Boost.Bimap is intuitive because it is based on the standard template library.
New concepts are however presented to extend the mapping framework to bidirectional
maps. The first step is to gain a firm grasp of the new framework. The
first section (Discovering
the new framework) aims to explain this.
Boost.Bimap offers much more than just a one-to-one ordered unique bidirectional
map. It is possible to control the set type of each side of the relationship
that the bimap represents, giving one-to-many containers, hashed bidirectional
containers and others that may be more suitable to the the task at hand.
The second section (Controlling
set types) explains how to instantiate a bimap with different collection
constraints.
The types of a bimap can be tagged so that each side is accessible by something
closer to the problem than left and right. This leads to more readable,
self-documenting code. The fourth section (Tagging)
shows how to use this feature.
What is perhaps the hardest issue to understand is the subtle problem of
the set type of relations. The section (The
"set of relations" type) explains this problem and how
to create new types of bidirectional maps.
The extended mapping framework allows to disable a view of a bimap, including
the standard mapping containers as a particular case. The section Unconstrained Sets
explains how they work.
In the section Updating
a Bimap we will learn how to modify the elements of this container.
The final section (Complete
Instantiation Scheme) summarizes bimap instantiation and explains
how change the allocator type to be used.
