Before implementing containers such list, vector, queue, stack etc., by yourself, you can cut costs and software shipment time significantly by using The Standard Template Library, or STL. STL defines the following types of containers: vector, list, deque (double-ended queue), queue, stack, map, set and bitset – all of them are ready for use. Three more advantages of preferring STL over factory made containers are:
Portability – all standard conforming C++ implementations supply them;
Performance – STL containers were designed and implemented to meet strict efficiency demands;
Reliability – these containers were already debugged and tested.