Listing elegant C++ idioms

Question

I just came across this post and found a very elegant way of initializing maps

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/138600/initializing-a-static-stdmapint-int-in-c/1730798#1730798

So i wanted to start a thread in which we can list such idioms. They surely make you appreciate the power and expressiveness of C++

Answer 1

check out boost.assign. it has even more assignment idioms using () and , operators. I am learning C++ myself and find boost to be excellent resource of what can be done with C++

Answer 2

Smart pointers in all flavours. Very common, but nevertheless a highly elegant idiom.