[contents] describes the entities and macros defined in the C++ standard library. [headers] lists the standard library headers and some constraints on those headers. [compliance] lists requirements for a freestanding implementation of the C++ standard library.
The C++ standard library provides definitions for the entities and macros described in the synopses of the C++ standard library headers ([headers]).
All library entities except operator new and operator delete are defined within the namespace std or namespaces nested within namespace std.167 It is unspecified whether names declared in a specific namespace are declared directly in that namespace or in an inline namespace inside that namespace.168
Whenever a name x defined in the standard library is mentioned, the name x is assumed to be fully qualified as ::std::x, unless explicitly described otherwise. For example, if the Effects: section for library function F is described as calling library function G, the function ::std::G is meant.
The C standard library headers (Annex [depr.c.headers]) also define names within the global namespace, while the C++ headers for C library facilities ([headers]) may also define names within the global namespace.
This gives implementers freedom to use inline namespaces to support multiple configurations of the library.
The C++ standard library provides 61 C++ library headers, as shown in Table [tab:cpp.library.headers].
| <algorithm> | <future> | <numeric> | <strstream> |
| <any> | <initializer_list> | <optional> | <system_error> |
| <array> | <iomanip> | <ostream> | <thread> |
| <atomic> | <ios> | <queue> | <tuple> |
| <bitset> | <iosfwd> | <random> | <type_traits> |
| <chrono> | <iostream> | <ratio> | <typeindex> |
| <codecvt> | <istream> | <regex> | <typeinfo> |
| <complex> | <iterator> | <scoped_allocator> | <unordered_map> |
| <condition_variable> | <limits> | <set> | <unordered_set> |
| <deque> | <list> | <shared_mutex> | <utility> |
| <exception> | <locale> | <sstream> | <valarray> |
| <execution> | <map> | <stack> | <variant> |
| <filesystem> | <memory> | <stdexcept> | <vector> |
| <forward_list> | <memory_resource> | <streambuf> | |
| <fstream> | <mutex> | <string> | |
| <functional> | <new> | <string_view> |
The facilities of the C standard library are provided in 26 additional headers, as shown in Table [tab:cpp.c.headers].170
| <cassert> | <cinttypes> | <csignal> | <cstdio> | <cwchar> |
| <ccomplex> | <ciso646> | <cstdalign> | <cstdlib> | <cwctype> |
| <cctype> | <climits> | <cstdarg> | <cstring> | |
| <cerrno> | <clocale> | <cstdbool> | <ctgmath> | |
| <cfenv> | <cmath> | <cstddef> | <ctime> | |
| <cfloat> | <csetjmp> | <cstdint> | <cuchar> |
Except as noted in Clauses [library] through [thread] and Annex [depr], the contents of each header cname is the same as that of the corresponding header name.h as specified in the C standard library ([intro.refs]). In the C++ standard library, however, the declarations (except for names which are defined as macros in C) are within namespace scope ([basic.scope.namespace]) of the namespace std. It is unspecified whether these names (including any overloads added in Clauses [language.support] through [thread] and Annex [depr]) are first declared within the global namespace scope and are then injected into namespace std by explicit using-declarations ([namespace.udecl]).
Names which are defined as macros in C shall be defined as macros in the C++ standard library, even if C grants license for implementation as functions. [ Note: The names defined as macros in C include the following: assert, offsetof, setjmp, va_arg, va_end, and va_start. — end note ]
Names that are defined as functions in C shall be defined as functions in the C++ standard library.171
Identifiers that are keywords or operators in C++ shall not be defined as macros in C++ standard library headers.172
[depr.c.headers], C standard library headers, describes the effects of using the name.h (C header) form in a C++ program.173
Annex K of the C standard describes a large number of functions, with associated types and macros, which “promote safer, more secure programming” than many of the traditional C library functions. The names of the functions have a suffix of _s; most of them provide the same service as the C library function with the unsuffixed name, but generally take an additional argument whose value is the size of the result array. If any C++ header is included, it is implementation-defined whether any of these names is declared in the global namespace. (None of them is declared in namespace std.)
Table [tab:c.annex.k.names] lists the Annex K names that may be declared in some header. These names are also subject to the restrictions of [macro.names].
| abort_handler_s | mbstowcs_s | strncat_s | vswscanf_s |
| asctime_s | memcpy_s | strncpy_s | vwprintf_s |
| bsearch_s | memmove_s | strtok_s | vwscanf_s |
| constraint_handler_t | memset_s | swprintf_s | wcrtomb_s |
| ctime_s | printf_s | swscanf_s | wcscat_s |
| errno_t | qsort_s | tmpfile_s | wcscpy_s |
| fopen_s | RSIZE_MAX | TMP_MAX_S | wcsncat_s |
| fprintf_s | rsize_t | tmpnam_s | wcsncpy_s |
| freopen_s | scanf_s | vfprintf_s | wcsnlen_s |
| fscanf_s | set_constraint_handler_s | vfscanf_s | wcsrtombs_s |
| fwprintf_s | snprintf_s | vfwprintf_s | wcstok_s |
| fwscanf_s | snwprintf_s | vfwscanf_s | wcstombs_s |
| getenv_s | sprintf_s | vprintf_s | wctomb_s |
| gets_s | sscanf_s | vscanf_s | wmemcpy_s |
| gmtime_s | strcat_s | vsnprintf_s | wmemmove_s |
| ignore_handler_s | strcpy_s | vsnwprintf_s | wprintf_s |
| L_tmpnam_s | strerror_s | vsprintf_s | wscanf_s |
| localtime_s | strerrorlen_s | vsscanf_s | |
| mbsrtowcs_s | strlen_s | vswprintf_s |
A header is not necessarily a source file, nor are the sequences delimited by < and > in header names necessarily valid source file names ([cpp.include]).
It is intentional that there is no C++ header for any of these C headers: <stdatomic.h>, <stdnoreturn.h>, <threads.h>.
This disallows the practice, allowed in C, of providing a masking macro in addition to the function prototype. The only way to achieve equivalent inline behavior in C++ is to provide a definition as an extern inline function.
In particular, including the standard header <iso646.h> or <ciso646> has no effect.
The ".h" headers dump all their names into the global namespace, whereas the newer forms keep their names in namespace std. Therefore, the newer forms are the preferred forms for all uses except for C++ programs which are intended to be strictly compatible with C.
Two kinds of implementations are defined: hosted and freestanding ([intro.compliance]). For a hosted implementation, this International Standard describes the set of available headers.
A freestanding implementation has an implementation-defined set of headers. This set shall include at least the headers shown in Table [tab:cpp.headers.freestanding].
| Subclause | Header(s) | |
| <ciso646> | ||
| [support.types] | Types | <cstddef> |
| [support.limits] | Implementation properties | <cfloat> <limits> <climits> |
| [cstdint] | Integer types | <cstdint> |
| [support.start.term] | Start and termination | <cstdlib> |
| [support.dynamic] | Dynamic memory management | <new> |
| [support.rtti] | Type identification | <typeinfo> |
| [support.exception] | Exception handling | <exception> |
| [support.initlist] | Initializer lists | <initializer_list> |
| [support.runtime] | Other runtime support | <cstdalign> <cstdarg> <cstdbool> |
| [meta] | Type traits | <type_traits> |
| [atomics] | Atomics | <atomic> |
The supplied version of the header <cstdlib> shall declare at least the functions abort, atexit, at_quick_exit, exit, and quick_exit ([support.start.term]). The other headers listed in this table shall meet the same requirements as for a hosted implementation.