisticated structures like hash dictionaries and B-trees.

The Essential Tools Module includes four collection class groups:

• Traditional Collection Classes, which let you work with items such as bit vectors, singly and doubly linked lists, vectors of values or pointers, parameterized queues, and stacks.

• STL-based Collection Classes, which let you work with things such as pointer-based collections of values, the iterator interface to the Standard Library-based collections, pointer-based collections of associations of
  key/value pairs, and so on.

• STL Extension-based Collection Classes, which extend what is offered in the C++ Standard Library by letting you work with things such as collections of key/value pairs, implemented as hash tables, lists, and so on.

• RWCollectable Classes (Smalltalk-like collections), which inherit from RWCollectable and contain virtual functions for identifying, hashing, comparing, and storing and retrieving collectable objects.

Chapter 6 explains the Collection Classes.

Classes in the Internationalization Classes group let you internationalize your software with the convenient and easy-to-use framework of class RWLocale and RWAnsiLocale, and use class RWZone to manipulate time zones and daylight-saving time. With the exception of class RWBasicUString designed to handle 16-bit Unicode characters, the library is eight-bit clean, so you can use it with any eight-bit character set.

Chapter 8 explains the Internationalization Classes.

Classes in the File System Classes group let you work with things such as ordered collections of associations of keys and values, fixed length blocks to and from an associated RWFile, page heaps, encapsulated binary file operations, and disk allocation.

Chapter 11 explains the File System Classes.

Classes in the Miscellaneous Classes group let you work with things such as automatic benchmarking, Model-View-Controller architecture, and elapsed time. The Essential Tools Module Reference Guide explains the Miscellaneous Classes.

Classes in the Generic Classes group let you work with bit vectors, groups of ordered elements, singly and doubly linked lists, ordered collections of objects, and vectors of elements.

All of the classes in this group are deprecated; alternatives to each class are listed in each class description. Chapter 7 explains the Generic Classes.

© Copyright Rogue Wave Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Rogue Wave and SourcePro are registered trademarks of Rogue Wave Software, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contact Rogue Wave about documentation or support issues.