Set the DB_RENUMBER flag in the database handle if you want db_vector<> to work like std::vector or std::deque. Do not set DB_RENUMBER if you want db_vector<> to work like std::list. Note that without DB_RENUMBER set, db_vector<> can work faster.

For example, to construct a fast std::queue/std::stack object, you only need a db_vector<> object whose database handle does not have DB_RENUMBER set. Of course, if the database handle has DB_RENUMBER set, it still works for this kind of scenario, just not as fast.

db_vector does not check whether DB_RENUMBER is set. If you do not set it, db_vector<> will not work like std::vector<>/std::deque<> with regard to operator[], because the indices are not maintained in that case.

You can find example code showing how to use this feature in the TestVector::test_queue_stack() method, which is available in the dbstl test suite.

Just as is the case with std::vector, inserting/deleting in the middle of a db_vector is slower than doing the same action at the end of the sequence. This is because the underlying DB_RECNO DB (with the DB_RENUMBER flag set) is relatively slow when inserting/deleting in the middle or the head — it has to update the index numbers of all the records following the one that was inserted/deleted. If you do not need to keep the index ordered on insert/delete, you can use db_map instead.

db_vector also contains methods inherited from std::list and std::deque, including std::list<>'s unique methods remove(), remove_if(), unique(), merge(), sort(), reverse(), and splice(). These use the identical semantics/behaviors of the std::list<> methods, although pushing/deleting at the head is slower than the std::deque and std::list equivalent when there are quite a lot of elements in the database.

You can use std::queue, std::priority_queue and std::stack container adapters with db_vector; they work with db_vector even without DB_RENUMBER set.