Boost is a set of libraries for the C++ programming language that provides support for tasks and structures such as linear algebra, pseudorandom number generation, multithreading, image processing, regular expressions, and unit testing.

Even though there is no formal relationship between the Boost community and the standardization committee, some of the developers are active in both groups.

Boost has been a source of extensive work and research into generic programming and metaprogramming in C++.

[8] Most Boost libraries are header based, consisting of inline functions and templates, and as such do not need to be built in advance of their use.

An author of several books on C++, Nicolai Josuttis, contributed to the Boost array library in 2001.