This Clause describes the contents of the Ranges library, how a well-formed C++ program makes use of the library, and how a conforming implementation may provide the entities in the library.
Clause [requirements], Clauses [concepts.lib] through [numerics], and Annex [depr] specify the contents of the library, as well as library requirements and constraints on both well-formed C++ programs and conforming implementations.
Detailed specifications for each of the components in the library are in Clauses [concepts.lib]–[numerics], as shown in Table [tab:library.categories].
| Clause | Category | |
| [concepts.lib] | Concepts library | |
| [utilities] | General utilities library | |
| [iterators] | Iterators library | |
| [ranges] | Ranges library | |
| [algorithms] | Algorithms library | |
| [numerics] | Numerics library | |
The concepts library (Clause [concepts.lib]) describes library components that C++ programs may use to perform compile-time validation of template parameters and perform function dispatch based on properties of types.
The general utilities library (Clause [utilities]) includes components used by other library elements and components used as infrastructure in C++ programs, such as function objects.
The iterators library (Clause [iterators]) describes components that C++ programs may use to perform iterations over containers (Clause ISO/IEC 14882:2014 §[containers]), streams ( ISO/IEC 14882:2014 §[iostream.format]), stream buffers ( ISO/IEC 14882:2014 §[stream.buffers]), and ranges ([ranges]).
The algorithms library (Clause [algorithms]) describes components that C++ programs may use to perform algorithmic operations on containers (Clause ISO/IEC 14882:2014 §[containers]) and other sequences.
The numerics library (Clause [numerics]) provides concepts that are useful to constrain numeric algorithms.