По-видимому ;-) стандартные контейнеры предоставляют определенные гарантии.
Какие гарантии и какие именно различия между различными типами контейнеров?
Работая со страницы SGI (около STL), я придумал следующее:
Container Types:
================
Container:
Forward Container
Reverse Container
Random Access Container
Sequence
Front Insert Sequence
Back Insert Sequence
Associative Container
Simple Associative Container
Pair Associative Container
Sorted Associative Container
Multiple Associative Container
Container Types mapped to Standard Containers
=============================================
std::vector: Sequence Back Sequence Forward/Reverse/Random Container
std::deque: Sequence Front/Back Sequence Forward/Reverse/Random Container
std::list: Sequence Front/Back Sequence Forward/Reverse Container
std::set: Sorted/Simple/Unique Associative Container Forward Container
std::map: Sorted/Pair/Unique Associative Container Forward Container
std::multiset: Sorted/Simple/Multiple Associative Container Forward Container
std::multimap: Sorted/Pair/Multiple Associative Container Forward Container
Container Guarantees:
=====================
Simp
or
For Rev Rand Front Back Assoc Sort Mult
Cont: Cont: Cont Cont: Sequ: Sequ: Sequ: Cont: Cont: Cont:
Copy Const: O(n)
Fill Const: O(n)
begin() O(1)
end() O(1)
rbegin() O(1)
rend() O(1)
front() O(1)
push_front() O(1)
pop_front() O(1)
push_back() O(1)
pop_back() O(1)
Insert() O(ln(n))
Insert: fill O(n)
Insert: range O(n) O(kln(n)+n)
size() O(n)
swap() O(1)
erase key O(ln(n))
erase element O(1)
erase range O(ln(n)+S)
count() O(log(n)+k)
find() O(ln(n))
equal range O(ln(n))
Lower Bound/Upper Bound O(ln(n))
Equality O(n)
InEquality O(n)
Element Access O(1)