How can I increase the performance in a map lookup with key type std::string?

Question

I\'m using a std::map (VC++ implementation) and it\'s a little slow for lookups via the map\'s find method.

The key type is std::string.

Answer 1

hash_map is not standard, try using unordered_map available in tr1 (which is available in boost if your tool chain doesn't already have it).

For small numbers of strings you might be better using vector, as map is typically implemented as a tree.