CPP Wiki: All you need to quick revise c++

CPP wiki

Several of the basic types can be modified using one or more of these type modifiers −

• signed
• unsigned
• short
• long

The following table shows the variable type, how much memory it takes to store the value in memory, and what is maximum and minimum value which can be stored in such type of variables.

• Default return type of all cpp functions is int
• Without return 0 statement in main a warning will be produced
• Data type representation is machine specific in cpp
• Void can be used to declare generic pointers
• If we use vinay modifier alone it defaults to int

Lvalues and Rvalues

There are two kinds of expressions in C++ −

• lvalue − Expressions that refer to a memory location is called "lvalue" expression. An lvalue may appear as either the left-hand or right-hand side of an assignment.
• rvalue − The term rvalue refers to a data value that is stored at some address in memory. An rvalue is an expression that cannot have a value assigned to it which means an rvalue may appear on the right- but not left-hand side of an assignment.

Variables are lvalues and so may appear on the left-hand side of an
assignment. Numeric literals are rvalues and so may not be assigned and
can not appear on the left-hand side. Following is a valid statement −

Initializing Local and Global Variables

When a local variable is defined, it is not initialized by the
system, you must initialize it yourself. Global variables are
initialized automatically by the system when you define them as follows −

It is a good programming practice to initialize variables properly, otherwise sometimes program would produce unexpected result.

A program can have same name for local and global variables but value of local variable inside a function will take preference.

A reference variable must be initialised at the time of declaration

:: varname ( scope resolution operator here used to print global variable varname )

• Explicit use of return 0 statement will indicate program was successfully executed
• An inline function is a function that is expanded inline when invoked
• Only trailing arguments can have default values
• An argument to a function can be declared as const

int strlen( const char *p )
int length( const string &s )

Following are other examples of various types of Integer literals −

85         // decimal
0213       // octal
0x4b       // hexadecimal
30         // int
30u        // unsigned int
30l        // long
30ul       // unsigned long

Boolean Literals

There are two Boolean literals and they are part of standard C++ keywords −

• A value of true representing true.
• A value of false representing false.

You should not consider the value of true equal to 1 and value of false equal to 0.

Character Literals

Character literals are enclosed in single quotes. If the literal
begins with L (uppercase only), it is a wide character literal (e.g.,
L'x') and should be stored in wchar_t type of variable . Otherwise, it is a narrow character literal (e.g., 'x') and can be stored in a simple variable of char type.

A character literal can be a plain character (e.g., 'x'), an escape
sequence (e.g., '\t'), or a universal character (e.g., '\u02C0').

There are certain characters in C++ when they are preceded by a
backslash they will have special meaning and they are used to represent
like newline (\n) or tab (\t). Here, you have a list of some of such
escape sequence codes −

There are two simple ways in C++ to define constants −

• Using #define preprocessor.
• Using const keyword.

Note that it is a good programming practice to define constants in CAPITALS

The data type modifiers are listed here −

• signed
• unsigned
• long
• short

The modifiers signed, unsigned, long, and short can be applied to integer base types. In addition, signed and unsigned can be applied to char, and long can be applied to double.

Type Qualifiers in C++

The type qualifiers provide additional information about the variables they precede.

const

Objects of type const cannot be changed by your program during execution

volatile

The modifier volatile tells the compiler that a variable's value may be changed in ways not explicitly specified by the program.

restrict

A pointer qualified by restrict is initially the only means by
which the object it points to can be accessed. Only C99 adds a new type
qualifier called restrict.

an object created inside a block using new, will remain in existence until explicitly destroyed using delete

the first dimension of array may be variable whose value is supplied at runtime . All others must be constants

like any other operator new and delete can be overloaded

• Explicit use of return 0 statement will indicate program was successfully executed
• An inline function is a function that is expanded inline when it is invoked
• only trailing arguements can have default values
• an argument to a function can be declared as const

int strlen( const char *p )
int length( const string &s )

• By default members of classes are private
• objects can be defined by placing their name immediately after closing brace

class Test{
//code here
} t1, t2, t3;

• Unlike many other programming languages cpp put semicolon after class definition

class Item{
//code here
};

• Outside class definition of member function
• syntax

return-type class-name :: function-name (argument declaration )
{
    //function body
}

• A member function can call another member fnction directly without using dot operator
• when a function is defined inside a class, it is treated as an inline function. Therefore, all the restrictions and limitations that apply to an inline function are also applicable here.
• normally only small functions are defined inside class definition
• It is normal practice to place all data items in private section and all the functions in public
• separate memory is allocated for member variables bit no separate memory is allocated for member functions

static data members

• It is initialized to zero when the first object of its class is created.
• only one copy of that member is created for entire class and is shared by all the objects of that class, no matter how many objects are created
• It is visible only within class but its lifetime is entire program
• static variables are normally used to maintain values common to entire class
• Static variables are also known as class variables

int Item :: count // definition

• Note that type and scope of each static members variable must be defined outside the class definition

Static member functions

• A static function can have access to only other static member ( functions or variables ) declared in the same class

• A static member function can be called using class name ( instead of its objects ) as follows

  class-name :: function-name

Friend function

• To make an outside function friendly to a class, we have to simply declare this function as a friend of the class as shown below

class ABC{
public:
friend void fun1();
};

• usually it has objects as arguements
• It can be declared in private or public part
• member functions of one class can be friend functions of another class. In such cases, they are defined using scope resolution operator as below

class A{
friend int B :: fun1();
}

• We can also declare all the member functions of one class as the friend functions of another class. In such cases class is called as friend class.

class A{
friend class B;
}

const member functions

• If a member function does not alter any data in the class, then we may declare it as a const member function as follows

void mul(int, int) const;
double get_balance() const;

• The qualifier const is appended to the function prototypes ( in both declaration and definition ) The compiler will generate an error message if such function tries to alter data.

Pointer to member

int A ::* ip = &A :: m;

cout << a.*ip; // display value of m
cout << a.m;  // display value of m

ap = &a // pointer to object
cout << ap->*ip; // display value of m
cout << ap->m;  // display value of m

pointer to member functions

(object.*pointer-to-function) (10);

(pointer-to-object→*pointer-to-function) (10);

Constructor

• constructor enables an object to initialize when it is created.
• destructor destroys the object when they are required
• constructor should be declared in public section, they do not have return type
• the derived class can call base class constructor
• construcor cannot be virtual
• An object with constructor cannot be used as member function
• constructor can accept ta refrenece to its own class as a parameter

class A{
public: 
 A(A &a){}
};

• constructor overloading is allowed in c++

Constant Objects

• We may create and use constant objects using const keyword before object declaration

const matrix m(a, b); //object m is constant

• Any attempt to modify value of a and b will generate compile time error
• constant object can call only constant member functions

Destructor

Synatx: ~class-name(){ }

• A destructor nevevr takes any argument nor does it return any value
• The primary use of destuctor is freeing up the memory in freeing up th memory reserved by the object before it gets destroyed.

Operator overloading

operators that cannot be overloaded

• class member access operators ( . and .*)
• scope resolution operator ( :: )
• size operator ( sizeof )
• conditional operator ( ? : )

syntax:

return-type class-name :: operator op ( argument )

{

  [// f](//f)unctionbody

}

• Operator functions must bee either friend functions or member functions
• Declare the operator function operator op() in the public part of class

• Only existing operators can be overloaded. New operators cannot be created

• Friend functions cannot used to overload certain operators. However member functions can be used to overload them.

  = () [] →

Type Conversion

• The constructors used for the type conversion take a single argument whose type is to be converted.

class to basic type

vector :: operator double()
{
    double sum = 0;
    return sqrt(sum);
}

..
..

vector v1;
double length = v1;

Casting operator function should be

• It must be a class member
• It must not specify a return type
• It must not have any argument

One class to another class type

Such conversion between objects of different classes can be carried out by either a constructor or a conversion function.

In case of conversion function , conversion takes takes place in source class and object is returned to destination class.

In case of constructor, conversion take place in destination class.

Abastract class

• an abstract class s a class that is not used to create objects
• An abstract class is only used as base class
• A class can only be considered as abstract class if it has at least one pure virtual function

If any base class contains a constructor with one or more arguments, then it is mandatory for derived class to have a constructor and pass the arguments to the base class constructors

• A class can contain objects of other classes as its members. This kind ofrelationship is called containership or nesting

Declaring Pointer

• Syntax: data-type *pointer-var
• We can locate asterisk ( * ) immediately before the pointer variable, or between the data-type and the pointer variable, or immediately after the data type. It dos not cause any effect in the execution process.

int *ptr, a;
ptr = &a;

• Pointer to pointer

int a, *p1, **p2;
p1 = &a;
p2 = &p1;

• We can also use void pointers, known as generic pointers, which refer to variables of any data type before using void pointers we must cast the variable to the specific data types that they point to.
• Pointers which are not initialized in a program, are called Null pointers. Pointers of any data typecan be assigned with one value i.e. '0' called null address
• Indirection operator *
• attempt to dereferenced an unnitialized pointer, will cause runtime error by referring to any other location in memory
• we cannot perform pointer arithmetic on variabes which are not stored in contigous memory location
• There is no error checking of array bounds in c++. Suppose we declare array of size 25. The compiler issues no warnings if we attempt to access 26th location. It is programmer's task to check the limits.

Array of pointers

int *inarray[10];

Char array of pointers

char *ptr[10] = { "books", "television", "computer", "sports" };

char str[25];

• A string ends with the null character '\0' in c++

Pointers to functions

• Syntax: data-type (*fun1)();

Pointers to objects

item x;
item *p = &x;

x.show();
p->show();
(*ptr).show();

item *ptr = new item;

• The pointer this acts as an implicit argument to all the member functions.

return *this; //returns object it points to

• Pointers to objects of base class are type-compatible with pointers to objects of a derived class
• Runtime polymorphism is achieved only when a virtual function is accessed through a pointer to base class
• We cannot have virtual constructors but we can have a virtual destructor

Pure virtual function

also know as Do nothing functions

virtual void display() = 0; // Pure virtual function

• Class containing pure virtual functions cannot be used to declare any objects of its own. Such classes are called abstract base classes.

I/O Operations

• A stream is a sequence of bytes.
• The source stream that provides data to the program is called the input stream and the destination stream that receives output from the program is called the output stream.
• A program extracts the bytes from an input stream and inserts bytes into an output stream
• A stream acts as interface between the program and the I/O devices used
• cin and cout are predefined objects in iostream

char c;
cin.get(c); // get char from keyboard
c = cin.get(); // same

cout.put('x');
cout = put(ch); // ch is variable
cout.put(68); // displays 'D' ( ASCII Value conversion ) 

• The getline() function reads a whole line of text that ends with newline character

syntax: cin.getline(linr, size)

char name[20];
cin.getline(name, 20);

• cin can read strings that do not contain white spaces

cout.write(line, size);

• It is possible to concatenate two strings using write() function.

cout.write(s1,m).write(s2, n);

ios format functions aios format functionsios format functionsios format functionsnd manipulators

ios format functions

• To access the manipulators, the file iomanip should be included in the program

Manipulators

width()

cout.width();
cout.width(5);
cout<<543;
cout.width(5);
cout<<12<<"\n";

• c++ never truncates the values

precision

• By default the floating numbers are printed with six digits after the decimal point.

synatx: cout.precision(d);

cout.precision(3);
cout << 3.14153<<"\n"; // results in 3.142 ( rounded to nearest cent )
cout << 2.50032; //results in 2.5 ( no trailing zeros )

• Precision setting stays in effect until it is reset
• Default precision is 6 digits

fill()

• The unused positions of the field are filled with white spaces by default.
• We can use fill() to fill the unused position by any desired character

cout.fill(ch);

cout.fill('*');
cout.width(10);
cout << 5250 << "\n"; // results in ******5250 

• like precision fill() stays in effect till we change it

manipulators

cout << setw(10) << setiosflags(ios::left) << 12345;

cout << setw(5) << setprecision(2) << 1.2345 
     << setw(10) << setprecision(4)
     << sqrt(2)
     << endl;

own manipulator

ostream & unit( ostream & output)
{
    output << "inches";
    return output;
}

cout << 36 << unit; // results in 36 inches

File

infile.seekg(10); 
/* 
moves the file pointer to the byte no. 10 
Remember the byte in a file are numbered begin from  zero 
therefore the pointer will be pointing to 
the 11th byte in file  
*/

• EOF flag is turned off using function clear()

Command line arguments

main() function can take two argument

main(int argc, char *argv[])

• argc represents the no. of arguments
• second argument argv (known as argument vector ) is an array of char type pointers that points to the command line arguments. The size of this array will be equal to the value of argc.

Templates

• Templates allows us to create generic classes

template < class T >
class item{
    T varName;
    //use anonymous type T wherever appropriate
} 

• We can use more than one generic datatype in class template

template < class T1, class T2 >

template < class T1=int> // default data type specified as int

• Like class template we can also define function template

Exception Handling

try{
    // try block
    throw exception;
}catch( type arg )
{
    // catch block
}

catch(...)
{
    // catch all exceptions
}

• When an exception is rethrown it will be caught by anappropriate catch in the outer try/catch sequence only
• Try/catch block can be used inside construcor and destructor

STL

STL contains several components but at its core are three key components. They are

1. containers
2. Algorithms
3. Iterators

• Algorithms employ iterators to perform operations on objects stored in containers

• A container is an object that actually stores data
• An algorithm is a procedure that is used to process the data contained in the containers. Algorithms are implemented by template functions.
• An iterator is an object ( like pointer ) that points to an element in a container.
• To have access to STL algorithms, we must include in our program.
• STL also contains few numeric algorithms under
• containers are divided into three major categories sequential, associative and derived

Vectors

• Vector is the most widely used container
• A vector can change its size dynamically and therefore allocates memory as needed at runtime
• We must include header file to use vector class in our program

typedef map<string, int> phonemap;

Strings

All algorithms that are applicable for containers can be used with string objects

Important Functions

• at()
• find()
• insert()
• lenght()
• replace()

getline(cin, str); // Reads embeded blanks

Accessing characters in strings

• at()
• substr()
• find()
• find_first_of()
• find_last_of()

We can also use overloaded [] operator ( which makes a string object look like an array ) to access individual element in a string

int x = s1.compare(s2);
if( x == 0 )
    cout << "s1 == s2";
else if( x > 0 )
    cout << "s1 > s2";
else
    cout << "s1 < s2";

compare () compares the strings s1 against s2 and assigned 0 if the strings are equal, a positive number if s1 is lexicographically greater than s2 or a negative otherwise

• Values of type bool are automaticallt elevated to integers when used in nonBoolean expressions
• The character type wchar_t has been defined in NSI c++ to hold 16-bit wide chracters
• Wide character literal begin with letter L

L'xy' // Wide character literal

double x = double (m); // cpp type casting
double y = (double) n; // c type casting

The static_cast operator

syntax: static_cast (object);

int m = 10;
char ch = static_cast <char> (m);

• We can use the typeid operator to obtain the types of unknown objects. Such as their classname at runtime.

char *objectType = typeid(object).name();

• We must include header file to use the operators dynamic_cast and typeid which provide runtime type information (RTTI)
• mutable keyword is used when we want to change/modify value of particular data item of const object
• ANSI c++ standard has added a new keyword namespace to define a scope that could hold global identifiers.
• We can define our own namespace in our program.

namespace NS1
{
    // declaration of variable, functions and classes etc.
}

namespace TestSpace
{
    int m;

    function display(int n)
    {
        cout << n;
    }
}

TestSpace::m = 100;

• namespace can be nested within another namespace
• To access nested namespace variable

cout << NS1::NS2::m;

Alternatively

using namespace NS!;

cout << NS2::m;

t main()

{

    using namespace NS1; // brings members of NS1 to current scope

}

Operator keywords

• C++ contain 64 keywords including main.
• The ANSI c++ standard has defined a new way to specify header files.They do not use .h extension to filename. eg. #include
• However the traditional style , etc. is still fully supported

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