In STL maps, is it better to use map::insert than []?

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When you write

map[key] = value;

there’s no way to tell if you replaced the value for key, or if you created a new key with value.

map::insert() will only create:

using std::cout; using std::endl;
typedef std::map<int, std::string> MyMap;
MyMap map;
// ...
std::pair<MyMap::iterator, bool> res = map.insert(MyMap::value_type(key,value));
if ( ! res.second ) {
    cout << "key " <<  key << " already exists "
         << " with value " << (res.first)->second << endl;
} else {
    cout << "created key " << key << " with value " << value << endl;
}

For most of my apps, I usually don’t care if I’m creating or replacing, so I use the easier to read map[key] = value.

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