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## Chapter 1. Boost.Bimap

### Matias Capeletto

Copyright © 2006-2012 Matias Capeletto

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

## Preface

#### Description

Boost.Bimap is a bidirectional maps library for C++. With Boost.Bimap you can create associative containers in which both types can be used as key. A `bimap<X,Y>` can be thought of as a combination of a `std::map<X,Y>` and a `std::map<Y,X>`. The learning curve of bimap is almost flat if you know how to use standard containers. A great deal of effort has been put into mapping the naming scheme of the STL in Boost.Bimap. The library is designed to match the common STL containers.

#### Influences and Related Work

The design of Boost.Bimap interface follows the standard template library. It has been strongly influenced by Joaquin Lopez Muñoz's Boost.MultiIndex library (the heart of bimaps) and codeproject::bimap library.