Count finds the number of elements in [first, last) that are equal to value. More precisely, the first version of count returns the number of iterators i in [first, last) such that *i == value. The second version of count adds to n the number of iterators i in [first, last) such that *i == value.

The second version of count was the one defined in the original STL, and the first version is the one defined in the draft C++ standard; the definition was changed because the older interface was clumsy and error-prone. The older interface required the use of a temporary variable, which had to be initialized to 0 before the call to count.

Both interfaces are currently supported [1], for reasons of backward compatibility, but eventually the older version will be removed.