This document provides an overview of the C++ programming language including its history, common features, and useful resources for learning C++. It discusses data types, classes, functions, pointers, references, operator overloading, templates, and more. Code examples are provided to illustrate key concepts. Useful online tutorials and references are listed for further learning C++.

1. An Incomplete C++ Primer
University of Wyoming MA 5310
Professor Craig C. Douglas
http://www.mgnet.org/~douglas/Classes/na-sc/notes/C++Primer.pdf

2. C++ is a legacy programming language, as is other languages such as
Language First appeared
Fortran mid 1950’s
C 1970
Pascal mid 1970’s
Modula 2 late 1970’s
Java 1990’s
C# 2000’s
and others. All of these languages
• require a significant learning curve,
• are easy to make mistakes in that are hard to find, and
• are hard for others to decode (in large part because programmers
fail to adequately comment codes or use badly named data
variables).
• exist to manipulate data using algorithms.
2

3. 3

4. Textbook useful hints (by page)
• 10-36: basics
• 87-97: arrays
• 108-110: switch statements
• 126-127: compound assignment
• 128-138: classes
• 141: cerr
MPI (by page)
• 71-80: basics
• 651-676: the works
4

5. hello-simple.cpp
A simple first program is the hello, world program:
// my first program in C++
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main (int argc, char** argv) /* command line argument info */
{
cout << "Hello World!n"; // cout is standard character output
return 0;
}
argc is the number of arguments.
argv is a pointer to an array of character pointers that hold each of the arguments
given to the program when it runs.
5

6. Compile the file with g++, e.g.,
g++ hello-simple.cpp –o hello-simple
Run the program with
./hello-simple
Some people like to add an extension .exe on executables. Tastes vary.
g++ is available on Linux and OS X systems easily. On Windows, you can
install it natively or after installing Cygwin (or Cygwin/X is better).
6

7. Major parts of C++
• Data types
o Integer: int, short, short int, long, long int
o Floating point: float, double, long double
o Character: char
o User defined
• Classes
o A container for functions (called methods) about complicated data
structures with public, protected, and private data.
o Classes can be combined through inheritance to be quite complicated.
• Templates
o A mechanism to define a class for a wide variety of data instead of
statically defined data, e.g., define a vector class for int, float, double
with a single source code. Which data type is actually used is
determined when a class is used in a program declaration. Yikes.
• Functions
o Independent programs that implement algorithms.
7

8. Data types
Type Subtype Size Description
Integer int 32 or 64 standard sized
long or long int 32 or 64 bigger is better
short or short int 16 or 32 Legacy
Floating float 32 single precision
Point double 64 double precision
long double 128 quad precision
Character char 8 or 16 single character
Arrays
char name[100]; // 100 characters, indexed 0-99
char me[] = “Craig Douglas”; // array size computed by compiler
double matrix[10][20]; // 10 rows, 20 columns
8

9. Functions
Output + Function name ( Arguments )
Pointers and References
char* who;
who = me;
cout << who[0] << endl; // endl = end of line (‘n’)
who[0] = ‘c’;
who[6] = ‘d’;
cout << who << endl; // me is now in lower case
who = name;
cout << who[0] << who[1] << endl; // 1st 2 characters
9

10. References are used in function declarations and are similar to pointers:
double inner_product( double& x, double& y, int len ) {
double ip; // return value
for( int i = 0, ip = 0.0; i < len; i++ ) // 0 <= i < len
ip += ( x[i] * y[i] ); // for loop’s one statement
return ip; // or just ip;
}
Here are lots of new things: a for loop with a local variable definition, an
increment operator, and a complicated assignment statement inside the loop.
References (double& x) differ from pointers (double* x) only that the data in a
reference variable will not change. In the inner_product function, neither x nor y
will change, so they can be reference variables. Compilers can do better
optimizations on read only variables that on ones that can be changed.
10

11. Classes
Two distinct parts should be defined:
1. A header file with declarations and method (function) headers.
2. An implementation file that is compiled.
The header file should have the following sections:
• private: all hidden variables and members are declared here.
• protected: only classes declared as a friend are declared here.
• public: members that can be accessed by anyone.
o Constructors, the destructor, and copy members should be defined.
o Access members and algorithmic members should be defined.
11

12. A sample header file for a class hello is hello.h:
#ifndef H_class_hello
#define H_class_hello
class hello {
private:
char greeting[100];
public:
hello(); // constructor, no arguments
hello(const char*); // constructor, 1 argument (greeting)
virtual ~hello(); // destructor
hello(hello& the_other_hello); // copy constructor
void set_greeting(const char*); // set greeting
void print_greeting(); // print greeting
};
#endif
12

13. The implementation file, hello.cpp, could be as simple as
#include "hello.h"
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
hello::hello() { char ini = 0; set_greeting(&ini); }
hello::hello(const char* msg) { set_greeting(msg); }
hello::~hello() { }
hello::hello(hello& the_other_hello) {
hello(the_other_hello.greeting); }
void hello::set_greeting(const char* msg) { strcpy(greeting, msg); }
void hello::print_greeting() { cout << greeting << endl; }
You should study one of the classes in the textbook’s cdrom disk.
13

14. Compound Statements
C++ has many compound statements, including
• if ( clause ) statement else if (clause ) statement … else (clause ) statement
o else if and else are optional
o many times statement is actually { statements }
• for( initialize ; stopping condition ; updates at end of loop ) statement
o initilize can be multiple items separated by commas
o stopping condition is anything appropriate inside an if clause
o updates are comma separated items
o usually there is only one item, not multiple
• while ( true condition ) statement
o true condition is anything appropriate inside an if clause
• switch ( variable ) { case value: statements break … default: statements }
o multiple case statements can occur without a statement between them
o default is optional
o remember the break or the computer will continue into the next case
(unless this is desired)
14

15. One of C++’s strengths and weakness is the ability to overload operators. A very
good online source of information about how overload any operator in C++ is
given at the URL
http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Cpp/0200__Operator-
Overloading/Catalog0200__Operator-Overloading.htm
C++ has a Template mechanism that allows classes to be automatically defined
for different data types. There is even a Standard Template Library (STL) that
covers many useful template types.
Useful tutorials can be found at
• http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/
• http://www.cplusplus.com/files/tutorial.pdf
• http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Cpp/CatalogCpp.htm
15