Boost C++ Libraries

...one of the most highly regarded and expertly designed C++ library projects in the world. — Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu, C++ Coding Standards

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Boost Libraries and Documentation

Libraries Listed Alphabetically
Libraries Listed by Category
Libraries Retired from Boost

See Compiler Status page to find out what library works with which compiler.
See Getting Started page to find out how to download, build, and install the libraries.

Documentation for some Boost libraries is available in other forms, including DocBook, XSL Formatting Objects, and Unix man pages. This documentation is available on Sourceforge.

Libraries Listed Alphabetically

any - Safe, generic container for single values of different value types, from Kevlin Henney.
array - STL compliant container wrapper for arrays of constant size, from Nicolai Josuttis.
assign - Filling containers with constant or generated data has never been easier, from Thorsten Ottosen.
bind and mem_fn - Generalized binders for function/object/pointers and member functions, from Peter Dimov.
call_traits - Defines types for passing parameters, from John Maddock, Howard Hinnant, et al.
compatibility - Help for non-conforming standard libraries, from Ralf Grosse-Kunstleve and Jens Maurer.
compressed_pair - Empty member optimization, from John Maddock, Howard Hinnant, et al.
concept check - Tools for generic programming, from Jeremy Siek.
config - Helps boost library developers adapt to compiler idiosyncrasies; not intended for library users.
conversion - Polymorphic and lexical casts, from Dave Abrahams and Kevlin Henney.
crc - Cyclic Redundancy Code, from Daryle Walker.
date_time - Date-Time library from Jeff Garland.
dynamic_bitset - A runtime sized version of std::bitset from Jeremy Siek and Chuck Allison.
enable_if - Selective inclusion of function template overloads, from Jaakko Järvi, Jeremiah Willcock, and Andrew Lumsdaine.
filesystem - Portable paths, iteration over directories, and other useful filesystem operations, from Beman Dawes.
foreach - BOOST_FOREACH macro for easily iterating over the elements of a sequence, from Eric Niebler.
format - Type-safe 'printf-like' format operations, from Samuel Krempp.
function - Function object wrappers for deferred calls or callbacks, from Doug Gregor.
functional - Enhanced function object adaptors, from Mark Rodgers.
functional/hash - A TR1 hash function object that can be extended to hash user defined types, from Daniel James.
graph - Generic graph components and algorithms, from Jeremy Siek and a University of Notre Dame team.
integer - Headers to ease dealing with integral types.
interval - Extends the usual arithmetic functions to mathematical intervals, from Guillaume Melquiond, Herv´ Brönnimann and Sylvain Pion.
in_place_factory, typed_in_place_factory- Generic in-place construction of contained objects with a variadic argument-list, from Fernando Cacciola.
io state savers - Save I/O state to prevent jumbled data, from Daryle Walker.
iostreams - Framework for defining streams, stream buffers and i/o filters, from Jonathan Turkanis.
iterators - Iterator construction framework, adaptors, concepts, and more, from Dave Abrahams, Jeremy Siek, and Thomas Witt.
lambda - Define small unnamed function objects at the actual call site, and more, from Jaakko Järvi and Gary Powell.
math - Several contributions in the domain of mathematics, from various authors.
math/common_factor - Greatest common divisor and least common multiple, from Daryle Walker.
math/octonion - Octonions, from Hubert Holin.
math/quaternion - Quaternions, from Hubert Holin.
math/special_functions - Mathematical special functions such as atanh, sinc, and sinhc, from Hubert Holin.
minmax - standard library extensions for simultaneous min/max and min/max element computations, from Hervé Brönnimann.
mpl - Template metaprogramming framework of compile-time algorithms, sequences and metafunction classes, from Aleksey Gurtovoy.
multi_array - Multidimensional containers and adaptors for arrays of contiguous data, from Ron Garcia.
multi_index - Containers with multiple STL-compatible access interfaces, from Joaquín M López Muñoz.
numeric/conversion - Optimized Policy-based Numeric Conversions, from Fernando Cacciola.
operators - Templates ease arithmetic classes and iterators, from Dave Abrahams and Jeremy Siek.
optional - Discriminated-union wrapper for optional values, from Fernando Cacciola.
parameter - Write functions that accept arguments by name, by David Abrahams and Daniel Wallin.
pointer container - Containers for storing heap-allocated polymorphic objects to ease OO-programming, from Thorsten Ottosen.
pool - Memory pool management, from Steve Cleary.
preprocessor - Preprocessor metaprogramming tools including repetition and recursion, from Vesa Karvonen and Paul Mensonides.
program_options - Access to configuration data given on command line, in config files and other sources, from Vladimir Prus.
property map - Concepts defining interfaces which map key objects to value objects, from Jeremy Siek.
python - Reflects C++ classes and functions into Python, from Dave Abrahams.
random - A complete system for random number generation, from Jens Maurer.
range - A new infrastructure for generic algorithms that builds on top of the new iterator concepts, from Thorsten Ottosen.
rational - A rational number class, from Paul Moore.
ref - A utility library for passing references to generic functions, from Jaako Järvi, Peter Dimov, Doug Gregor, and Dave Abrahams.
regex - Regular expression library, from John Maddock.
serialization - Serialization for persistence and marshalling, from Robert Ramey
signals - managed signals & slots callback implementation, from Doug Gregor.
smart_ptr - Five smart pointer class templates, from Greg Colvin, Beman Dawes, Peter Dimov, and Darin Adler.
statechart - Arbitrarily complex finite state machines can be implemented in easily readable and maintainable C++ code, from Andreas Huber.
static_assert - Static assertions (compile time assertions), from John Maddock.
spirit - LL parser framework represents parsers directly as EBNF grammars in inlined C++, from Joel de Guzman and team.
string_algo - String algorithms library, from Pavol Droba
test - Support for simple program testing, full unit testing, and for program execution monitoring, from Gennadiy Rozental.
thread - Portable C++ multi-threading, from William Kempf.
timer - Event timer, progress timer, and progress display classes, from Beman Dawes.
tokenizer - Break of a string or other character sequence into a series of tokens, from John Bandela.
TR1 - An implementation of the Technical Report on C++ Library Extensions, using other Boost libraries as a basis, from John Maddock.
tribool - 3-state boolean type library, from Doug Gregor.
tuple - Ease definition of functions returning multiple values, and more, from Jaakko Järvi.
type_traits - Templates for fundamental properties of types, from John Maddock, Steve Cleary, et al.
typeof - Typeof operator emulation, from Arkadiy Vertleyb and Peder Holt.
uBLAS - Basic linear algebra for dense, packed and sparse matrices, from Joerg Walter and Mathias Koch.
utility - Class noncopyable plus checked_delete(), checked_array_delete(), next(), prior() function templates, plus base-from-member idiom, from Dave Abrahams and others.
value_initialized - Wrapper for uniform-syntax value initialization, from Fernando Cacciola, based on the original idea of David Abrahams.
variant - Safe, generic, stack-based discriminated union container, from Eric Friedman and Itay Maman.
wave - Standards conformant implementation of the mandated C99/C++ preprocessor functionality packed behind an easy to use iterator interface, from Hartmut Kaiser
xpressive - Regular expressions that can be written as strings or as expression templates, and that can refer to each other and themselves recursively with the power of context-free grammars, from Eric Niebler.

Libraries Listed by Category

String and text processing

conversion/lexical_cast - lexical_cast class template, from Kevlin Henney.
format - Type-safe 'printf-like' format operations, from Samuel Krempp.
iostreams - Framework for defining streams, stream buffers and i/o filters, from Jonathan Turkanis.
regex - Regular expression library, from John Maddock
spirit - LL parser framework represents parsers directly as EBNF grammars in inlined C++, from Joel de Guzman and team.
string_algo - String algorithms library, from Pavol Droba
tokenizer - Break of a string or other character sequence into a series of tokens, from John Bandela
wave - Standards conformant implementation of the mandated C99/C++ preprocessor functionality packed behind an easy to use iterator interface, from Hartmut Kaiser.
xpressive - Regular expressions that can be written as strings or as expression templates, and that can refer to each other and themselves recursively with the power of context-free grammars, from Eric Niebler.

Containers

array - STL compliant container wrapper for arrays of constant size, from Nicolai Josuttis.
dynamic_bitset - A runtime sized version of std::bitset from Jeremy Siek and Chuck Allison.
graph - Generic graph components and algorithms, from Jeremy Siek and a University of Notre Dame team.
multi_array - Multidimensional containers and adaptors for arrays of contiguous data, from Ron Garcia.
multi_index - Containers with multiple STL-compatible access interfaces, from Joaquín M López Muñoz.
pointer container - Containers for storing heap-allocated polymorphic objects to ease OO-programming, from Thorsten Ottosen.
property map - Concepts defining interfaces which map key objects to value objects, from Jeremy Siek.
variant - Safe, generic, stack-based discriminated union container, from Eric Friedman and Itay Maman.

Iterators

graph - Generic graph components and algorithms, from Jeremy Siek and a University of Notre Dame team.
iterators - Iterator construction framework, adaptors, concepts, and more, from Dave Abrahams, Jeremy Siek, and Thomas Witt.
operators - Templates ease arithmetic classes and iterators, from Dave Abrahams and Jeremy Siek.
tokenizer - Break of a string or other character sequence into a series of tokens, from John Bandela.

Algorithms

foreach - BOOST_FOREACH macro for easily iterating over the elements of a sequence, from Eric Niebler.
graph - Generic graph components and algorithms, from Jeremy Siek and a University of Notre Dame team.
minmax - standard library extensions for simultaneous min/max and min/max element computations, from Hervé Brönnimann.
string_algo - String algorithms library, from Pavol Droba
utility - Class next(), prior() function templates, from Dave Abrahams and others.
range - A new infrastructure for generic algorithms that builds on top of the new iterator concepts, from Thorsten Ottosen.

Function objects and higher-order programming

bind and mem_fn - Generalized binders for function/object/pointers and member functions, from Peter Dimov.
function - Function object wrappers for deferred calls or callbacks, from Doug Gregor.
functional - Enhanced function object adaptors, from Mark Rodgers.
functional/hash - A TR1 hash function object that can be extended to hash user defined types, from Daniel James.
lambda - Define small unnamed function objects at the actual call site, and more, from Jaakko Järvi and Gary Powell.
ref - A utility library for passing references to generic functions, from Jaako Järvi, Peter Dimov, Doug Gregor, and Dave Abrahams.
signals - managed signals & slots callback implementation, from Doug Gregor.
result_of - determines the type of a function call expression.

Generic Programming

call_traits - Defines types for passing parameters, from John Maddock, Howard Hinnant, et al.
concept check - Tools for generic programming, from Jeremy Siek.
enable_if - Selective inclusion of function template overloads, from Jaakko Järvi, Jeremiah Willcock, and Andrew Lumsdaine.
in_place_factory, typed_in_place_factory- Generic in-place construction of contained objects with a variadic argument-list, from Fernando Cacciola.
operators - Templates ease arithmetic classes and iterators, from Dave Abrahams and Jeremy Siek.
property map - Concepts defining interfaces which map key objects to value objects, from Jeremy Siek.
static_assert - Static assertions (compile time assertions), from John Maddock.
type_traits - Templates for fundamental properties of types, from John Maddock, Steve Cleary, et al.

Template Metaprogramming

mpl - Template metaprogramming framework of compile-time algorithms, sequences and metafunction classes, from Aleksey Gurtovoy.
static_assert - Static assertions (compile time assertions), from John Maddock.
type_traits - Templates for fundamental properties of types, from John Maddock, Steve Cleary, et al.

Preprocessor Metaprogramming

preprocessor - Preprocessor metaprogramming tools including repetition and recursion, from Vesa Karvonen and Paul Mensonides.

Concurrent Programming

thread - Portable C++ multi-threading, from William Kempf.

Math and numerics

math - Several contributions in the domain of mathematics, from various authors.
numeric/conversion - Optimized Policy-based Numeric Conversions, from Fernando Cacciola.
integer - Headers to ease dealing with integral types.
interval - Extends the usual arithmetic functions to mathematical intervals, from Guillaume Melquiond, Hervé Brönnimann and Sylvain Pion.
math/common_factor - Greatest common divisor and least common multiple, from Daryle Walker.
math/octonion - Octonions, from Hubert Holin.
math/quaternion - Quaternions, from Hubert Holin.
math/special_functions - Mathematical special functions such as atanh, sinc, and sinhc, from Hubert Holin.
multi_array - Multidimensional containers and adaptors for arrays of contiguous data, from Ron Garcia.
operators - Templates ease arithmetic classes and iterators, from Dave Abrahams and Jeremy Siek.
random - A complete system for random number generation, from Jens Maurer.
rational - A rational number class, from Paul Moore.
uBLAS - Basic linear algebra for dense, packed and sparse matrices, from Joerg Walter and Mathias Koch.

Correctness and testing

concept check - Tools for generic programming, from Jeremy Siek.
static_assert - Static assertions (compile time assertions), from John Maddock.
test - Support for simple program testing, full unit testing, and for program execution monitoring, from Gennadiy Rozental.

Data structures

any - Safe, generic container for single values of different value types, from Kevlin Henney.
compressed_pair - Empty member optimization, from John Maddock, Howard Hinnant, et al.
multi_index - Containers with multiple STL-compatible access interfaces, from Joaquín M López Muñoz.
pointer container - Containers for storing heap-allocated polymorphic objects to ease OO-programming, from Thorsten Ottosen.
tuple - Ease definition of functions returning multiple values, and more, from Jaakko Järvi.
variant - Safe, generic, stack-based discriminated union container, from Eric Friedman and Itay Maman.

Input/Output

format - Type-safe 'printf-like' format operations, from Samuel Krempp.
io state savers - Save I/O state to prevent jumbled data, from Daryle Walker.
iostreams - Framework for defining streams, stream buffers and i/o filters, from Jonathan Turkanis.
program_options - Access to configuration data given on command line, in config files and other sources, from Vladimir Prus.
serialization - Serialization of arbitrary data for persistence and marshalling, from Robert Ramey
assign - Filling containers with constant or generated data has never been easier, from Thorsten Ottosen.

Inter-language support

python - Reflects C++ classes and functions into Python, from Dave Abrahams.

Memory

pool - Memory pool management, from Steve Cleary.
smart_ptr - Five smart pointer class templates, from Greg Colvin, Beman Dawes, Peter Dimov, and Darin Adler.
utility - Class noncopyable plus checked_delete(), checked_array_delete(), next(), prior() function templates, plus base-from-member idiom, from Dave Abrahams and others.

Parsing

spirit - LL parser framework represents parsers directly as EBNF grammars in inlined C++, from Joel de Guzman and team.

Programming Interfaces

function - Function object wrappers for deferred calls or callbacks, from Doug Gregor.
parameter - Write functions that accept arguments by name, by David Abrahams and Daniel Wallin.

Miscellaneous

base-from-member - Idiom to initialize a base class with a member, from Daryle Walker.
compressed_pair - Empty member optimization, from John Maddock, Howard Hinnant, et al.
conversion - Polymorphic and lexical casts, from Dave Abrahams and Kevlin Henney.
numeric/conversion - Optimized Policy-based Numeric Conversions, from Fernando Cacciola.
crc - Cyclic Redundancy Code, from Daryle Walker.
date_time - Date-Time library from Jeff Garland.
filesystem - Portable paths, iteration over directories, and other useful filesystem operations, from Beman Dawes.
optional - Discriminated-union wrapper for optional values, from Fernando Cacciola.
program_options - Access to configuration data given on command line, in config files and other sources, from Vladimir Prus.
statechart - Arbitrarily complex finite state machines can be implemented in easily readable and maintainable C++ code, from Andreas Huber.
timer - Event timer, progress timer, and progress display classes, from Beman Dawes.
TR1 - An implementation of the Technical Report on C++ Library Extensions, using other Boost libraries as a basis, from John Maddock.
tribool - 3-state boolean type library, from Doug Gregor.
typeof - Typeof operator emulation, from Arkadiy Vertleyb and Peder Holt.
utility - Class noncopyable plus checked_delete(), checked_array_delete(), next(), prior() function templates, plus base-from-member idiom, from Dave Abrahams and others.
value_initialized - Wrapper for uniform-syntax value initialization, from Fernando Cacciola, based on the original idea of David Abrahams.

Broken compiler workarounds

compatibility - Help for non-conforming standard libraries, from Ralf Grosse-Kunstleve and Jens Maurer.
config - Helps boost library developers adapt to compiler idiosyncrasies; not intended for library users.

[Category suggestions from Aleksey Gurtovoy and Beman Dawes]

Libraries Retired from Boost

compose - Functional composition adapters for the STL, from Nicolai Josuttis. Removed in Boost version 1.32. Please use Bind or Lambda instead.

Revised 12 Mar 2006

Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)