1

INTRODUCTION
Brief history Of C++

The C++ Programming Language is basically an extension of the C Programming

Language. The C Programming language was developed from 1969-1973 at Bell labs,
at the same time the UNIX operating system was being developed there. C was a direct
descendant of the language B, which was developed by Ken Thompson as a systems
programming language for the fledgling UNIX operating system. B, in turn, descended
from the language BCPL which was designed in the 1960s by Martin Richards while at
MIT.

In 1971 Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs extended the B language (by adding types) into
what he called NB, for "New B". Ritchie credits some of his changes to language
constructs found in Algol68, although he states "although it [the type scheme], perhaps,
did not emerge in a form that Algol's adherents would approve of" After restructuring the
language and rewriting the compiler for B, Ritchie gave his new language a name: "C".

In 1983, with various versions of C floating around the computer world, ANSI
established a committee that eventually published a standard for C in 1989.

In 1983 Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs created C++. C++ was designed for the UNIX
system environment, it represents an enhancement of the C programming language and
enables programmers to improve the quality of code produced, thus making reusable code
easier to write.

C++ is not the best language to use in every instance. C++ is a great choice in most
instances, but some special circumstances would be better suited to another language.

There are a few major advantages to using C++:

1. C++ allows expression of abstract ideas

C++ is a third generation language that allows a programmer to express their ideas at a
high level as compared to assembly languages.
2. C++ still allows a programmer to keep low-level control
Even though C++ is a third generation language, it has some of the "feel" of an assembly
language. It allows a programmmer to get down into the low-level workings and tune as
necessary. C++ allows programmers strict control over memory management.

3. C++ has national standards (ANSI)

C++ is a language with national standards. This is good for many reasons. Code written in
C++ that conforms to the national standards can be easily integrated with preexisting
code. Also, this allows programmers to reuse certain common libraries, so certain
common functions do not need to be written more than once, and these functions behave
the same anywhere they are used.
4. C++ is reusable and object-oriented
C++ is an object-oriented language. This makes programming conceptually easier (once
the object paradigm has been learned) and allows easy reuse of code, or parts of code
through inheritance.
5. C++ is widely used and taught
C++ is a very widely used programming language. Because of this, there are many tools
available for C++ programming, and there is a broad base of programmers contributing to
the C++ "community".

A SIMPLE C++ Program

Listing 1.1 shows our first C++ program, which when run, simply outputs the
message Hello World.

Listing 1.1
1 #include <iostream.h>

2 int main (void)

3 {
4 cout << "Hello World\n";
5 }

1 This line uses the preprocessor directive #include to include the

contents of the header file iostream.h in the program. Iostream.h is a
standard C++ header file and contains definitions for input and output.
2 This line defines a function called main. A function may have zero or
more parameters; these always appear after the function name, between
a pair of brackets. The word void appearing between the brackets
indicates that main has no parameters. A function may also have a return
type; this always appears before the function name. The return type for
main is int (i.e., an integer number). All C++ programs must have
exactly one main function. Program execution always begins from main.
3 This brace marks the beginning of the body of main.
4 This line is a statement. A statement is a computation step which may
produce a value. The end of a statement is always marked with a
semicolon (;). This statement causes the string "Hello World\n" to be
sent to the cout output stream. A string is any sequence of characters
enclosed in double-quotes. The last character in this string (\n) is a
 newline character which is similar to a carriage return on a type writer. A
stream is an object which performs input or output. Cout is the standard
output stream in C++ (standard output usually means your computer
monitor screen). The symbol << is an output operator which takes an
output stream as its left operand and an expression as its right operand,
and causes the value of the latter to be sent to the former. In this case, the
effect is that the string "Hello World\n" is sent to cout, causing it to be
printed on the computer monitor screen.
5 This brace marks the end of the body of main.
Compiling a Simple C++ Program

Dialog 1.1 shows how the program in Listing 1.1 is compiled and run in a
typical UNIX environment. User input appears in bold and system response
in plain. The UNIX command line prompt appears as a dollar symbol ($).

Dialog 1.1
1 $ CC hello.cc
2 $ a.out
3 Hello World
4 $

1 The command for invoking the AT&T C++ translator in a UNIX

environment is CC. The argument to this command (hello.cc) is the
name of the file which contains the program. As a convention, the file
name should end in .c, .C, or .cc. (This ending may be different in other
systems.)
2 The result of compilation is an executable file which is by default named
a.out. To run the program, we just use a.out as a command.

3 This is the output produced by the program.

4 The return of the system prompt indicates that the program has completed
its execution.
The CC command accepts a variety of useful options. An option appears
as -name, where name is the name of the option (usually a single letter). Some
options take arguments. For example, the output option (-o) allows you to
specify a name for the executable file produced by the compiler instead of
a.out. Dialog 1.Error! Bookmark not defined. illustrates the use of this
option by specifying hello as the name of the executable file.

Dialog 1.2
1 $ CC hello.cc -o hello
2 $ hello
3 Hello World
4 $

Although the actual command may be different depending on the make of

the compiler, a similar compilation procedure is used under MS-DOS.
Windows-based C++ compilers offer a user-friendly environment where
compilation is as simple as choosing a menu command. The naming
convention under MS-DOS and Windows is that C++ source file names
should end in .cpp.
How C++ Compilation Works

Compiling a C++ program involves a number of steps (most of which are

transparent to the user):
 First, the C++ preprocessor goes over the program text and carries out
the instructions specified by the preprocessor directives (e.g., #include).
The result is a modified program text which no longer contains any
directives. (Chapter 12 describes the preprocessor in detail.)
 Then, the C++ compiler translates the program code. The compiler may
be a true C++ compiler which generates native (assembly or machine)
code, or just a translator which translates the code into C. In the latter
case, the resulting C code is then passed through a C compiler to produce
native object code. In either case, the outcome may be incomplete due to
the program referring to library routines which are not defined as a part of
the program. For example, Listing 1.1 refers to the << operator which is
actually defined in a separate IO library.
 Finally, the linker completes the object code by linking it with the object
code of any library modules that the program may have referred to. The
final result is an executable file.
Figure 1.1 illustrates the above steps for both a C++ translator and a C++
native compiler. In practice all these steps are usually invoked by a single
command (e.g., CC) and the user will not even see the intermediate files
generated.

Figure 1.1 C++ Compilation

C++ C
C++ C
Program Code
TRANSLATOR COMPILER

C++ C++ Object

Program NATIVE Code
COMPILER

Execut-
LINKER able


Variables

A variable is a symbolic name for a memory location in which data can be

stored and subsequently recalled. Variables are used for holding data values
so that they can be utilized in various computations in a program. All
variables have two important attributes:
 A type which is established when the variable is defined (e.g., integer,
real, character). Once defined, the type of a C++ variable cannot be
changed.
 A value which can be changed by assigning a new value to the variable.
The kind of values a variable can assume depends on its type. For
example, an integer variable can only take integer values (e.g., 2, 100, -
12).
Listing 1.2 illustrates the uses of some simple variable.

Listing 1.2
1 #include <iostream.h>

2 int main (void)

3 {
4 int workDays;
5 float workHours, payRate, weeklyPay;

6 workDays = 5;
7 workHours = 7.5;
8 payRate = 38.55;
9 weeklyPay = workDays * workHours * payRate;
10 cout << "Weekly Pay = ";
11 cout << weeklyPay;
12 cout << '\n';
13 }

4 This line defines an int (integer) variable called workDays, which will
represent the number of working days in a week. As a general rule, a
variable is defined by specifying its type first, followed by the variable
name, followed by a semicolon.
5 This line defines three float (real) variables which, respectively,
represent the work hours per day, the hourly pay rate, and the weekly pay.
As illustrated by this line, multiple variables of the same type can be
defined at once by separating them with commas.
6 This line is an assignment statement. It assigns the value 5 to the
variable workDays. Therefore, after this statement is executed, workDays
denotes the value 5.
7 This line assigns the value 7.5 to the variable workHours.
8 This line assigns the value 38.55 to the variable payRate.
 9 This line calculates the weekly pay as the product of workDays,
workHours, and payRate (* is the multiplication operator). The resulting
value is stored in weeklyPay.
10-12 These lines output three items in sequence: the string "Weekly Pay
= ", the value of the variable weeklyPay, and a newline character.
When run, the program will produce the following output:
Weekly Pay = 1445.625

When a variable is defined, its value is undefined until it is actually

assigned one. For example, weeklyPay has an undefined value (i.e., whatever
happens to be in the memory location which the variable denotes at the time)
until line 9 is executed. The assigning of a value to a variable for the first time
is called initialization. It is important to ensure that a variable is initialized
before it is used in any computation.
It is possible to define a variable and initialize it at the same time. This is
considered a good programming practice, because it pre-empts the possibility
of using the variable prior to it being initialized. Listing 1.3 is a revised
version of Listing 1.2 which uses this technique. For all intents and purposes,
the two programs are equivalent.

Listing 1.3
1 #include <iostream.h>

2 int main (void)

3 {
4 int workDays = 5;
5 float workHours = 7.5;
6 float payRate = 38.55;
7 float weeklyPay = workDays * workHours * payRate;

8 cout << "Weekly Pay = ";

9 cout << weeklyPay;
10 cout << '\n';
11 }
Simple Input/Output

The most common way in which a program communicates with the outside
world is through simple, character-oriented Input/Output (IO) operations. C++
provides two useful operators for this purpose: >> for input and << for output.
We have already seen examples of output using <<. Listing 1.4 also illustrates
the use of >> for input.

Listing 1.4
1 #include <iostream.h>

2 int main (void)

3 {
4 int workDays = 5;
5 float workHours = 7.5;
6 float payRate, weeklyPay;

7 cout << "What is the hourly pay rate? ";

8 cin >> payRate;

9 weeklyPay = workDays * workHours * payRate;

10 cout << "Weekly Pay = ";
11 cout << weeklyPay;
12 cout << '\n';
13 }

7 This line outputs the prompt What is the hourly pay rate? to seek
user input.
8 This line reads the input value typed by the user and copies it to payRate.
The input operator >> takes an input stream as its left operand (cin is
the standard C++ input stream which corresponds to data entered via the
keyboard) and a variable (to which the input data is copied) as its right
operand.
9-13 The rest of the program is as before.
When run, the program will produce the following output (user input appears
in bold):
What is the hourly pay rate? 33.55
Weekly Pay = 1258.125

Both << and >> return their left operand as their result, enabling multiple
input or multiple output operations to be combined into one statement. This is
illustrated by Listing 1.5 which now allows the input of both the daily work
hours and the hourly pay rate.

Listing 1.5
 1 #include <iostream.h>

2 int main (void)

3 {
4 int workDays = 5;
5 float workHours, payRate, weeklyPay;

6 cout << "What are the work hours and the hourly pay rate? ";
7 cin >> workHours >> payRate;

8 weeklyPay = workDays * workHours * payRate;

9 cout << "Weekly Pay = " << weeklyPay << '\n';
10 }

7 This line reads two input values typed by the user and copies them to
workHours and payRate, respectively. The two values should be
separated by white space (i.e., one or more space or tab characters). This
statement is equivalent to:
(cin >> workHours) >> payRate;

Because the result of >> is its left operand, (cin >> workHours)
evaluates to cin which is then used as the left operand of the next >>
operator.
9 This line is the result of combining lines 10-12 from Listing 1.4. It
outputs "Weekly Pay = ", followed by the value of weeklyPay, followed
by a newline character. This statement is equivalent to:
((cout << "Weekly Pay = ") << weeklyPay) << '\n';

Because the result of << is its left operand, (cout << "Weekly Pay = ")
evaluates to cout which is then used as the left operand of the next <<
operator, etc.
When run, the program will produce the following output:
What are the work hours and the hourly pay rate? 7.5 33.55
Weekly Pay = 1258.125
Comments

A comment is a piece of descriptive text which explains some aspect of a

program. Program comments are totally ignored by the compiler and are only
intended for human readers. C++ provides two types of comment delimiters:
 Anything after // (until the end of the line on which it appears) is
considered a comment.
 Anything enclosed by the pair /* and */ is considered a comment.
Listing 1.6 illustrates the use of both forms.

Listing 1.6
1 #include <iostream.h>

2 /* This program calculates the weekly gross pay for a worker,

3 based on the total number of hours worked and the hourly pay
4 rate. */

5 int main (void)

6 {
7 int workDays = 5; // Number of work days per week
8 float workHours = 7.5; // Number of work hours per day
9 float payRate = 33.50; // Hourly pay rate
10 float weeklyPay; // Gross weekly pay

11 weeklyPay = workDays * workHours * payRate;

12 cout << "Weekly Pay = " << weeklyPay << '\n';
13 }

Comments should be used to enhance (not to hinder) the readability of a

program. The following two points, in particular, should be noted:
 A comment should be easier to read and understand than the code which
it tries to explain. A confusing or unnecessarily-complex comment is
worse than no comment at all.
 Over-use of comments can lead to even less readability. A program
which contains so much comment that you can hardly see the code can by
no means be considered readable.
 Use of descriptive names for variables and other entities in a program,
and proper indentation of the code can reduce the need for using
comments.
The best guideline for how to use comments is to simply apply common
sense.
Memory

A computer provides a Random Access Memory (RAM) for storing

executable program code as well as the data the program manipulates. This
memory can be thought of as a contiguous sequence of bits, each of which is
capable of storing a binary digit (0 or 1). Typically, the memory is also
divided into groups of 8 consecutive bits (called bytes). The bytes are
sequentially addressed. Therefore each byte can be uniquely identified by its
address (see Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 Bits and bytes in memory.

Byte Address

1211 1212 1213 1214 1215 1216 1217

... Byte Byte Byte Byte Byte Byte Byte ... Memory

1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1

Bit

The C++ compiler generates executable code which maps data entities to
memory locations. For example, the variable definition
int salary = 65000;

causes the compiler to allocate a few bytes to represent salary. The exact
number of bytes allocated and the method used for the binary representation
of the integer depends on the specific C++ implementation, but let us say two
bytes encoded as a 2’s complement integer. The compiler uses the address of
the first byte at which salary is allocated to refer to it. The above assignment
causes the value 65000 to be stored as a 2’s complement integer in the two
bytes allocated (see Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3 Representation of an integer in memory.

1211 1212 1213 1214 1215 1216 1217
... Byte Byte Byte 10110011 10110011 Byte Byte ... Memory
salary
(a two-byte integer whose address is 1214)

While the exact binary representation of a data item is rarely of interest to

a programmer, the general organization of memory and use of addresses for
referring to data items (as we will see later) is very important.
Integer Numbers

An integer variable may be defined to be of type short, int, or long. The

only difference is that an int uses more or at least the same number of bytes
as a short, and a long uses more or at least the same number of bytes as an
int. For example, on the author’s PC, a short uses 2 bytes, an int also 2
bytes, and a long 4 bytes.
short age = 20;
int salary = 65000;
long price = 4500000;

By default, an integer variable is assumed to be signed (i.e., have a signed

representation so that it can assume positive as well as negative values).
However, an integer can be defined to be unsigned by using the keyword
unsigned in its definition. The keyword signed is also allowed but is
redundant.
unsigned short age = 20;
unsigned int salary = 65000;
unsigned long price = 4500000;

A literal integer (e.g., 1984) is always assumed to be of type int, unless

it has an L or l suffix, in which case it is treated as a long. Also, a literal
integer can be specified to be unsigned using the suffix U or u. For example:
1984L 1984l 1984U 1984u 1984LU 1984ul

Literal integers can be expressed in decimal, octal, and hexadecimal

notations. The decimal notation is the one we have been using so far. An
integer is taken to be octal if it is preceded by a zero (0), and hexadecimal if it
is preceded by a 0x or 0X. For example:

92 // decimal
0134 // equivalent octal
0x5C // equivalent hexadecimal
Real Numbers

A real variable may be defined to be of type float or double. The latter uses
more bytes and therefore offers a greater range and accuracy for representing
real numbers. For example, on the author’s PC, a float uses 4 and a double
uses 8 bytes.
float interestRate = 0.06;
double pi = 3.141592654;

A literal real (e.g., 0.06) is always assumed to be of type double, unless it

has an F or f suffix, in which case it is treated as a float, or an L or l suffix,
in which case it is treated as a long double. The latter uses more bytes than a
double for better accuracy (e.g., 10 bytes on the author’s PC). For example:

0.06F 0.06f 3.141592654L 3.141592654l

In addition to the decimal notation used so far, literal reals may also be
expressed in scientific notation. For example, 0.002164 may be written in the
scientific notation as:
2.164E-3 or 2.164e-3

The letter E (or e) stands for exponent. The scientific notation is interpreted
as follows:
2.164E-3 = 2.164 × 10-3
Characters

A character variable is defined to be of type char. A character variable

occupies a single byte which contains the code for the character. This code is
a numeric value and depends on the character coding system being used (i.e.,
is machine-dependent). The most common system is ASCII (American
Standard Code for Information Interchange). For example, the character A has
the ASCII code 65, and the character a has the ASCII code 97.
char ch = 'A';

Like integers, a character variable may be specified to be signed or

unsigned. By the default (on most systems) char means signed char.
However, on some systems it may mean unsigned char. A signed character
variable can hold numeric values in the range -128 through 127. An unsigned
character variable can hold numeric values in the range 0 through 255. As a
result, both are often used to represent small integers in programs (and can be
assigned numeric values like integers):
signed char offset = -88;
unsigned char row = 2, column = 26;

A literal character is written by enclosing the character between a pair

of single quotes (e.g., 'A'). Nonprintable characters are represented using
escape sequences. For example:
'\n' // new line
'\r' // carriage return
'\t' // horizontal tab
'\v' // vertical tab
'\b' // backspace
'\f' // formfeed

Single and double quotes and the backslash character can also use the escape
notation:
'\'' // single quote (')
'\"' // double quote (")
'\\' // backslash (\)

Literal characters may also be specified using their numeric code value.
The general escape sequence \ooo (i.e., a backslash followed by up to three
octal digits) is used for this purpose. For example (assuming ASCII):
'\12' // newline (decimal code = 10)
'\11' // horizontal tab (decimal code = 9)
'\101' // 'A' (decimal code = 65)
'\0' // null (decimal code = 0)
Strings

A string is a consecutive sequence (i.e., array) of characters which are

terminated by a null character. A string variable is defined to be of type
char* (i.e., a pointer to character). A pointer is simply the address of a
memory location. (Pointers will be discussed in Chapter 5). A string variable,
therefore, simply contains the address of where the first character of a string
appears. For example, consider the definition:
char *str = "HELLO";

Figure 1.4 illustrates how the string variable str and the string "HELLO"
might appear in memory.

Figure 1.4 A string and a string variable in memory.

1207 1208 1209 1210 1211 1212 1213 1214 1215 1216 1217 1218
... 1212 'H' 'E' 'L' 'L' 'O' '\0' ...
str

A literal string is written by enclosing its characters between a pair of

double quotes (e.g., "HELLO"). The compiler always appends a null character
to a literal string to mark its end. The characters of a string may be specified
using any of the notations for specifying literal characters. For example:
"Name\tAddress\tTelephone" // tab-separated words
"ASCII character 65: \101" // 'A' specified as '101'

A long string may extend beyond a single line, in which case each of the
preceding lines should be terminated by a backslash. For example:
"Example to show \
the use of backslash for \
writing a long string"

The backslash in this context means that the rest of the string is continued on
the next line. The above string is equivalent to the single line string:
"Example to show the use of backslash for writing a long string"

A common programming error results from confusing a single-character

string (e.g., "A") with a single character (e.g., 'A'). These two are not
equivalent. The former consists of two bytes (the character 'A' followed by
the character '\0'), whereas the latter consists of a single byte.
The shortest possible string is the null string ("") which simply consists
of the null character.
Names

Programming languages use names to refer to the various entities that make
up a program. We have already seen examples of an important category of
such names (i.e., variable names). Other categories include: function names,
type names, and macro names, which will be described later in this book.
Names are a programming convenience, which allow the programmer to
organize what would otherwise be quantities of plain data into a meaningful
and human-readable collection. As a result, no trace of a name is left in the
final executable code generated by a compiler. For example, a temperature
variable eventually becomes a few bytes of memory which is referred to by
the executable code by its address, not its name.
C++ imposes the following rules for creating valid names (also called
identifiers). A name should consist of one or more characters, each of which
may be a letter (i.e., 'A'-'Z' and 'a'-'z'), a digit (i.e., '0'-'9'), or an underscore
character ('_'), except that the first character may not be a digit. Upper and
lower case letters are distinct. For example:
salary // valid identifier
salary2 // valid identifier
2salary // invalid identifier (begins with a digit)
_salary // valid identifier
Salary // valid but distinct from salary

C++ imposes no limit on the number of characters in an identifier.

However, most implementation do. But the limit is usually so large that it
should not cause a concern (e.g., 255 characters).
Certain words are reserved by C++ for specific purposes and may not be
used as identifiers. These are called reserved words or keywords and are
summarized in Table 1.1:

Table 1.1 C++ keywords.

asm continue float new signed try
auto default for operator sizeof typedef
break delete friend private static union
case do goto protected struct unsigned
catch double if public switch virtual
char else inline register template void
class enum int return this volatile
const extern long short throw while