c++ : How to find the minimum library to include [closed]

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My question is "when we come across a new function, how can we figure out what is the minimum header file/library to include?

In other words, is there a systematic way to figure out the required header/library for a certain function?

To clarify:

I googled and found ofstream to be handy for output I/O. I needed to include <fstream> to be able to use ofstream. how can I determine these two libraries and how to figure out the minimum required one? (well in this case, I googled again! or obviously I could search the filesystem for any file .h or .soor .cpp or ... that define this function )

Answer 1

Reading the documentation is the preferred way.
Searching the filesystems for the function name way too often leads astray - there are many headers that rely on code in a file that includes it in turn.

The cppreference site is a pretty good resource on the standard.

For platform specifics:
If you're on Windows, MSDN tells you exactly which header and library to include.
Linux and Unixes have their man pages.
OS X has the XCode documentation and man pages.

Answer 2

Well you have answered your own question. Either google it or check the API documentation, they should mention what is to be included. For example "man strcpy" tells me that I need to include #include <string.h>.

Additionally, you can also try to understand the relationship among the APIs. For example, fstream provides ofstream and ifstream, so including fstream will help in that case.

Answer 3

When it comes to standard C or C++, I usually use cppreference to find which header file is related with what I want to use.

If it is Unix-related, then the man pages are my friend.