Greg's Template Library of useful classes.

Overview

This repository aims to provide many classes that are commonly needed in substantial C++ projects, but that are either not available in the C++ standard library, or have a specification which makes them slower than they could be. In some cases, the C++ standard requirements prevents from providing faster alternatives (for example the pointer stability requirement for unordered maps or sets prevents providing implementations using open addressing).

Among the many classes offered by gtl, we have a set of excellent hash map implementations, as well as a btree alternative to std::map and std::set. These are drop-in replacements for the standard C++ classes and provide the same API, but are significantly faster and use less memory.

We also have a fast bit_vector implementation, which is an alternative to std::vector<bool> or std::bitset, providing both dynamic resizing and a good assortment of bit manipulation primitives, as well as a novel bit_view class allowing to operate on subsets of the bit_vector.

We have lru_cache and memoize classes, both with very fast multi-thread versions relying of the mutex sharding of the parallel hashmap classes.

We also offer an intrusive_ptr class, which uses less memory than std::shared_ptr, and is simpler to construct.

We are happy to integrate new classes into gtl, provided the license is compatible with ours, and we feel they will be useful to most users. Often, when integrating classes from other sources, we are able to improve their performance both in time and space by using other classes already available in gtl (such as hash maps, btree, bit_vector, etc...) instead of the spandard ones.

gtl requires a C++20 compiler. We currently support: Visual Studio 2019 +, gcc 8 +, and clang 10 + (or Xcode 12 + on MacOS).

Because gtl is a header only library, installation is trivial, just copy the include/gtl directory to your project somewhere in your include path and you are good to go. We also support common package managers such as Conan (package name greg7mdp-gtl) and vcpkg.

Installation

Direct copy of the header files

Copy the gtl directory to your project. Update your include path. That's all.

Direct include in cmake project

If you are using cmake, you can use FetchContent to integrate gtl to your project, for example:

    include(FetchContent)
    FetchContent_Declare(
        gtl
        GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/greg7mdp/gtl.git
        GIT_TAG        v1.1.5 # adjust tag/branch/commit as needed
    )
    FetchContent_MakeAvailable(gtl)

    ...
    target_link_libraries (my_target PRIVATE gtl)

Using a package manager

GTL supports both vcpkg and Conan package managers (package name in conan-io is greg7mdp-gtl).

Debugger support

If you are using Visual Studio, you probably want to add include/gtl/debug_vis/gtl.natvis to your projects. This will allow for a user friendly display of gtl containers in the debugger. Similar debug visualizers are also provided for gdb and lldb in the include/gtl/debug_vis directory.

Clone the repository and build it

git clone https://github.com/greg7mdp/gtl.git

A cmake configuration files (CMakeLists.txt) is provided for building the tests and examples. Command for building and running the tests is:
mkdir build && cd build && cmake -DGTL_BUILD_TESTS=ON -DGTL_BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON .. && cmake --build . && make test

Following is a short look at the various classes available in gtl. In many cases, a more complete description is linked.

Hash containers

Gtl provides a set of hash containers (maps and sets) implemented using open addressing (single array of values, very cache friendly), as well as advanced SSE lookup optimizations allowing for excellent performance even when the container is up to 87% full. These containers have the same API as the unordered versions from the STL, and are significantly outperforming the unordered version both in terms of speed and space.

The four provided hash containers are: - gtl::flat_hash_map - gtl::flat_hash_set - gtl::node_hash_map - gtl::node_hash_set

For more information on the hash containers, please see gtl hash containers

if using Visual Studio, make sure to add the gtl natvis file to your projects, which provides a user-friendly visualization of the content of gtl set and map containers. Debug visualizers are available for gdb and lldb as well.

Here is a very basic example of using the gtl::flat_hash_map:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <gtl/phmap.hpp>

using gtl::flat_hash_map;
 
int main()
{
    // Create an unordered_map of three strings (that map to strings)
    flat_hash_map<std::string, std::string> email = 
    {
        { "tom",  "[email protected]"},
        { "jeff", "[email protected]"},
        { "jim",  "[email protected]"}
    };
 
    // Iterate and print keys and values 
    for (const auto& n : email) 
        std::cout << n.first << "'s email is: " << n.second << "\n";
 
    // Add a new entry
    email["bill"] = "[email protected]";
 
    // and print it
    std::cout << "bill's email is: " << email["bill"] << "\n";
 
    return 0;
}

Key decision points for hash containers:

• The flat hash containers do not provide pointer stability. This means that when the container resizes, it will move the keys and values in memory. So pointers to something inside a flat hash container will become invalid when the container is resized. The node hash containers do provide pointer stability, and should be used instead if this is an issue.

• The flat hash containers will use less memory, and usually are faster than the node hash containers, so use them if you can. the exception is when the values inserted in the hash container are large (say more than 100 bytes [needs testing]) and expensive to move.

• The parallel hash containers are preferred when you have a few hash containers that will store a very large number of values. The non-parallel hash containers are preferred if you have a large number of hash containers, each storing a relatively small number of values.

• The benefits of the parallel hash containers are:
  a. reduced peak memory usage (when resizing), and
  b. multithreading support (and inherent internal parallelism)

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Google and the "Swiss table" team for the original implementation, from which ours is derived.

Parallel hash containers

The four provided parallel hash containers are: - gtl::parallel_flat_hash_map - gtl::parallel_flat_hash_set - gtl::parallel_node_hash_map - gtl::parallel_node_hash_set

For a full writeup explaining the design and benefits of the parallel hash containers, click here.

For more information on the implementation, usage and characteristics of the parallel hash containers, please see gtl parallel hash containers

Btree containers

The four provided btree containers (in gtl/btree.hpp)are: - gtl::btree_map - gtl::btree_set - gtl::btree_multimap - gtl::btree_multiset

For more information on the hash containers, please see gtl btree containers

Key decision points for btree containers:

Btree containers are ordered containers, which can be used as alternatives to std::map and std::set. They store multiple values in each tree node, and are therefore more cache friendly and use significantly less memory.

Btree containers will usually be preferable to the default red-black trees of the STL, except when:

• pointer stability or iterator stability is required
• the value_type is large and expensive to move

When an ordering is not needed, a hash container is typically a better choice than a btree one.

vector container

Gtl provides a gtl::vector class, which is an alternative to std::vector. This class is closely derived from Folly's fbvector.

bit_vector (or dynamic bitset)

Gtl provides a gtl::bit_vector class, which is an alternative to std::vector<bool> or std::bitset, as it provides both dynamic resizing, and a good assortment of bit manipulation primitives.

I implemented this container because I often needed the functionality it provides, and didn't find an open-source implementation I liked which didn't require pulling in a big library. The gtl::bit_vector implementation is self-contained in a single header file which can trivially be added to any project (it currently requires a C++17 compiler).

In addition, I dreamed of the gtl::bit_view functionality, similar to std::string_view for strings, to refer and operate on a subset of a full gtl::bit_vector, and I thought it would be fun implementing it.

Click here for an example demonstrating some of the capabilities of gtl::bit_vector.

if using Visual Studio, make sure to add the gtl natvis file to your projects, which provides a user-friendly visualization of the content of a gtl::bit_vector.

When printed, converted to std::string, or displayed in the debugger with the gtl natvis, bits are displayed right to left, so for example a gtl::bit_vector of size 16, with the fist two bits set (index 0 and 1) would be displayed as 0x00000003.

memoize

The classes from the memoize.hpp header provide a very efficient way to memoize the return values of pure functions, whether in a multi threaded context or a single threaded one. In particular, the mt_memoize_lru class internally uses the extended parallel hashmap APIs to minimize locking contention when the cache is used from concurrrent threads.

• gtl::lru_cache: a basic lru (least recently used) cache, not internally thread-safe, providing APIs like contains() andinsert() to look up and insert items if not already present.
• gtl::memoize
• gtl::memoize_lru
• gtl::mt_memoize:
• gtl::mt_memoize_lru:

intrusive

The classes from the intrusive.hpp header provide a smart pointer type which is missing from the standard library, the intrusive_ptr. It provides automatic life management of pointers to an object with an embedded reference count. If you don't need all the bells and whistles of std::shared_ptr, such as weak_ptr or custom deleter support, the intrusive_ptr provides a similar reference counting support with the following benefits:

• The memory footprint of intrusive_ptr is the same as the corresponding raw pointer (typically half of std::shared_ptr);
• The memory footprint of intrusive_ref_counter is also half of the std::shared_ptr reference count;
• intrusive_ptr<T> can be constructed from an arbitrary raw pointer of type T *.

Classes provided are:

• gtl::intrusive_ptr: the intrusive_ptr class
• gtl::intrusive_ref_counter: use this as a based class for objects needing to implement the two count APIs