Question: I am working on a very big and old C++ project. The word "vector" has been used all over the place. I am now trying to add new functionality to the project utilizing STL vector. This is not working. In addition, I am only allowed to modify specific sections of the code, so I can not change their use of "vector". 

Is there a way to rename STL vector and use it?

Answer: 
As long as you **don't** put `using namespace std;` anywhere (which is not a great thing to do anyway), there will be no conflict between `::std::vector` and any other `vector`.

I'm assuming that this infinite wisdom didn't extend to declaring names inside `std`; in that case, my best advice is to run away. I'm also assuming that you're talking about the modern C++ library, not the STL which (I think) didn't have its own namespace.
**Don't do this.**

```
#define vector stdVector
#include <vector>
#undef vector

```

**End of don't do this**

You can either use namespaces to qualify your version of `vector` or the one from `std`, after you remove the `using` directives.