Question: I've seen various approaches in other languages for how to do this, but it seems like a common enough problem that it seems like there should be a standard way to do this.

I want to collapse a list of float ranges to its smallest representation.

2.45-3.72
3.16-6.55
7.23-8.96
8.95-10.27

would become:

2.45-6.55
7.23-10.27

Is there a function or library in C++ somewhere that I can give my list to, and it will perform the reduction for me? I could easily write my own, but why bother if it already exists?

Answer: 
Sound simple:

* start with list of ranges
* let **current** = first range in the list
* while there's a **next** range after **current**:
	+ if **next** overlaps **current**:
		- extend **current** to also contain **next**
		- remove **next** from the list
	+ else:
		- advance **current** one forward

That should do the trick.
I don't think there will be any solution provided by the Standard, it's way too specific.