The Boost C++ Libraries are a collection of peer-reviewed, open source libraries that extend the functionality of C++. Most of the libraries are licensed under the Boost Software License, designed to allow Boost to be used with both open and closed source projects. Many of Boost's founders are on the C++ standard committee and several Boost libraries have been accepted for incorporation into the Technical Report 1 of C++0x.

The libraries are aimed at a wide range of C++ users and application domains. They range from general-purpose libraries like the smart_ptr library, to OS abstractions like FileSystem, to libraries primarily aimed at other library developers and advanced C++ users, like the MPL

In order to ensure efficiency and flexibility, Boost makes extensive use of templates. Boost has been a source of extensive work and research into generic programming and metaprogramming in C++.

Examples

The current Boost release contains 87 individual libraries, including the following three:

Linear algebra – uBLAS

• Example showing how to multiply a vector with a matrix:

1. include
2. include
3. include
4. include

using namespace boost::numeric::ublas;

/* "y = Ax" example */ int main {

     vector x (2);

     x(0) = 1; x(1) = 2;

     matrix A(2,2);

     A(0,0) = 0; A(0,1) = 1;

     A(1,0) = 2; A(1,1) = 3;

     vector y = prod(A, x);

     std::cout << y << std::endl;

     return 0;

Generating random numbers – Boost.Random

• Example showing how to sample from a normal distribution using the Mersenne Twister generator:

1. include
2. include

using namespace boost;

double SampleNormal (double mean, double sigma) {

   // Create a Mersenne twister random number generator

   // that is seeded once with #seconds since 1970

   static mt19937 rng(static_cast (std::time(0)));

   // select Gaussian probability distribution

   normal_distribution norm_dist(mean, sigma);

   // bind random number generator to distribution, forming a function

   variate_generator >  normal_sampler(rng, norm_dist);

   // sample from the distribution

   return normal_sampler();

Multithreading – Boost.Thread

1. include
2. include

using namespace std;

void hello_world() {

 cout << "Hello world, I'm a thread!" << endl;

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {

 // start a new thread that calls the "hello_world" function

 boost::thread my_thread(&hello_world);

 // wait for the thread to finish

 my_thread.join();

 return 0;

• Introduction to Boost.Threads in Dr. Dobb's Journal. (2002)
• Boost.Threads API reference
• threadpool library based on Boost.Thread

Associated people

See also

• Jam — Boost includes a package called Boost.Build, which uses a special version of Perforce Jam called Boost.Jam

References

External links

• Boost Homepage
• Smart Pointers to boost your code
• Building Boost libraries