C++

C++ is a middle-level programming language developed by Bjarne

Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell Labs. C++ runs on a variety of
platforms, such as Windows, Mac OS, and the various versions of UNIX.

This reference will take you through simple and practical approach while
learning C++ Programming language.

C++ is a statically typed, compiled, general-purpose, case-sensitive, free-

form programming language that supports procedural, object-oriented, and
generic programming.

C++ is regarded as a middle-level language, as it comprises a

combination of both high-level and low-level language features.

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C++ was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell Labs in
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Murray Hill, New Jersey, as an enhancement to the C language and
originally named C with Classes but later it was renamed C++ in 1983.
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C++ is a superset of C, and that virtually any legal C program is a legal

C++ program.
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Note: A programming language is said to use static typing when type

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checking is performed during compile-time as opposed to run-time.

Object-Oriented Programming
C++ fully supports object-oriented programming, including the four pillars
of object-oriented development:

 Encapsulation

 Data hiding

 Inheritance

 Polymorphism
Standard Libraries
Standard C++ consists of three important parts:

 The core language giving all the building blocks including variables, data types
and literals, etc.

 The C++ Standard Library giving a rich set of functions manipulating files,
strings, etc.

 The Standard Template Library (STL) giving a rich set of methods manipulating
data structures, etc.

The ANSI Standard

The ANSI standard is an attempt to ensure that C++ is portable -- that

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code you write for Microsoft's compiler will compile without errors, using a
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compiler on a Mac, UNIX, a Windows box, or an Alpha.

The ANSI standard has been stable for a while, and all the major C++
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compiler manufacturers support the ANSI standard.
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Learning C++
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The most important thing to do when learning C++ is to focus on concepts

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and not get lost in language technical details.

The purpose of learning a programming language is to become a better

programmer; that is, to become more effective at designing and
implementing new systems and at maintaining old ones.

C++ supports a variety of programming styles. You can write in the style of
Fortran, C, Smalltalk, etc., in any language. Each style can achieve its aims
effectively while maintaining runtime and space efficiency.

Use of C++
C++ is used by hundreds of thousands of programmers in essentially every
application domain.
C++ is being highly used to write device drivers and other softwares that
rely on direct manipulation of hardware under realtime constraints.

C++ is widely used for teaching and research because it is clean enough for
successful teaching of basic concepts.

Anyone who has used either an Apple Macintosh or a PC running Windows

has indirectly used C++ because the primary user interfaces of these
systems are written in C++.

C++ Basic Syntax

When we consider a C++ program, it can be defined as a collection of
objects that communicate via invoking each other's methods. Let us now

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briefly look into what do class, object, methods and instant variables mean.
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 Object - Objects have states and behaviors. Example: A dog has states - color,
name, breed as well as behaviors - wagging, barking, eating. An object is an
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instance of a class.
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 Class - A class can be defined as a template/blueprint that describes the

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behaviors/states that object of its type support.

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 Methods - A method is basically a behavior. A class can contain many methods.

It is in methods where the logics are written, data is manipulated and all the
actions are executed.

 Instant Variables - Each object has its unique set of instant variables. An
object's state is created by the values assigned to these instant variables.

C++ Program Structure:

Let us look at a simple code that would print the words Hello World.

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

// main() is where program execution begins.

int main()

cout << "Hello World"; // prints Hello World

return 0;

Let us look various parts of the above program:

 The C++ language defines several headers, which contain information that is
either necessary or useful to your program. For this program, the
header <iostream> is needed.

 The line using namespace std; tells the compiler to use the std namespace.

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Namespaces are a relatively recent addition to C++.


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The next line // main() is where program execution begins. is a single-line
comment available in C++. Single-line comments begin with // and stop at the
end of the line.
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 The line int main() is the main function where program execution begins.
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 The next line cout << "This is my first C++ program."; causes the message
"This is my first C++ program" to be displayed on the screen.
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 The next line return 0; terminates main( )function and causes it to return the
value 0 to the calling process.

Compile & Execute C++ Program:

Let's look at how to save the file, compile and run the program. Please
follow the steps given below:

 Open a text editor and add the code as above.

 Save the file as: hello.cpp

 Open a command prompt and go to the directory where you saved the file.
  Type 'g++ hello.cpp ' and press enter to compile your code. If there are no
errors in your code the command prompt will take you to the next line and
would generate a.out executable file.

 Now, type ' a.out' to run your program.

 You will be able to see ' Hello World ' printed on the window.

$ g++ hello.cpp

$ ./a.out

Hello World

Make sure that g++ is in your path and that you are running it in the
directory containing file hello.cpp.

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You can compile C/C++ programs using makefile. For more details, you can
check Makefile Tutorial. Va
Semicolons & Blocks in C++:
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In C++, the semicolon is a statement terminator. That is, each individual
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statement must be ended with a semicolon. It indicates the end of one

logical entity.
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For example, following are three different statements:

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x = y;

y = y+1;

add(x, y);

A block is a set of logically connected statements that are surrounded by

opening and closing braces. For example:

cout << "Hello World"; // prints Hello World

return 0;

}
C++ does not recognize the end of the line as a terminator. For this reason,
it does not matter where on a line you put a statement. For example:

x = y;

y = y+1;

add(x, y);

is the same as

x = y; y = y+1; add(x, y);

C++ Identifiers:
A C++ identifier is a name used to identify a variable, function, class,
module, or any other user-defined item. An identifier starts with a letter A
to Z or a to z or an underscore (_) followed by zero or more letters,

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underscores, and digits (0 to 9). Va
C++ does not allow punctuation characters such as @, $, and % within
identifiers. C++ is a case-sensitive programming language.
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Thus, Manpowerand manpower are two different identifiers in C++.

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Here are some examples of acceptable identifiers:

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mohd zara abc move_name a_123

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myname50 _temp j a23b9 retVal

C++ Keywords:
The following list shows the reserved words in C++. These reserved words
may not be used as constant or variable or any other identifier names.

asm else new this

auto enum operator throw

bool explicit private true

break export protected try

case extern public typedef

catch false register typeid

char float reinterpret_cast typename

class for return union

const friend short unsigned

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const_cast goto signed
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continue if sizeof virtual

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default inline static void

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delete int static_cast volatile

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do long struct wchar_t

double mutable switch while

dynamic_cast namespace template

Trigraphs:
A few characters have an alternative representation, called a trigraph
sequence. A trigraph is a three-character sequence that represents a single
character and the sequence always starts with two question marks.
Trigraphs are expanded anywhere they appear, including within string
literals and character literals, in comments, and in preprocessor directives.

Following are most frequently used trigraph sequences:

Trigraph Replacement

??= #

??/ \

??' ^

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??( [
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??) ]
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??! |
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??< {
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??> }

??- ~

All the compilers do not support trigraphs and they are not advised to be
used because of their confusing nature.

Whitespace in C++:
A line containing only whitespace, possibly with a comment, is known as a
blank line, and C++ compiler totally ignores it.
Whitespace is the term used in C++ to describe blanks, tabs, newline
characters and comments. Whitespace separates one part of a statement
from another and enables the compiler to identify where one element in a
statement, such as int, ends and the next element begins. Therefore, in the
statement,

int age;

there must be at least one whitespace character (usually a space) between

int and age for the compiler to be able to distinguish them. On the other
hand, in the statement

fruit = apples + oranges; // Get the total fruit

no whitespace characters are necessary between fruit and =, or between =

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and apples, although you are free to include some if you wish for readability
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Comments in C++
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Program comments are explanatory statements that you can include in the
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C++ code that you write and helps anyone reading it's source code. All
programming languages allow for some form of comments.
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C++ supports single-line and multi-line comments. All characters available

inside any comment are ignored by C++ compiler.

C++ comments start with /* and end with */. For example:

/* This is a comment */

/* C++ comments can also

* span multiple lines

*/

A comment can also start with //, extending to the end of the line. For
example:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

main()

cout << "Hello World"; // prints Hello World

return 0;

When the above code is compiled, it will ignore // prints Hello World and
final executable will produce the following result:

Hello World

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Within a /* and */ comment, // characters have no special meaning. Within
a // comment, /* and */ have no special meaning. Thus, you can "nest" one
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kind of comment within the other kind. For example:
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/* Comment out printing of Hello World:
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cout << "Hello World"; // prints Hello World

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*/

C++ Data Types

While doing programming in any programming language, you need to use
various variables to store various information. Variables are nothing but
reserved memory locations to store values. This means that when you
create a variable you reserve some space in memory.

You may like to store information of various data types like character, wide
character, integer, floating point, double floating point, boolean etc. Based
on the data type of a variable, the operating system allocates memory and
decides what can be stored in the reserved memory.
Primitive Built-in Types:
C++ offer the programmer a rich assortment of built-in as well as user
defined data types. Following table lists down seven basic C++ data types:

Type Keyword

Boolean bool

Character char

Integer int

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Floating point float
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Double floating point double
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Valueless void
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Wide character wchar_t

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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.
Type Typical Bit Width Typical Range

char 1byte -127 to 127 or 0 to 255

unsigned char 1byte 0 to 255

signed char 1byte -127 to 127

int 4bytes -2147483648 to 2147483647

unsigned int 4bytes 0 to 4294967295

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signed int 4bytes -2147483648 to 2147483647
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short int 2bytes -32768 to 32767
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unsigned short int Range 0 to 65,535

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signed short int Range -32768 to 32767

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long int 4bytes -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647

signed long int 4bytes same as long int

unsigned long int 4bytes 0 to 4,294,967,295

float 4bytes +/- 3.4e +/- 38 (~7 digits)

double 8bytes +/- 1.7e +/- 308 (~15 digits)

long double 8bytes +/- 1.7e +/- 308 (~15 digits)

wchar_t 2 or 4 bytes 1 wide character

The sizes of variables might be different from those shown in the above
table, depending on the compiler and the computer you are using.

Following is the example, which will produce correct size of various data
types on your computer.

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

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int main()

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cout << "Size of char : " << sizeof(char) << endl;

cout << "Size of int : " << sizeof(int) << endl;

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cout << "Size of short int : " << sizeof(short int) << endl;
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cout << "Size of long int : " << sizeof(long int) << endl;
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cout << "Size of float : " << sizeof(float) << endl;

cout << "Size of double : " << sizeof(double) << endl;

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cout << "Size of wchar_t : " << sizeof(wchar_t) << endl;

return 0;

This example uses endl, which inserts a new-line character after every line
and << operator is being used to pass multiple values out to the screen.
We are also using sizeof() operator to get size of various data types.

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result which can vary from machine to machine:

Size of char : 1

Size of int : 4

Size of short int : 2

Size of long int : 4

Size of float : 4

Size of double : 8

Size of wchar_t : 4

typedef Declarations:
You can create a new name for an existing type using typedef. Following is
the simple syntax to define a new type using typedef:

typedef type newname;

For example, the following tells the compiler that feet is another name for
int:

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typedef int feet;

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Now, the following declaration is perfectly legal and creates an integer
variable called distance:
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feet distance;
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Enumerated Types:
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An enumerated type declares an optional type name and a set of zero or

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more identifiers that can be used as values of the type. Each enumerator is
a constant whose type is the enumeration.

To create an enumeration requires the use of the keyword enum. The

general form of an enumeration type is:

enum enum-name { list of names } var-list;

Here, the enum-name is the enumeration's type name. The list of names is
comma separated.

For example, the following code defines an enumeration of colors called

colors and the variable c of type color. Finally, c is assigned the value
"blue".

enum color { red, green, blue } c;

c = blue;

By default, the value of the first name is 0, the second name has the value
1, the third has the value 2, and so on. But you can give a name a specific
value by adding an initializer. For example, in the following
enumeration, green will have the value 5.

enum color { red, green=5, blue };

Here, blue will have a value of 6 because each name will be one greater
than the one that precedes it.

C++ Variable Types

A variable provides us with named storage that our programs can
manipulate. Each variable in C++ has a specific type, which determines the

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size and layout of the variable's memory; the range of values that can be
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stored within that memory; and the set of operations that can be applied to
the variable.
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The name of a variable can be composed of letters, digits, and the

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underscore character. It must begin with either a letter or an underscore.

Upper and lowercase letters are distinct because C++ is case-sensitive:
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There are following basic types of variable in C++ as explained in last

chapter:

Type Description

bool Stores either value true or false.

char Typically a single octet(one byte). This is an integer

type.

int The most natural size of integer for the machine.

float A single-precision floating point value.

double A double-precision floating point value.

void Represents the absence of type.

wchar_t A wide character type.

C++ also allows to define various other types of variables, which we will
cover in subsequent chapters like Enumeration, Pointer, Array,
Reference, Data structures, and Classes.

Following section will cover how to define, declare and use various types of

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variables.
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Variable Definition in C++:
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A variable definition means to tell the compiler where and how much to
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create the storage for the variable. A variable definition specifies a data
type, and contains a list of one or more variables of that type as follows:
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type variable_list;
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Here, type must be a valid C++ data type including char, w_char, int, float,
double, bool or any user-defined object, etc., and variable_list may
consist of one or more identifier names separated by commas. Some valid
declarations are shown here:

int i, j, k;

char c, ch;

float f, salary;

double d;

The line int i, j, k; both declares and defines the variables i, j and k; which
instructs the compiler to create variables named i, j and k of type int.
Variables can be initialized (assigned an initial value) in their declaration.
The initializer consists of an equal sign followed by a constant expression as
follows:

type variable_name = value;

Some examples are:

extern int d = 3, f = 5; // declaration of d and f.

int d = 3, f = 5; // definition and initializing d and f.

byte z = 22; // definition and initializes z.

char x = 'x'; // the variable x has the value 'x'.

For definition without an initializer: variables with static storage duration

are implicitly initialized with NULL (all bytes have the value 0); the initial

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value of all other variables is undefined.
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Variable Declaration in C++:
A variable declaration provides assurance to the compiler that there is one
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variable existing with the given type and name so that compiler proceed for
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further compilation without needing complete detail about the variable. A

variable declaration has its meaning at the time of compilation only,
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compiler needs actual variable declaration at the time of linking of the

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program.

A variable declaration is useful when you are using multiple files and you
define your variable in one of the files which will be available at the time of
linking of the program. You will use extern keyword to declare a variable at
any place. Though you can declare a variable multiple times in your C++
program, but it can be defined only once in a file, a function or a block of
code.

Example
Try the following example where a variable has been declared at the top,
but it has been defined inside the main function:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// Variable declaration:

extern int a, b;

extern int c;

extern float f;

int main ()

// Variable definition:

int a, b;

int c;

float f;

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// actual initialization
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a = 10;
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b = 20;
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c = a + b;
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cout << c << endl ;

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f = 70.0/3.0;

cout << f << endl ;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

30

23.3333
Same concept applies on function declaration where you provide a function
name at the time of its declaration and its actual definition can be given
anywhere else. For example:

// function declaration

int func();

int main()

// function call

int i = func();

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// function definition

int func()

{
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return 0;
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}
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Lvalues and Rvalues:

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There are two kinds of expressions in C++:

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 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:

int g = 20;
But following is not a valid statement and would generate compile-time
error:

10 = 20;

Variable Scope in C++

A scope is a region of the program and broadly speaking there are three
places, where variables can be declared:

 Inside a function or a block which is called local variables,

 In the definition of function parameters which is called formal parameters.

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 Outside of all functions which is called global variables.
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We will learn what is a function and it's parameter in subsequent chapters.
Here let us explain what are local and global variables.
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Local Variables:
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Variables that are declared inside a function or block are local variables.
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They can be used only by statements that are inside that function or block
of code. Local variables are not known to functions outside their own.
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Following is the example using local variables:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()

// Local variable declaration:

int a, b;

int c;

// actual initialization

a = 10;
 b = 20;

c = a + b;

cout << c;

return 0;

Global Variables:
Global variables are defined outside of all the functions, usually on top of
the program. The global variables will hold their value throughout the life-
time of your program.

A global variable can be accessed by any function. That is, a global variable

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is available for use throughout your entire program after its declaration.
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Following is the example using global and local variables:
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#include <iostream>
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using namespace std;

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// Global variable declaration:

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int g;

int main ()

// Local variable declaration:

int a, b;

// actual initialization

a = 10;

b = 20;

g = a + b;

cout << g;
 return 0;

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

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

// Global variable declaration:

int g = 20;

int main ()

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{

// Local variable declaration:

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int g = 10;
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cout << g;
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return 0;
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When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

10

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:

Data Type Initializer

int 0

char '\0'

float 0

double 0

pointer NULL

It is a good programming practice to initialize variables properly, otherwise

sometimes program would produce unexpected result.

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C++ Constants/Literals Va
Constants refer to fixed values that the program may not alter and they are
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called literals.
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Constants can be of any of the basic data types and can be divided into
Integer Numerals, Floating-Point Numerals, Characters, Strings and Boolean
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Values.
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Again, constants are treated just like regular variables except that their
values cannot be modified after their definition.

Integer literals:
An integer literal can be a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal constant. A prefix
specifies the base or radix: 0x or 0X for hexadecimal, 0 for octal, and
nothing for decimal.

An integer literal can also have a suffix that is a combination of U and L, for
unsigned and long, respectively. The suffix can be uppercase or lowercase
and can be in any order.

Here are some examples of integer literals:

212 // Legal

215u // Legal

0xFeeL // Legal

078 // Illegal: 8 is not an octal digit

032UU // Illegal: cannot repeat a suffix

Following are other examples of various types of Integer literals:

85 // decimal

0213 // octal

0x4b // hexadecimal

30 // int

30u // unsigned int

30l // long

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30ul // unsigned long
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Floating-point literals:
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A floating-point literal has an integer part, a decimal point, a fractional part,
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and an exponent part. You can represent floating point literals either in
decimal form or exponential form.
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While representing using decimal form, you must include the decimal point,
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the exponent, or both and while representing using exponential form, you
must include the integer part, the fractional part, or both. The signed
exponent is introduced by e or E.

Here are some examples of floating-point literals:

3.14159 // Legal

314159E-5L // Legal

510E // Illegal: incomplete exponent

210f // Illegal: no decimal or exponent

.e55 // Illegal: missing integer or fraction

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 inwchar_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').

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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
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codes:
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Escape sequence Meaning

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\\ \ character

\' ' character

\" " character

\? ? character

\a Alert or bell
\b Backspace

\f Form feed

\n Newline

\r Carriage return

\t Horizontal tab

\v Vertical tab

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\ooo Octal number of one to three digits
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\xhh . . . Hexadecimal number of one or more digits
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Following is the example to show few escape sequence characters:

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#include <iostream>
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using namespace std;

int main()

cout << "Hello\tWorld\n\n";

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Hello World
String literals:
String literals are enclosed in double quotes. A string contains characters
that are similar to character literals: plain characters, escape sequences,
and universal characters.

You can break a long line into multiple lines using string literals and
separate them using whitespaces.

Here are some examples of string literals. All the three forms are identical
strings.

"hello, dear"

"hello, \

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dear"
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"hello, " "d" "ear"
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Defining Constants:
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There are two simple ways in C++ to define constants:

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 Using #define preprocessor.

 Using const keyword.

The #define Preprocessor:

Following is the form to use #define preprocessor to define a constant:

#define identifier value

Following example explains it in detail:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

#define LENGTH 10
#define WIDTH 5

#define NEWLINE '\n'

int main()

int area;

area = LENGTH * WIDTH;

cout << area;

cout << NEWLINE;

return 0;

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When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
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result:
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50
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The const Keyword:

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You can use const prefix to declare constants with a specific type as
follows:
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const type variable = value;

Following example explains it in detail:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()

const int LENGTH = 10;

const int WIDTH = 5;

const char NEWLINE = '\n';

int area;
 area = LENGTH * WIDTH;

cout << area;

cout << NEWLINE;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

50

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

CAPITALS.

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C++ Modifier Types
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C++ allows the char, int, and double data types to have modifiers
preceding them. A modifier is used to alter the meaning of the base type so
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that it more precisely fits the needs of various situations.
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The data type modifiers are listed here:

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 signed
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 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 longcan be applied to double.

The modifiers signed and unsigned can also be used as prefix

to long orshort modifiers. For example, unsigned long int.
C++ allows a shorthand notation for declaring unsigned,
short, or longintegers. You can simply use the word unsigned,
short, or long, without the int. The int is implied. For example, the
following two statements both declare unsigned integer variables.

unsigned x;

unsigned int y;

To understand the difference between the way that signed and unsigned
integer modifiers are interpreted by C++, you should run the following
short program:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

ts
/* This program shows the difference between

* signed and unsigned integers.

Va
*/
p
int main()
ee

short int i; // a signed short integer

rd

short unsigned int j; // an unsigned short integer

Pa

j = 50000;

i = j;

cout << i << " " << j;

return 0;

When this program is run, following is the output:

-15536 50000
The above result is because the bit pattern that represents 50,000 as a
short unsigned integer is interpreted as -15,536 by a short.

Type Qualifiers in C++

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

Qualifier Meaning

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

ts
changed in ways not explicitly specified by the program.

restrict
Va
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
p
called restrict.
ee
rd

Storage Classes in C++

Pa

A storage class defines the scope (visibility) and life-time of variables

and/or functions within a C++ Program. These specifiers precede the type
that they modify. There are following storage classes, which can be used in
a C++ Program

 auto

 register

 static

 extern

 mutable
The auto Storage Class
The auto storage class is the default storage class for all local variables.

int mount;

auto int month;

The example above defines two variables with the same storage class, auto
can only be used within functions, i.e., local variables.

The register Storage Class

The register storage class is used to define local variables that should be
stored in a register instead of RAM. This means that the variable has a

ts
maximum size equal to the register size (usually one word) and can't have
Va
the unary '&' operator applied to it (as it does not have a memory location).

{
p
ee

register int miles;

}
rd

The register should only be used for variables that require quick access
Pa

such as counters. It should also be noted that defining 'register' does not
mean that the variable will be stored in a register. It means that it MIGHT
be stored in a register depending on hardware and implementation
restrictions.

The static Storage Class

The static storage class instructs the compiler to keep a local variable in
existence during the life-time of the program instead of creating and
destroying it each time it comes into and goes out of scope. Therefore,
making local variables static allows them to maintain their values between
function calls.
The static modifier may also be applied to global variables. When this is
done, it causes that variable's scope to be restricted to the file in which it is
declared.

In C++, when static is used on a class data member, it causes only one
copy of that member to be shared by all objects of its class.

#include <iostream>

// Function declaration

void func(void);

static int count = 10; /* Global variable */

ts
main()

{
Va
while(count--)
p
{
ee

func();

}
rd

return 0;
Pa

// Function definition

void func( void )

static int i = 5; // local static variable

i++;

std::cout << "i is " << i ;

std::cout << " and count is " << count << std::endl;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

i is 6 and count is 9
i is 7 and count is 8

i is 8 and count is 7

i is 9 and count is 6

i is 10 and count is 5

i is 11 and count is 4

i is 12 and count is 3

i is 13 and count is 2

i is 14 and count is 1

i is 15 and count is 0

The extern Storage Class

The extern storage class is used to give a reference of a global variable
that is visible to ALL the program files. When you use 'extern' the variable

ts
cannot be initialized as all it does is point the variable name at a storage
location that has been previously defined.Va
When you have multiple files and you define a global variable or function,
p
which will be used in other files also, then extern will be used in another file
ee

to give reference of defined variable or function. Just for

understanding extern is used to declare a global variable or function in
rd

another file.
Pa

The extern modifier is most commonly used when there are two or more
files sharing the same global variables or functions as explained below.

First File: main.cpp

#include <iostream>

int count ;

extern void write_extern();

main()

count = 5;
 write_extern();

Second File: support.cpp

#include <iostream>

extern int count;

void write_extern(void)

std::cout << "Count is " << count << std::endl;

ts
Here, extern keyword is being used to declare count in another file. Now
compile these two files as follows: Va
$g++ main.cpp support.cpp -o write
p
This will produce write executable program, try to execute write and check
ee

the result as follows:

rd

$./write
Pa

The mutable Storage Class

The mutable specifier applies only to class objects, which are discussed
later in this tutorial. It allows a member of an object to override constness.
That is, a mutable member can be modified by a const member function.
 Operators in C++
An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific
mathematical or logical manipulations. C++ is rich in built-in operators and
provides the following types of operators:

 Arithmetic Operators

 Relational Operators

 Logical Operators

 Bitwise Operators

 Assignment Operators

ts
 Misc Operators
Va
This chapter will examine the arithmetic, relational, logical, bitwise,
assignment and other operators one by one.
p

Arithmetic Operators:
ee

There are following arithmetic operators supported by C++ language:

rd

Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then:

Pa

Show Examples

Operator Description Example

+ Adds two operands A + B will give 30

- Subtracts second operand from A - B will give -10

the first

* Multiplies both operands A * B will give 200

/ Divides numerator by de- B / A will give 2
numerator

% Modulus Operator and remainder B % A will give 0

of after an integer division

++ Increment operator, increases A++ will give 11

integer value by one

-- Decrement operator, decreases A-- will give 9

integer value by one

Relational Operators:

ts
There are following relational operators supported by C++ language
Va
Assume variable A holds 10 and variable B holds 20, then:
p
Show Examples
ee

Operator Description Example

rd
Pa

== Checks if the values of two (A == B) is not true.

operands are equal or not, if yes
then condition becomes true.

!= Checks if the values of two (A != B) is true.

operands are equal or not, if
values are not equal then
condition becomes true.

> Checks if the value of left operand (A > B) is not true.

is greater than the value of right
operand, if yes then condition
becomes true.
< Checks if the value of left operand (A < B) is true.
is less than the value of right
operand, if yes then condition
becomes true.

>= Checks if the value of left operand (A >= B) is not true.

is greater than or equal to the
value of right operand, if yes then
condition becomes true.

<= Checks if the value of left operand (A <= B) is true.

is less than or equal to the value
of right operand, if yes then
condition becomes true.

ts
Logical Operators: Va
There are following logical operators supported by C++ language
p
Assume variable A holds 1 and variable B holds 0, then:
ee

Show Examples
rd

Operator Description Example

Pa

&& Called Logical AND operator. If (A && B) is false.

both the operands are non-zero,
then condition becomes true.

|| Called Logical OR Operator. If any (A || B) is true.

of the two operands is non-zero,
then condition becomes true.

! Called Logical NOT Operator. Use !(A && B) is true.

to reverses the logical state of its
operand. If a condition is true,
then Logical NOT operator will
 make false.

Bitwise Operators:
Bitwise operator works on bits and perform bit-by-bit operation. The truth
tables for &, |, and ^ are as follows:

p q p&q p|q p^q

0 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 1 1

ts
1 1 1 1 0
Va
1 0 0 1 1
p
ee

Assume if A = 60; and B = 13; now in binary format they will be as follows:
rd

A = 0011 1100
Pa

B = 0000 1101

-----------------

A&B = 0000 1100

A|B = 0011 1101

A^B = 0011 0001

~A = 1100 0011

The Bitwise operators supported by C++ language are listed in the following
table. Assume variable A holds 60 and variable B holds 13, then:

Show Examples
Operator Description Example

& Binary AND Operator copies a bit (A & B) will give 12 which is 0000
to the result if it exists in both 1100
operands.

| Binary OR Operator copies a bit if (A | B) will give 61 which is 0011

it exists in either operand. 1101

^ Binary XOR Operator copies the (A ^ B) will give 49 which is 0011

bit if it is set in one operand but 0001
not both.

ts
~ Binary Ones Complement (~A ) will give -61 which is 1100
Operator is unary and has the 0011 in 2's complement form due
Va
effect of 'flipping' bits. to a signed binary number.
p
<< Binary Left Shift Operator. The A << 2 will give 240 which is
ee

left operands value is moved left 1111 0000

by the number of bits specified by
rd

the right operand.

Pa

>> Binary Right Shift Operator. The A >> 2 will give 15 which is 0000
left operands value is moved right 1111
by the number of bits specified by
the right operand.

Assignment Operators:
There are following assignment operators supported by C++ language:

Show Examples

Operator Description Example

= Simple assignment operator, C = A + B will assign value of A +
Assigns values from right side B into C
operands to left side operand

+= Add AND assignment operator, It C += A is equivalent to C = C + A

adds right operand to the left
operand and assign the result to
left operand

-= Subtract AND assignment C -= A is equivalent to C = C - A

operator, It subtracts right
operand from the left operand
and assign the result to left
operand

ts
*= Multiply AND assignment C *= A is equivalent to C = C * A
Va
operator, It multiplies right
operand with the left operand and
assign the result to left operand
p
ee

/= Divide AND assignment operator, C /= A is equivalent to C = C / A

rd

It divides left operand with the

right operand and assign the
Pa

result to left operand

%= Modulus AND assignment C %= A is equivalent to C = C %

operator, It takes modulus using A
two operands and assign the
result to left operand

<<= Left shift AND assignment C <<= 2 is same as C = C << 2

operator

>>= Right shift AND assignment C >>= 2 is same as C = C >> 2

operator
&= Bitwise AND assignment operator C &= 2 is same as C = C & 2

^= bitwise exclusive OR and C ^= 2 is same as C = C ^ 2

assignment operator

|= bitwise inclusive OR and C |= 2 is same as C = C | 2

assignment operator

Misc Operators
There are few other operators supported by C++ Language.

Operator Description

ts
sizeof sizeof operator returns the size of a variable. For
Va
example, sizeof(a), where a is integer, will return 4.
p
Condition ? X : Y Conditional operator. If Condition is true ? then it
ee

returns value X : otherwise value Y

rd

, Comma operator causes a sequence of operations to be

Pa

performed. The value of the entire comma expression is

the value of the last expression of the comma-separated
list.

. (dot) and -> (arrow) Member operators are used to reference individual
members of classes, structures, and unions.

Cast Casting operators convert one data type to another.

For example, int(2.2000) would return 2.

& Pointer operator & returns the address of an variable.

For example &a; will give actual address of the variable.
* Pointer operator * is pointer to a variable. For example
*var; will pointer to a variable var.

Operators Precedence in C++:

Operator precedence determines the grouping of terms in an expression.
This affects how an expression is evaluated. Certain operators have higher
precedence than others; for example, the multiplication operator has higher
precedence than the addition operator:

For example x = 7 + 3 * 2; here, x is assigned 13, not 20 because operator

* has higher precedence than +, so it first gets multiplied with 3*2 and
then adds into 7.

Here, operators with the highest precedence appear at the top of the table,

ts
those with the lowest appear at the bottom. Within an expression, higher
Va
precedence operators will be evaluated first.

Show Examples
p
ee

Category Operator Associativity

rd

Postfix () [] -> . ++ - - Left to right

Pa

Unary + - ! ~ ++ - - (type)* & sizeof Right to left

Multiplicative */% Left to right

Additive +- Left to right

Shift << >> Left to right

Relational < <= > >= Left to right

Equality == != Left to right

Bitwise AND & Left to right

Bitwise XOR ^ Left to right

Bitwise OR | Left to right

Logical AND && Left to right

Logical OR || Left to right

ts
Conditional ?: Va Right to left

Assignment = += -= *= /= %=>>= <<= &= ^= |= Right to left

p
ee

Comma , Left to right

rd
Pa
 C++ Loop Types
There may be a situation, when you need to execute a block of code several
number of times. In general statements are executed sequentially: The first
statement in a function is executed first, followed by the second, and so on.

Programming languages provide various control structures that allow for

more complicated execution paths.

A loop statement allows us to execute a statement or group of statements

multiple times and following is the general from of a loop statement in most
of the programming languages:

ts
Va
p
ee
rd
Pa

C++ programming language provides the following types of loop to handle

looping requirements. Click the following links to check their detail.

Loop Type Description

while loop Repeats a statement or group of statements while a

given condition is true. It tests the condition before
executing the loop body.
 Execute a sequence of statements multiple times and
for loop
abbreviates the code that manages the loop variable.

Like a while statement, except that it tests the condition

do...while loop
at the end of the loop body

nested loops You can use one or more loop inside any another while,
for or do..while loop.

Loop Control Statements:

Loop control statements change execution from its normal sequence. When
execution leaves a scope, all automatic objects that were created in that
scope are destroyed.

ts
C++ supports the following control statements. Click the following links to
check their detail.
Va
Control Statement Description
p
ee

break statement Terminates the loop or switch statement and transfers

rd

execution to the statement immediately following the

loop or switch.
Pa

continue statement Causes the loop to skip the remainder of its body and
immediately retest its condition prior to reiterating.

goto statement Transfers control to the labeled statement. Though it is

not advised to use goto statement in your program.

The Infinite Loop:

A loop becomes infinite loop if a condition never becomes false.
The for loop is traditionally used for this purpose. Since none of the three
expressions that form the for loop are required, you can make an endless
loop by leaving the conditional expression empty.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()

for( ; ; )

printf("This loop will run forever.\n");

return 0;

ts
When the conditional expression is absent, it is assumed to be true. You
may have an initialization and increment expression, but C++ programmers
Va
more commonly use the for(;;) construct to signify an infinite loop.
p
NOTE: You can terminate an infinite loop by pressing Ctrl + C keys.
ee
rd

C++ decision making statements

Pa

Decision making structures require that the programmer specify one or

more conditions to be evaluated or tested by the program, along with a
statement or statements to be executed if the condition is determined to be
true, and optionally, other statements to be executed if the condition is
determined to be false.

Following is the general from of a typical decision making structure found in

most of the programming languages:
 ts
Va
C++ programming language provides following types of decision making
statements. Click the following links to check their detail.
p
Statement Description
ee

An if statement consists of a boolean expression

rd

if statement
followed by one or more statements.
Pa

An if statement can be followed by an optional else

if...else statement
statement, which executes when the boolean
expression is false.

switch statement A switch statement allows a variable to be tested for

equality against a list of values.

nested if statements You can use one if or else if statement inside another
if or else if statement(s).

nested switch You can use one swicth statement inside another
switch statement(s).
statements
The ? : Operator:
We have covered conditional operator ? : in previous chapter which can be
used to replace if...else statements. It has the following general form:

Exp1 ? Exp2 : Exp3;

Where Exp1, Exp2, and Exp3 are expressions. Notice the use and
placement of the colon.

The value of a ? expression is determined like this: Exp1 is evaluated. If it

is true, then Exp2 is evaluated and becomes the value of the entire ?
expression. If Exp1 is false, then Exp3 is evaluated and its value becomes
the value of the expression.

ts
C++ Functions Va
A function is a group of statements that together perform a task.
p
Every C++ program has at least one function, which is main(), and all the
ee

most trivial programs can define additional functions.

You can divide up your code into separate functions. How you divide up
rd

your code among different functions is up to you, but logically the division
Pa

usually is so each function performs a specific task.

A function declaration tells the compiler about a function's name, return

type, and parameters. A function definition provides the actual body of the
function.

The C++ standard library provides numerous built-in functions that your
program can call. For example, function strcat() to concatenate two
strings, function memcpy() to copy one memory location to another
location and many more functions.

A function is knows as with various names like a method or a sub-routine or

a procedure etc.
Defining a Function:
The general form of a C++ function definition is as follows:

return_type function_name( parameter list )

body of the function

A C++ function definition consists of a function header and a function body.

Here are all the parts of a function:

 Return Type: A function may return a value. The return_type is the data type
of the value the function returns. Some functions perform the desired
operations without returning a value. In this case, the return_type is the

ts
keyword void.


Va
Function Name: This is the actual name of the function. The function name and
the parameter list together constitute the function signature.
p
ee

 Parameters: A parameter is like a placeholder. When a function is invoked, you

pass a value to the parameter. This value is referred to as actual parameter or
rd

argument. The parameter list refers to the type, order, and number of the
parameters of a function. Parameters are optional; that is, a function may
Pa

contain no parameters.

 Function Body: The function body contains a collection of statements that

define what the function does.

Example:
Following is the source code for a function called max(). This function takes
two parameters num1 and num2 and returns the maximum between the
two:

// function returning the max between two numbers

int max(int num1, int num2)

{
 // local variable declaration

int result;

if (num1 > num2)

result = num1;

else

result = num2;

return result;

Function Declarations:
A function declaration tells the compiler about a function name and how to

ts
call the function. The actual body of the function can be defined separately.

A function declaration has the following parts:

Va
p
return_type function_name( parameter list );
ee

For the above defined function max(), following is the function declaration:
rd

int max(int num1, int num2);

Pa

Parameter names are not importan in function declaration only their type is
required, so following is also valid declaration:

int max(int, int);

Function declaration is required when you define a function in one source

file and you call that function in another file. In such case, you should
declare the function at the top of the file calling the function.

Calling a Function:
While creating a C++ function, you give a definition of what the function
has to do. To use a function, you will have to call or invoke that function.
When a program calls a function, program control is transferred to the
called function. A called function performs defined task and when its return
statement is executed or when its function-ending closing brace is reached,
it returns program control back to the main program.

To call a function, you simply need to pass the required parameters along
with function name, and if function returns a value, then you can store
returned value. For example:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

// function declaration

int max(int num1, int num2);

ts
int main () Va
{
p
// local variable declaration:
ee

int a = 100;

int b = 200;
rd

int ret;
Pa

// calling a function to get max value.

ret = max(a, b);

cout << "Max value is : " << ret << endl;

return 0;

// function returning the max between two numbers

int max(int num1, int num2)

// local variable declaration

 int result;

if (num1 > num2)

result = num1;

else

result = num2;

return result;

I kept max() function along with main() function and compiled the source
code. While running final executable, it would produce the following result:

Max value is : 200

ts
Function Arguments: Va
If a function is to use arguments, it must declare variables that accept the
values of the arguments. These variables are called the formal
p

parameters of the function.

ee

The formal parameters behave like other local variables inside the function
rd

and are created upon entry into the function and destroyed upon exit.
Pa

While calling a function, there are two ways that arguments can be passed
to a function:

Call Type Description

This method copies the actual value of an argument into

Call by value
the formal parameter of the function. In this case,
changes made to the parameter inside the function have
no effect on the argument.

Call by pointer This method copies the address of an argument into the
formal parameter. Inside the function, the address is
used to access the actual argument used in the call. This
means that changes made to the parameter affect the
 argument.

This method copies the reference of an argument into

Call by reference
the formal parameter. Inside the function, the reference
is used to access the actual argument used in the call.
This means that changes made to the parameter affect
the argument.

By default, C++ uses call by value to pass arguments. In general, this

means that code within a function cannot alter the arguments used to call
the function and above mentioned example while calling max() function
used the same method.

Default Values for Parameters:

ts
When you define a function, you can specify a default value for each of the
last parameters. This value will be used if the corresponding argument is
Va
left blank when calling to the function.
p
This is done by using the assignment operator and assigning values for the
ee

arguments in the function definition. If a value for that parameter is not

passed when the function is called, the default given value is used, but if a
rd

value is specified, this default value is ignored and the passed value is used
instead. Consider the following example:
Pa

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int sum(int a, int b=20)

int result;

result = a + b;

return (result);

}
int main ()

// local variable declaration:

int a = 100;

int b = 200;

int result;

// calling a function to add the values.

result = sum(a, b);

cout << "Total value is :" << result << endl;

// calling a function again as follows.

result = sum(a);

ts
cout << "Total value is :" << result << endl;
Va
return 0;
p
}
ee

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:
rd
Pa

Total value is :300

Total value is :120

Numbers in C++
Normally, when we work with Numbers, we use primitive data types such as
int, short, long, float and double, etc. The number data types, their possible
values and number ranges have been explained while discussing C++ Data
Types.

Defining Numbers in C++:

You have already defined numbers in various examples given in previous
chapters. Here is another consolidated example to define various types of
numbers in C++:
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()

// number definition:

short s;

int i;

long l;

float f;

double d;

// number assignments;

ts
s = 10;

i = 1000;
Va
l = 1000000;
p
f = 230.47;
ee

d = 30949.374;
rd

// number printing;
Pa

cout << "short s :" << s << endl;

cout << "int i :" << i << endl;

cout << "long l :" << l << endl;

cout << "float f :" << f << endl;

cout << "double d :" << d << endl;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

short s :10

int i :1000
long l :1000000

float f :230.47

double d :30949.4

Math Operations in C++:

In addition to the various functions you can create, C++ also includes some
useful functions you can use. These functions are available in standard C
and C++ libraries and called built-in functions. These are functions that
can be included in your program and then use.

C++ has a rich set of mathematical operations, which can be performed on

various numbers. Following table lists down some useful built-in
mathematical functions available in C++.

ts
To utilize these functions you need to include the math header
file <cmath>. Va
S.N. Function & Purpose
p
ee

1 double cos(double);
rd

This function takes an angle (as a double) and returns the cosine.
Pa

2 double sin(double);

This function takes an angle (as a double) and returns the sine.

3 double tan(double);

This function takes an angle (as a double) and returns the tangent.

4 double log(double);

This function takes a number and returns the natural log of that number.

5 double pow(double, double);

 The first is a number you wish to raise and the second is the power you
wish to raise it t

6 double hypot(double, double);

If you pass this function the length of two sides of a right triangle, it will
return you the length of the hypotenuse.

7 double sqrt(double);

You pass this function a number and it gives you this square root.

8 int abs(int);

ts
This function returns the absolute value of an integer that is passed to it.

9 double fabs(double);
Va
This function returns the absolute value of any decimal number passed to
p

it.
ee
rd

10 double floor(double);
Pa

Finds the integer which is less than or equal to the argument passed to it.

Following a simple example to show few of the mathematical operations:

#include <iostream>

#include <cmath>

using namespace std;

int main ()

// number definition:

short s = 10;

int i = -1000;

long l = 100000;
 float f = 230.47;

double d = 200.374;

// mathematical operations;

cout << "sin(d) :" << sin(d) << endl;

cout << "abs(i) :" << abs(i) << endl;

cout << "floor(d) :" << floor(d) << endl;

cout << "sqrt(f) :" << sqrt(f) << endl;

cout << "pow( d, 2) :" << pow(d, 2) << endl;

return 0;

ts
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result: Va
sign(d) :-0.634939
p
abs(i) :1000
ee

floor(d) :200

sqrt(f) :15.1812
rd

pow( d, 2 ) :40149.7
Pa

Random Numbers in C++:

There are many cases where you will wish to generate a random number.
There are actually two functions you will need to know about random
number generation. The first is rand(), this function will only return a
pseudo random number. The way to fix this is to first call
the srand() function.

Following is a simple example to generate few random numbers. This

example makes use of time() function to get the number of seconds on
your system time, to randomly seed the rand() function:

#include <iostream>

#include <ctime>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int main ()

int i,j;

// set the seed

srand( (unsigned)time( NULL ) );

/* generate 10 random numbers. */

for( i = 0; i < 10; i++ )

ts
{

// generate actual random number

Va
j= rand();
p
cout <<" Random Number : " << j << endl;
ee

}
rd

return 0;
Pa

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Random Number : 1748144778

Random Number : 630873888

Random Number : 2134540646

Random Number : 219404170

Random Number : 902129458

Random Number : 920445370

Random Number : 1319072661

Random Number : 257938873

Random Number : 1256201101

 Random Number : 580322989

C++ Arrays
C++ provides a data structure, the array, which stores a fixed-size
sequential collection of elements of the same type. An array is used to store
a collection of data, but it is often more useful to think of an array as a
collection of variables of the same type.

Instead of declaring individual variables, such as number0, number1, ...,

and number99, you declare one array variable such as numbers and use
numbers[0], numbers[1], and ..., numbers[99] to represent individual
variables. A specific element in an array is accessed by an index.

ts
All arrays consist of contiguous memory locations. The lowest address
Va
corresponds to the first element and the highest address to the last
element.
p

Declaring Arrays:
ee

To declare an array in C++, the programmer specifies the type of the

rd

elements and the number of elements required by an array as follows:

Pa

type arrayName [ arraySize ];

This is called a single-dimension array. The arraySize must be an integer

constant greater than zero and type can be any valid C++ data type. For
example, to declare a 10-element array called balance of type double, use
this statement:

double balance[10];

Initializing Arrays:
You can initialize C++ array elements either one by one or using a single
statement as follows:

double balance[5] = {1000.0, 2.0, 3.4, 17.0, 50.0};

The number of values between braces { } can not be larger than the
number of elements that we declare for the array between square brackets
[ ]. Following is an example to assign a single element of the array:

If you omit the size of the array, an array just big enough to hold the
initialization is created. Therefore, if you write:

double balance[] = {1000.0, 2.0, 3.4, 17.0, 50.0};

You will create exactly the same array as you did in the previous example.

balance[4] = 50.0;

The above statement assigns element number 5th in the array a value of
50.0. Array with 4th index will be 5th, i.e., last element because all arrays
have 0 as the index of their first element which is also called base index.

ts
Following is the pictorial representaion of the same array we discussed
Va
above:
p
ee
rd

Accessing Array Elements:

Pa

An element is accessed by indexing the array name. This is done by placing

the index of the element within square brackets after the name of the
array. For example:

double salary = balance[9];

The above statement will take 10th element from the array and assign the
value to salary variable. Following is an example, which will use all the
above-mentioned three concepts viz. declaration, assignment and accessing
arrays:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

#include <iomanip>
using std::setw;

int main ()

int n[ 10 ]; // n is an array of 10 integers

// initialize elements of array n to 0

for ( int i = 0; i < 10; i++ )

n[ i ] = i + 100; // set element at location i to i + 100

cout << "Element" << setw( 13 ) << "Value" << endl;

ts
// output each array element's value

for ( int j = 0; j < 10; j++ )

Va
{
p
cout << setw( 7 )<< j << setw( 13 ) << n[ j ] << endl;
ee

}
rd

return 0;
Pa

This program makes use of setw() function to format the output. When the
above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

Element Value

0 100

1 101

2 102

3 103

4 104

5 105

6 106

7 107
 8 108

9 109

C++ Arrays in Detail:

Arrays are important to C++ and should need lots of more detail. There are
following few important concepts, which should be clear to a C++
programmer:

Concept Description

Multi-dimensional arrays C++ supports multidimensional arrays. The

simplest form of the multidimensional array is
the two-dimensional array.

ts
You can generate a pointer to the first element
Pointer to an array Va
of an array by simply specifying the array name,
without any index.
p
You can pass to the function a pointer to an
Passing arrays to functions
ee

array by specifying the array's name without an

index.
rd
Pa

C++ allows a function to return an array.

Return array from
functions

C++ Strings
C++ provides following two types of string representations:

 The C-style character string.

 The string class type introduced with Standard C++.

The C-Style Character String:
The C-style character string originated within the C language and continues
to be supported within C++. This string is actually a one-dimensional array
of characters which is terminated by a null character '\0'. Thus a null-
terminated string contains the characters that comprise the string followed
by a null.

The following declaration and initialization create a string consisting of the

word "Hello". To hold the null character at the end of the array, the size of
the character array containing the string is one more than the number of
characters in the word "Hello."

char greeting[6] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0'};

ts
If you follow the rule of array initialization, then you can write the above
statement as follows: Va
char greeting[] = "Hello";
p
Following is the memory presentation of above defined string in C/C++:
ee
rd
Pa

Actually, you do not place the null character at the end of a string constant.
The C++ compiler automatically places the '\0' at the end of the string
when it initializes the array. Let us try to print above-mentioned string:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()

char greeting[6] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0'};

cout << "Greeting message: ";

cout << greeting << endl;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces result

something as follows:

Greeting message: Hello

ts
C++ supports a wide range of functions that manipulate null-terminated
Va
strings:
p
S.N. Function & Purpose
ee

1 strcpy(s1, s2);
rd
Pa

Copies string s2 into string s1.

2 strcat(s1, s2);

Concatenates string s2 onto the end of string s1.

3 strlen(s1);

Returns the length of string s1.

4 strcmp(s1, s2);

Returns 0 if s1 and s2 are the same; less than 0 if s1<s2; greater than 0 if
s1>s2.
5 strchr(s1, ch);

Returns a pointer to the first occurrence of character ch in string s1.

6 strstr(s1, s2);

Returns a pointer to the first occurrence of string s2 in string s1.

Following example makes use of few of the above-mentioned functions:

#include <iostream>

#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

ts
int main () Va
{

char str1[10] = "Hello";

p
char str2[10] = "World";
ee

char str3[10];
rd

int len ;
Pa

// copy str1 into str3

strcpy( str3, str1);

cout << "strcpy( str3, str1) : " << str3 << endl;

// concatenates str1 and str2

strcat( str1, str2);

cout << "strcat( str1, str2): " << str1 << endl;

// total lenghth of str1 after concatenation

len = strlen(str1);

cout << "strlen(str1) : " << len << endl;

return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces result

something as follows:

strcpy( str3, str1) : Hello

strcat( str1, str2): HelloWorld

strlen(str1) : 10

The String Class in C++:

The standard C++ library provides a string class type that supports all the
operations mentioned above, additionally much more functionality. We will
study this class in C++ Standard Library but for now let us check following
example:

ts
At this point, you may not understand this example because so far we have
Va
not discussed Classes and Objects. So can have a look and proceed until
you have understanding on Object Oriented Concepts.
p
ee

#include <iostream>

#include <string>
rd

using namespace std;

Pa

int main ()

string str1 = "Hello";

string str2 = "World";

string str3;

int len ;

// copy str1 into str3

str3 = str1;

cout << "str3 : " << str3 << endl;

 // concatenates str1 and str2

str3 = str1 + str2;

cout << "str1 + str2 : " << str3 << endl;

// total lenghth of str3 after concatenation

len = str3.size();

cout << "str3.size() : " << len << endl;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces result

something as follows:

ts
str3 : Hello

str1 + str2 : HelloWorld

Va
str3.size() : 10
p
ee

C++ Pointers
rd

C++ pointers are easy and fun to learn. Some C++ tasks are performed
Pa

more easily with pointers, and other C++ tasks, such as dynamic memory
allocation, cannot be performed without them.

As you know every variable is a memory location and every memory

location has its address defined which can be accessed using ampersand (&)
operator which denotes an address in memory. Consider the following which
will print the address of the variables defined:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()

{
 int var1;

char var2[10];

cout << "Address of var1 variable: ";

cout << &var1 << endl;

cout << "Address of var2 variable: ";

cout << &var2 << endl;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces result

ts
something as follows:

Address of var1 variable: 0xbfebd5c0

Va
Address of var2 variable: 0xbfebd5b6
p

What Are Pointers?

ee

A pointer is a variable whose value is the address of another variable. Like

rd

any variable or constant, you must declare a pointer before you can work
with it. The general form of a pointer variable declaration is:
Pa

type *var-name;

Here, type is the pointer's base type; it must be a valid C++ type and var-
name is the name of the pointer variable. The asterisk you used to declare
a pointer is the same asterisk that you use for multiplication. However, in
this statement the asterisk is being used to designate a variable as a
pointer. Following are the valid pointer declaration:

int *ip; // pointer to an integer

double *dp; // pointer to a double

float *fp; // pointer to a float

char *ch // pointer to character

The actual data type of the value of all pointers, whether integer, float,
character, or otherwise, is the same, a long hexadecimal number that
represents a memory address. The only difference between pointers of
different data types is the data type of the variable or constant that the
pointer points to.

Using Pointers in C++:

There are few important operations, which we will do with the pointers very
frequently. (a) we define a pointer variables (b) assign the address of a
variable to a pointer and (c) finally access the value at the address
available in the pointer variable. This is done by using unary operator * that
returns the value of the variable located at the address specified by its
operand. Following example makes use of these operations:

ts
#include <iostream>
Va
using namespace std;
p
ee

int main ()

{
rd

int var = 20; // actual variable declaration.

Pa

int *ip; // pointer variable

ip = &var; // store address of var in pointer variable

cout << "Value of var variable: ";

cout << var << endl;

// print the address stored in ip pointer variable

cout << "Address stored in ip variable: ";

cout << ip << endl;

// access the value at the address available in pointer

cout << "Value of *ip variable: ";

 cout << *ip << endl;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces result

something as follows:

Value of var variable: 20

Address stored in ip variable: 0xbfc601ac

Value of *ip variable: 20

C++ Pointers in Detail:

Pointers have many but easy concepts and they are very important to C++

ts
programming. There are following few important pointer concepts which
should be clear to a C++ programmer: Va
Concept Description
p
ee

C++ Null Pointers C++ supports null pointer, which is a constant

with a value of zero defined in several standard
rd

libraries.
Pa

There are four arithmetic operators that can be

C++ pointer arithmetic
used on pointers: ++, --, +, -

C++ pointers vs arrays There is a close relationship between pointers

and arrays. Let us check how?

C++ array of pointers You can define arrays to hold a number of

pointers.

C++ allows you to have pointer on a pointer and

C++ pointer to pointer
so on.

Passing an argument by reference or by address

Passing pointers to
 both enable the passed argument to be changed
functions
in the calling function by the called function.

C++ allows a function to return a pointer to

Return pointer from
local variable, static variable and dynamically
functions
allocated memory as well.

C++ References
A reference variable is an alias, that is, another name for an already
existing variable. Once a reference is initialized with a variable, either the
variable name or the reference name may be used to refer to the variable.

ts
C++ References vs Pointers:
Va
References are often confused with pointers but three major differences
p
between references and pointers are:
ee

 You cannot have NULL references. You must always be able to assume that a
rd

reference is connected to a legitimate piece of storage.

Pa

 Once a reference is initialized to an object, it cannot be changed to refer to

another object. Pointers can be pointed to another object at any time.

 A reference must be initialized when it is created. Pointers can be initialized at

any time.

Creating References in C++:

Think of a variable name as a label attached to the variable's location in
memory. You can then think of a reference as a second label attached to
that memory location. Therefore, you can access the contents of the
variable through either the original variable name or the reference. For
example, suppose we have the following example:

int i = 17;
We can declare reference variables for i as follows.

int& r = i;

Read the & in these declarations as reference. Thus, read the first
declaration as "r is an integer reference initialized to i" and read the second
declaration as "s is a double reference initialized to d.". Following example
makes use of references on int and double:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()

ts
{

// declare simple variables

int i;
Va
double d;
p
ee

// declare reference variables

rd

int& r = i;

double& s = d;
Pa

i = 5;

cout << "Value of i : " << i << endl;

cout << "Value of i reference : " << r << endl;

d = 11.7;

cout << "Value of d : " << d << endl;

cout << "Value of d reference : " << s << endl;

return 0;

}
When the above code is compiled together and executed, it produces the
following result:

Value of i : 5

Value of i reference : 5

Value of d : 11.7

Value of d reference : 11.7

References are usually used for function argument lists and function return
values. So following are two important subjects related to C++ references
which should be clear to a C++ programmer:

Concept Description

ts
References as parameters C++ supports passing references as function
parameter more safely than parameters.
Va
Reference as return value You can return reference from a C++ function
p
like a any other data type can be returned.
ee
rd

C++ Date and Time

Pa

The C++ standard library does not provide a proper date type. C++ inherits
the structs and functions for date and time manipulation from C. To access
date and time related functions and structures, you would need to include
<ctime> header file in your C++ program.

There are four time-related types: clock_t, time_t, size_t, and tm. The
types clock_t, size_t and time_t are capable of representing the system
time and date as some sort of integer.

The structure type tm holds the date and time in the form of a C structure
having the following elements:

struct tm {

int tm_sec; // seconds of minutes from 0 to 61

 int tm_min; // minutes of hour from 0 to 59

int tm_hour; // hours of day from 0 to 24

int tm_mday; // day of month from 1 to 31

int tm_mon; // month of year from 0 to 11

int tm_year; // year since 1900

int tm_wday; // days since sunday

int tm_yday; // days since January 1st

int tm_isdst; // hours of daylight savings time

Following are the important functions, which we use while working with
date and time in C or C++. All these functions are part of standard C and
C++ library and you can check their detail using reference to C++ standard
library given below.

ts
SN Function & Purpose
Va
p
1 time_t time(time_t *time);
ee

This returns the current calendar time of the system in number of seconds
rd

elapsed since January 1, 1970. If the system has no time, .1 is returned.

Pa

2 char *ctime(const time_t *time);

This returns a pointer to a string of the form day month year

hours:minutes:seconds year\n\0.

3 struct tm *localtime(const time_t *time);

This returns a pointer to the tm structure representing local time.

4 clock_t clock(void);

This returns a value that approximates the amount of time the calling
program has been running. A value of .1 is returned if the time is not
 available.

5 char * asctime ( const struct tm * time );

This returns a pointer to a string that contains the information stored in the
structure pointed to by time converted into the form: day month date
hours:minutes:seconds year\n\0

6 struct tm *gmtime(const time_t *time);

This returns a pointer to the time in the form of a tm structure. The time is
represented in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is essentially
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

ts
7 time_t mktime(struct tm *time);
Va
This returns the calendar-time equivalent of the time found in the structure
pointed to by time.
p
ee

8 double difftime ( time_t time2, time_t time1 );

rd

This function calculates the difference in seconds between time1 and time2.
Pa

9 size_t strftime();

This function can be used to format date and time a specific format.

Current date and time:

Consider you want to retrieve the current system date and time, either as a
local time or as a Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following is the
example to achieve the same:

#include <iostream>

#include <ctime>

using namespace std;

int main( )

// current date/time based on current system

time_t now = time(0);

// convert now to string form

char* dt = ctime(&now);

cout << "The local date and time is: " << dt << endl;

// convert now to tm struct for UTC

tm *gmtm = gmtime(&now);

ts
dt = asctime(gmtm);

cout << "The UTC date and time is:"<< dt << endl;
Va
}
p
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
ee

result:
rd

The local date and time is: Sat Jan 8 20:07:41 2011
Pa

The UTC date and time is:Sun Jan 9 03:07:41 2011

Format time using struct tm:

The tm structure is very important while working with date and time in
either C or C++. This structure holds the date and time in the form of a C
structure as mentioned above. Most of the time related functions makes use
of tm structure. Following is an example which makes use of various date
and time related functions and tm structure:

While using structure in this chapter, I'm making an assumption that you
have basic understanding on C structure and how to access structure
members using arrow -> operator.
#include <iostream>

#include <ctime>

using namespace std;

int main( )

// current date/time based on current system

time_t now = time(0);

cout << "Number of sec since January 1,1970:" << now << endl;

tm *ltm = localtime(&now);

ts
// print various components of tm structure.
Va
cout << "Year: "<< 1900 + ltm->tm_year << endl;
p
cout << "Month: "<< 1 + ltm->tm_mon<< endl;
ee

cout << "Day: "<< ltm->tm_mday << endl;

cout << "Time: "<< 1 + ltm->tm_hour << ":";

rd

cout << 1 + ltm->tm_min << ":";

Pa

cout << 1 + ltm->tm_sec << endl;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Number of sec since January 1, 1970:1294548238

Year: 2011

Month: 1

Day: 8

Time: 22: 44:59

 C++ Basic Input/Output
The C++ standard libraries provide an extensive set of input/output
capabilities which we will see in subsequent chapters. This chapter will
discuss very basic and most common I/O operations required for C++
programming.

C++ I/O occurs in streams, which are sequences of bytes. If bytes flow
from a device like a keyboard, a disk drive, or a network connection etc. to
main memory, this is called input operation and if bytes flow from main
memory to a device like a display screen, a printer, a disk drive, or a
network connection, etc, this is called output operation.

I/O Library Header Files:

ts
There are following header files important to C++ programs:

Header File Function and Description

Va
p
<iostream> This file defines the cin, cout, cerr and clog objects, which
ee

correspond to the standard input stream, the standard output

stream, the un-buffered standard error stream and the buffered
rd

standard error stream, respectively.

Pa

<iomanip> This file declares services useful for performing formatted I/O
with so-called parameterized stream manipulators, such
as setwand setprecision.

<fstream> This file declares services for user-controlled file processing. We

will discuss about it in detail in File and Stream related chapter.

The standard output stream (cout):

The predefined object cout is an instance of ostream class. The cout
object is said to be "connected to" the standard output device, which
usually is the display screen. The cout is used in conjunction with the
stream insertion operator, which is written as << which are two less than
signs as shown in the following example.

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main( )

char str[] = "Hello C++";

cout << "Value of str is : " << str << endl;

ts
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:
Va
Value of str is : Hello C++
p
ee

The C++ compiler also determines the data type of variable to be output
and selects the appropriate stream insertion operator to display the value.
rd

The << operator is overloaded to output data items of built-in types

integer, float, double, strings and pointer values.
Pa

The insertion operator << may be used more than once in a single
statement as shown above and endl is used to add a new-line at the end of
the line.

The standard input stream (cin):

The predefined object cin is an instance of istream class. The cin object is
said to be attached to the standard input device, which usually is the
keyboard. Thecin is used in conjunction with the stream extraction
operator, which is written as >> which are two greater than signs as shown
in the following example.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main( )

char name[50];

cout << "Please enter your name: ";

cin >> name;

cout << "Your name is: " << name << endl;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it will prompt you to enter

ts
a name. You enter a value and then hit enter to see the result something as
follows: Va
Please enter your name: cplusplus
p
Your name is: cplusplus
ee

The C++ compiler also determines the data type of the entered value and
selects the appropriate stream extraction operator to extract the value and
rd

store it in the given variables.

Pa

The stream extraction operator >> may be used more than once in a single
statement. To request more than one datum you can use the following:

cin >> name >> age;

This will be equivalent to the following two statements:

cin >> name;

cin >> age;

The standard error stream (cerr):

The predefined object cerr is an instance of ostream class. The cerr object
is said to be attached to the standard error device, which is also a display
screen but the object cerr is un-buffered and each stream insertion to cerr
causes its output to appear immediately.

The cerr is also used in conjunction with the stream insertion operator as
shown in the following example.

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main( )

char str[] = "Unable to read....";

ts
cerr << "Error message : " << str << endl;

}
Va
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
p
result:
ee

Error message : Unable to read....

rd

The standard log stream (clog):

Pa

The predefined object clog is an instance of ostream class. The clog object
is said to be attached to the standard error device, which is also a display
screen but the object clog is buffered. This means that each insertion to
clog could cause its output to be held in a buffer until the buffer is filled or
until the buffer is flushed.

The clog is also used in conjunction with the stream insertion operator as
shown in the following example.

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main( )

char str[] = "Unable to read....";

clog << "Error message : " << str << endl;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Error message : Unable to read....

You would not be able to see any difference in cout, cerr and clog with
these small examples, but while writing and executing big programs then
difference becomes obvious. So this is good practice to display error

ts
messages using cerr stream and while displaying other log messages then
Va
clog should be used.
p
ee
rd

C++ Data Structures

Pa

C/C++ arrays allow you to define variables that combine several data items
of the same kind but structure is another user defined data type which
allows you to combine data items of different kinds.

Structures are used to represent a record, suppose you want to keep track
of your books in a library. You might want to track the following attributes
about each book:

 Title

 Author

 Subject

 Book ID
Defining a Structure:
To define a structure, you must use the struct statement. The struct
statement defines a new data type, with more than one member, for your
program. The format of the struct statement is this:

struct [structure tag]

member definition;

member definition;

...

member definition;

} [one or more structure variables];

The structure tag is optional and each member definition is a normal

ts
variable definition, such as int i; or float f; or any other valid variable
Va
definition. At the end of the structure's definition, before the final
semicolon, you can specify one or more structure variables but it is
p
optional. Here is the way you would declare the Book structure:
ee

struct Books
rd

char title[50];
Pa

char author[50];

char subject[100];

int book_id;

}book;

Accessing Structure Members:

To access any member of a structure, we use the member access
operator (.). The member access operator is coded as a period between
the structure variable name and the structure member that we wish to
access. You would usestruct keyword to define variables of structure type.
Following is the example to explain usage of structure:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

struct Books

char title[50];

char author[50];

char subject[100];

int book_id;

};

int main( )

ts
{

struct Books Book1;

Va
// Declare Book1 of type Book

struct Books Book2; // Declare Book2 of type Book

p
ee

// book 1 specification

strcpy( Book1.title, "Learn C++ Programming");

rd

strcpy( Book1.author, "Chand Miyan");

Pa

strcpy( Book1.subject, "C++ Programming");

Book1.book_id = 6495407;

// book 2 specification

strcpy( Book2.title, "Telecom Billing");

strcpy( Book2.author, "Yakit Singha");

strcpy( Book2.subject, "Telecom");

Book2.book_id = 6495700;

// Print Book1 info

cout << "Book 1 title : " << Book1.title <<endl;

cout << "Book 1 author : " << Book1.author <<endl;

cout << "Book 1 subject : " << Book1.subject <<endl;

 cout << "Book 1 id : " << Book1.book_id <<endl;

// Print Book2 info

cout << "Book 2 title : " << Book2.title <<endl;

cout << "Book 2 author : " << Book2.author <<endl;

cout << "Book 2 subject : " << Book2.subject <<endl;

cout << "Book 2 id : " << Book2.book_id <<endl;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

ts
Book 1 title : Learn C++ Programming

Book 1 author : Chand Miyan

Va
Book 1 subject : C++ Programming
p
Book 1 id : 6495407
ee

Book 2 title : Telecom Billing

Book 2 author : Yakit Singha

rd

Book 2 subject : Telecom

Pa

Book 2 id : 6495700

Structures as Function Arguments:

You can pass a structure as a function argument in very similar way as you
pass any other variable or pointer. You would access structure variables in
the similar way as you have accessed in the above example:

#include <iostream>

#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

void printBook( struct Books book );

struct Books
{

char title[50];

char author[50];

char subject[100];

int book_id;

};

int main( )

struct Books Book1; // Declare Book1 of type Book

struct Books Book2; // Declare Book2 of type Book

// book 1 specification

ts
strcpy( Book1.title, "Learn C++ Programming");

strcpy( Book1.author, "Chand Miyan");

Va
strcpy( Book1.subject, "C++ Programming");
p
Book1.book_id = 6495407;
ee

// book 2 specification
rd

strcpy( Book2.title, "Telecom Billing");

Pa

strcpy( Book2.author, "Yakit Singha");

strcpy( Book2.subject, "Telecom");

Book2.book_id = 6495700;

// Print Book1 info

printBook( Book1 );

// Print Book2 info

printBook( Book2 );

return 0;

void printBook( struct Books book )

{

cout << "Book title : " << book.title <<endl;

cout << "Book author : " << book.author <<endl;

cout << "Book subject : " << book.subject <<endl;

cout << "Book id : " << book.book_id <<endl;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Book title : Learn C++ Programming

Book author : Chand Miyan

Book subject : C++ Programming

Book id : 6495407

ts
Book title : Telecom Billing

Book author : Yakit Singha

Va
Book subject : Telecom
p
Book id : 6495700
ee

Pointers to Structures:
rd

You can define pointers to structures in very similar way as you define
pointer to any other variable as follows:
Pa

struct Books *struct_pointer;

Now, you can store the address of a structure variable in the above defined
pointer variable. To find the address of a structure variable, place the &
operator before the structure's name as follows:

struct_pointer = &Book1;

To access the members of a structure using a pointer to that structure, you

must use the -> operator as follows:

struct_pointer->title;
Let us re-write above example using structure pointer, hope this will be
easy for you to understand the concept:

#include <iostream>

#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

void printBook( struct Books *book );

struct Books

char title[50];

char author[50];

ts
char subject[100];

};
int book_id; Va
p
int main( )
ee

{
rd

struct Books Book1; // Declare Book1 of type Book

struct Books Book2; // Declare Book2 of type Book

Pa

// Book 1 specification

strcpy( Book1.title, "Learn C++ Programming");

strcpy( Book1.author, "Chand Miyan");

strcpy( Book1.subject, "C++ Programming");

Book1.book_id = 6495407;

// Book 2 specification

strcpy( Book2.title, "Telecom Billing");

strcpy( Book2.author, "Yakit Singha");

strcpy( Book2.subject, "Telecom");

Book2.book_id = 6495700;
 // Print Book1 info, passing address of structure

printBook( &Book1 );

// Print Book1 info, passing address of structure

printBook( &Book2 );

return 0;

// This function accept pointer to structure as parameter.

void printBook( struct Books *book )

cout << "Book title : " << book->title <<endl;

ts
cout << "Book author : " << book->author <<endl;
Va
cout << "Book subject : " << book->subject <<endl;

cout << "Book id : " << book->book_id <<endl;

p
}
ee

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:
rd
Pa

Book title : Learn C++ Programming

Book author : Chand Miyan

Book subject : C++ Programming

Book id : 6495407

Book title : Telecom Billing

Book author : Yakit Singha

Book subject : Telecom

Book id : 6495700

The typedef Keyword

There is an easier way to define structs or you could "alias" types you
create. For example:

typedef struct
{

char title[50];

char author[50];

char subject[100];

int book_id;

}Books;

Now, you can use Books directly to define variables of Books type without
using struct keyword. Following is the example:

Books Book1, Book2;

You can use typedef keyword for non-structs as well as follows:

typedef long int *pint32;

ts
pint32 x, y, z;
Va
x, y and z are all pointers to long ints
p
ee

C++ Classes and Objects

rd

The main purpose of C++ programming is to add object orientation to the C

programming language and classes are the central feature of C++ that
Pa

supports object-oriented programming and are often called user-defined

types.

A class is used to specify the form of an object and it combines data

representation and methods for manipulating that data into one neat
package. The data and functions within a class are called members of the
class.

C++ Class Definitions:

When you define a class, you define a blueprint for a data type. This doesn't
actually define any data, but it does define what the class name means,
that is, what an object of the class will consist of and what operations can
be performed on such an object.
A class definition starts with the keyword class followed by the class name;
and the class body, enclosed by a pair of curly braces. A class definition
must be followed either by a semicolon or a list of declarations. For
example, we defined the Box data type using the keyword class as follows:

class Box

public:

double length; // Length of a box

double breadth; // Breadth of a box

double height; // Height of a box

};

The keyword public determines the access attributes of the members of

ts
the class that follow it. A public member can be accessed from outside the
Va
class anywhere within the scope of the class object. You can also specify
the members of a class as private or protected which we will discuss in a
sub-section.
p
ee

Define C++ Objects:

A class provides the blueprints for objects, so basically an object is created
rd

from a class. We declare objects of a class with exactly the same sort of
Pa

declaration that we declare variables of basic types. Following statements

declare two objects of class Box:

Box Box1; // Declare Box1 of type Box

Box Box2; // Declare Box2 of type Box

Both of the objects Box1 and Box2 will have their own copy of data
members.

Accessing the Data Members:

The public data members of objects of a class can be accessed using the
direct member access operator (.). Let us try the following example to
make the things clear:
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

class Box

public:

double length; // Length of a box

double breadth; // Breadth of a box

double height; // Height of a box

};

int main( )

ts
{

Box Box1; // Declare Box1 of type Box

Va
Box Box2; // Declare Box2 of type Box
p
double volume = 0.0; // Store the volume of a box here
ee

// box 1 specification
rd

Box1.height = 5.0;
Pa

Box1.length = 6.0;

Box1.breadth = 7.0;

// box 2 specification

Box2.height = 10.0;

Box2.length = 12.0;

Box2.breadth = 13.0;

// volume of box 1

volume = Box1.height * Box1.length * Box1.breadth;

cout << "Volume of Box1 : " << volume <<endl;

// volume of box 2

volume = Box2.height * Box2.length * Box2.breadth;

 cout << "Volume of Box2 : " << volume <<endl;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Volume of Box1 : 210

Volume of Box2 : 1560

It is important to note that private and protected members can not be

accessed directly using direct member access operator (.). We will learn
how private and protected members can be accessed.

Classes & Objects in Detail:

ts
So far, you have got very basic idea about C++ Classes and Objects. There
Va
are further interesting concepts related to C++ Classes and Objects which
we will discuss in various sub-sections listed below:
p
ee

Concept Description
rd

A member function of a class is a function that

Class member functions
has its definition or its prototype within the class
Pa

definition like any other variable.

Class access modifiers A class member can be defined as public, private

or protected. By default members would be
assumed as private.

Constructor & destructor A class constructor is a special function in a

class that is called when a new object of the
class is created. A destructor is also a special
function which is called when created object is
deleted.

The copy constructor is a constructor which

C++ copy constructor
creates an object by initializing it with an object
 of the same class, which has been created
previously.

A friend function is permitted full access to

C++ friend functions
private and protected members of a class.

C++ inline functions With an inline function, the compiler tries to

expand the code in the body of the function in
place of a call to the function.

The this pointer in C++ Every object has a special pointer this which
points to the object itself.

Pointer to C++ classes A pointer to a class is done exactly the same

ts
way a pointer to a structure is. In fact a class is
really just a structure with functions in it.
Va
Both data members and function members of a
Static members of a class
class can be declared as static.
p
ee

C++ Inheritance
rd

One of the most important concepts in object-oriented programming is that

Pa

of inheritance. Inheritance allows us to define a class in terms of another

class, which makes it easier to create and maintain an application. This also
provides an opportunity to reuse the code functionality and fast
implementation time.

When creating a class, instead of writing completely new data members and
member functions, the programmer can designate that the new class should
inherit the members of an existing class. This existing class is called
the baseclass, and the new class is referred to as the derived class.

The idea of inheritance implements the is a relationship. For example,

mammal IS-A animal, dog IS-A mammal hence dog IS-A animal as well and
so on.
Base & Derived Classes:
A class can be derived from more than one classes, which means it can
inherit data and functions from multiple base classes. To define a derived
class, we use a class derivation list to specify the base class(es). A class
derivation list names one or more base classes and has the form:

class derived-class: access-specifier base-class

Where access-specifier is one of public, protected, or private, and base-

class is the name of a previously defined class. If the access-specifier is not
used, then it is private by default.

Consider a base class Shape and its derived class Rectangle as follows:

ts
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

Va
p
// Base class
ee

class Shape

{
rd

public:
Pa

void setWidth(int w)

width = w;

void setHeight(int h)

height = h;

protected:

int width;

int height;

};
// Derived class

class Rectangle: public Shape

public:

int getArea()

return (width * height);

};

int main(void)

Rectangle Rect;

ts
Rect.setWidth(5);
Va
Rect.setHeight(7);
p
ee

// Print the area of the object.

cout << "Total area: " << Rect.getArea() << endl;

rd
Pa

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Total area: 35

Access Control and Inheritance:

A derived class can access all the non-private members of its base class.
Thus base-class members that should not be accessible to the member
functions of derived classes should be declared private in the base class.

We can summarize the different access types according to who can access
them in the following way:
Access public protected private

Same class yes yes yes

Derived classes yes yes no

Outside classes yes no no

A derived class inherits all base class methods with the following
exceptions:

 Constructors, destructors and copy constructors of the base class.

ts
 Overloaded operators of the base class.

 The friend functions of the base class.

Va
Type of Inheritance:
p
ee

When deriving a class from a base class, the base class may be inherited
through public, protected or private inheritance. The type of inheritance
rd

is specified by the access-specifier as explained above.

Pa

We hardly use protected or private inheritance, but public inheritance is

commonly used. While using different type of inheritance, following rules
are applied:

 Public Inheritance: When deriving a class from a public base

class,public members of the base class become public members of the derived
class and protected members of the base class becomeprotected members of
the derived class. A base class's privatemembers are never accessible directly
from a derived class, but can be accessed through calls to
the public and protected members of the base class.

 Protected Inheritance: When deriving from a protected base

class,public and protected members of the base class
become protectedmembers of the derived class.
  Private Inheritance: When deriving from a private base
class,public and protected members of the base class
become privatemembers of the derived class.

Multiple Inheritances:
A C++ class can inherit members from more than one class and here is the
extended syntax:

class derived-class: access baseA, access baseB....

Where access is one of public, protected, or private and would be given

for every base class and they will be separated by comma as shown above.
Let us try the following example:

ts
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

Va
p
// Base class Shape
ee

class Shape

{
rd

public:
Pa

void setWidth(int w)

width = w;

void setHeight(int h)

height = h;

protected:

int width;

int height;

};
// Base class PaintCost

class PaintCost

public:

int getCost(int area)

return area * 70;

};

// Derived class

class Rectangle: public Shape, public PaintCost

ts
public:

int getArea()
Va
{
p
return (width * height);
ee

};
rd
Pa

int main(void)

Rectangle Rect;

int area;

Rect.setWidth(5);

Rect.setHeight(7);

area = Rect.getArea();

// Print the area of the object.

cout << "Total area: " << Rect.getArea() << endl;

 // Print the total cost of painting

cout << "Total paint cost: $" << Rect.getCost(area) << endl;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Total area: 35

Total paint cost: $2450

ts
C++ Overloading (Operator and Va
Function)
p
C++ allows you to specify more than one definition for a function name or
ee

anoperator in the same scope, which is called function

overloading andoperator overloading respectively.
rd

An overloaded declaration is a declaration that had been declared with the

Pa

same name as a previously declared declaration in the same scope, except

that both declarations have different arguments and obviously different
definition (implementation).

When you call an overloaded function or operator, the compiler

determines the most appropriate definition to use by comparing the
argument types you used to call the function or operator with the
parameter types specified in the definitions. The process of selecting the
most appropriate overloaded function or operator is called overload
resolution.
Function overloading in C++:
You can have multiple definitions for the same function name in the same
scope. The definition of the function must differ from each other by the
types and/or the number of arguments in the argument list. You can not
overload function declarations that differ only by return type.

Following is the example where same function print() is being used to print
different data types:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

class printData

ts
{

public:

void print(int i) {
Va
cout << "Printing int: " << i << endl;
p
}
ee

void print(double f) {
rd

cout << "Printing float: " << f << endl;

Pa

void print(char* c) {

cout << "Printing character: " << c << endl;

};

int main(void)

printData pd;

// Call print to print integer

pd.print(5);
 // Call print to print float

pd.print(500.263);

// Call print to print character

pd.print("Hello C++");

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Printing int: 5

Printing float: 500.263

Printing character: Hello C++

ts
Operators overloading in C++: Va
You can redefine or overload most of the built-in operators available in
C++. Thus a programmer can use operators with user-defined types as
p

well.
ee

Overloaded operators are functions with special names the keyword

rd

operator followed by the symbol for the operator being defined. Like any
Pa

other function, an overloaded operator has a return type and a parameter

list.

Box operator+(const Box&);

declares the addition operator that can be used to add two Box objects and
returns final Box object. Most overloaded operators may be defined as
ordinary non-member functions or as class member functions. In case we
define above function as non-member function of a class then we would
have to pass two arguments for each operand as follows:

Box operator+(const Box&, const Box&);

Following is the example to show the concept of operator over loading using
a member function. Here an object is passed as an argument whose
properties will be accessed using this object, the object which will call this
operator can be accessed using this operator as explained below:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

class Box

public:

double getVolume(void)

return length * breadth * height;

ts
}

void setLength( double len )

{
Va
length = len;
p
}
ee
rd

void setBreadth( double bre )

{
Pa

breadth = bre;

void setHeight( double hei )

height = hei;

// Overload + operator to add two Box objects.

Box operator+(const Box& b)

Box box;

box.length = this->length + b.length;

 box.breadth = this->breadth + b.breadth;

box.height = this->height + b.height;

return box;

private:

double length; // Length of a box

double breadth; // Breadth of a box

double height; // Height of a box

};

// Main function for the program

int main( )

Box Box1; // Declare Box1 of type Box

ts
Box Box2; // Declare Box2 of type Box

Box Box3;
Va
// Declare Box3 of type Box

double volume = 0.0; // Store the volume of a box here

p
ee

// box 1 specification

Box1.setLength(6.0);
rd

Box1.setBreadth(7.0);
Pa

Box1.setHeight(5.0);

// box 2 specification

Box2.setLength(12.0);

Box2.setBreadth(13.0);

Box2.setHeight(10.0);

// volume of box 1

volume = Box1.getVolume();

cout << "Volume of Box1 : " << volume <<endl;

// volume of box 2

volume = Box2.getVolume();
 cout << "Volume of Box2 : " << volume <<endl;

// Add two object as follows:

Box3 = Box1 + Box2;

// volume of box 3

volume = Box3.getVolume();

cout << "Volume of Box3 : " << volume <<endl;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following

ts
result:

Volume of Box1 : 210

Va
Volume of Box2 : 1560
p
Volume of Box3 : 5400
ee

Overloadable/Non-overloadableOperators:
rd

Following is the list of operators which can be overloaded:

Pa

+ - * / % ^

& | ~ ! , =

< > <= >= ++ --

<< >> == != && ||

+= -= /= %= ^= &=
|= *= <<= >>= [] ()

-> ->* new new [] delete delete []

Following is the list of operators, which can not be overloaded:

:: .* . ?:

Operator Overloading Examples:

Here are various operator overloading examples to help you in
understanding the concept.

S.N. Operators and Example

ts
1
Va
Unary operators overloading
p

2
ee

Binary operators overloading

rd

3
Relational operators overloading
Pa

4
Input/Output operators overloading

5
++ and -- operators overloading

6
Assignment operators overloading

7
Function call () operator overloading

8
Subscripting [] operator overloading
9
Class member access operator -> overloading

ts
Va
Polymorphism in C++
p
ee

The word polymorphism means having many forms. Typically,

polymorphism occurs when there is a hierarchy of classes and they are
rd

related by inheritance.
Pa

C++ polymorphism means that a call to a member function will cause a

different function to be executed depending on the type of object that
invokes the function.

Consider the following example where a base class has been derived by
other two classes:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

class Shape {

protected:

int width, height;

 public:

Shape( int a=0, int b=0)

width = a;

height = b;

int area()

cout << "Parent class area :" <<endl;

return 0;

};

class Rectangle: public Shape{

ts
public:

Rectangle( int a=0, int b=0):Shape(a, b) { }

Va
int area ()
p
{
ee

cout << "Rectangle class area :" <<endl;

return (width * height);

rd

}
Pa

};

class Triangle: public Shape{

public:

Triangle( int a=0, int b=0):Shape(a, b) { }

int area ()

cout << "Triangle class area :" <<endl;

return (width * height / 2);

};

// Main function for the program

int main( )

{
 Shape *shape;

Rectangle rec(10,7);

Triangle tri(10,5);

// store the address of Rectangle

shape = &rec;

// call rectangle area.

shape->area();

// store the address of Triangle

shape = &tri;

// call triangle area.

shape->area();

ts
return 0;
Va
}
p
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
ee

result:
rd

Parent class area

Pa

Parent class area

The reason for the incorrect output is that the call of the function area() is
being set once by the compiler as the version defined in the base class. This
is calledstatic resolution of the function call, or static linkage - the
function call is fixed before the program is executed. This is also sometimes
called early binding because the area() function is set during the
compilation of the program.

But now, let's make a slight modification in our program and precede the
declaration of area() in the Shape class with the keyword virtual so that it
looks like this:

class Shape {

protected:
 int width, height;

public:

Shape( int a=0, int b=0)

width = a;

height = b;

virtual int area()

cout << "Parent class area :" <<endl;

return 0;

};

ts
After this slight modification, when the previous example code is compiled
Va
and executed, it produces the following result:
p
Rectangle class area
ee

Triangle class area

This time, the compiler looks at the contents of the pointer instead of it's
rd

type. Hence, since addresses of objects of tri and rec classes are stored in
Pa

*shape the respective area() function is called.

As you can see, each of the child classes has a separate implementation for
the function area(). This is how polymorphism is generally used. You have
different classes with a function of the same name, and even the same
parameters, but with different implementations.

Virtual Function:
A virtual function is a function in a base class that is declared using the
keyword virtual. Defining in a base class a virtual function, with another
version in a derived class, signals to the compiler that we don't want static
linkage for this function.
What we do want is the selection of the function to be called at any given
point in the program to be based on the kind of object for which it is called.
This sort of operation is referred to as dynamic linkage, or late binding.

Pure Virtual Functions:

It's possible that you'd want to include a virtual function in a base class so
that it may be redefined in a derived class to suit the objects of that class,
but that there is no meaningful definition you could give for the function in
the base class.

We can change the virtual function area() in the base class to the following:

class Shape {

protected:

ts
int width, height;

public: Va
Shape( int a=0, int b=0)

{
p
ee

width = a;

height = b;
rd

// pure virtual function

Pa

virtual int area() = 0;

};

The = 0 tells the compiler that the function has no body and above virtual
function will be called pure virtual function.

Data Abstraction in C++

Data abstraction refers to, providing only essential information to the
outside world and hiding their background details, i.e., to represent the
needed information in program without presenting the details.

Data abstraction is a programming (and design) technique that relies on the

separation of interface and implementation.
Let's take one real life example of a TV, which you can turn on and off,
change the channel, adjust the volume, and add external components such
as speakers, VCRs, and DVD players, BUT you do not know its internal
details, that is, you do not know how it receives signals over the air or
through a cable, how it translates them, and finally displays them on the
screen.

Thus, we can say a television clearly separates its internal implementation

from its external interface and you can play with its interfaces like the
power button, channel changer, and volume control without having zero
knowledge of its internals.

Now, if we talk in terms of C++ Programming, C++ classes provides great

level of data abstraction. They provide sufficient public methods to the
outside world to play with the functionality of the object and to manipulate

ts
object data, i.e., state without actually knowing how class has been
Va
implemented internally.

For example, your program can make a call to the sort() function without
p

knowing what algorithm the function actually uses to sort the given values.
ee

In fact, the underlying implementation of the sorting functionality could

rd

change between releases of the library, and as long as the interface stays
the same, your function call will still work.
Pa

In C++, we use classes to define our own abstract data types (ADT). You
can use the cout object of class ostream to stream data to standard
output like this:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main( )

cout << "Hello C++" <<endl;

return 0;

}
Here, you don't need to understand how cout displays the text on the
user's screen. You need to only know the public interface and the
underlying implementation of cout is free to change.

Access Labels Enforce Abstraction:

In C++, we use access labels to define the abstract interface to the class. A
class may contain zero or more access labels:

 Members defined with a public label are accessible to all parts of the program.
The data-abstraction view of a type is defined by its public members.

 Members defined with a private label are not accessible to code that uses the
class. The private sections hide the implementation from code that uses the
type.

ts
There are no restrictions on how often an access label may appear. Each
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access label specifies the access level of the succeeding member definitions.
The specified access level remains in effect until the next access label is
p
encountered or the closing right brace of the class body is seen.
ee

Benefits of Data Abstraction:

rd

Data abstraction provides two important advantages:

Pa

 Class internals are protected from inadvertent user-level errors, which might
corrupt the state of the object.

 The class implementation may evolve over time in response to changing

requirements or bug reports without requiring change in user-level code.

By defining data members only in the private section of the class, the class
author is free to make changes in the data. If the implementation changes,
only the class code needs to be examined to see what affect the change
may have. If data are public, then any function that directly accesses the
data members of the old representation might be broken.
Data Abstraction Example:
Any C++ program where you implement a class with public and private
members is an example of data abstraction. Consider the following
example:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

class Adder{

public:

// constructor

Adder(int i = 0)

ts
total = i;

}
Va
// interface to outside world
p
void addNum(int number)
ee

total += number;
rd

}
Pa

// interface to outside world

int getTotal()

return total;

};

private:

// hidden data from outside world

int total;

};

int main( )

Adder a;
 a.addNum(10);

a.addNum(20);

a.addNum(30);

cout << "Total " << a.getTotal() <<endl;

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Total 60

Above class adds numbers together, and returns the sum. The public

ts
membersaddNum and getTotal are the interfaces to the outside world and
a user needs to know them to use the class. The private member total is
Va
something that the user doesn't need to know about, but is needed for the
class to operate properly.
p

Designing Strategy:
ee

Abstraction separates code into interface and implementation. So while

rd

designing your component, you must keep interface independent of the

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implementation so that if you change underlying implementation then

interface would remain intact.

In this case whatever programs are using these interfaces, they would not
be impacted and would just need a recompilation with the latest
implementation.

Data Encapsulation in C++

All C++ programs are composed of the following two fundamental
elements:
  Program statements (code): This is the part of a program that performs
actions and they are called functions.

 Program data: The data is the information of the program which affected by
the program functions.

Encapsulation is an Object Oriented Programming concept that binds

together the data and functions that manipulate the data, and that keeps
both safe from outside interference and misuse. Data encapsulation led to
the important OOP concept of data hiding.

Data encapsulation is a mechanism of bundling the data, and the

functions that use them and data abstraction is a mechanism of exposing
only the interfaces and hiding the implementation details from the user.

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C++ supports the properties of encapsulation and data hiding through the
Va
creation of user-defined types, called classes. We already have studied
that a class can contain private, protected and public members. By
default, all items defined in a class are private. For example:
p
ee

class Box

{
rd

public:
Pa

double getVolume(void)

return length * breadth * height;

private:

double length; // Length of a box

double breadth; // Breadth of a box

double height; // Height of a box

};

The variables length, breadth, and height are private. This means that they
can be accessed only by other members of the Box class, and not by any
other part of your program. This is one way encapsulation is achieved.
To make parts of a class public (i.e., accessible to other parts of your
program), you must declare them after the public keyword. All variables or
functions defined after the public specifier are accessible by all other
functions in your program.

Making one class a friend of another exposes the implementation details

and reduces encapsulation. The ideal is to keep as many of the details of
each class hidden from all other classes as possible.

Data Encapsulation Example:

Any C++ program where you implement a class with public and private
members is an example of data encapsulation and data abstraction.
Consider the following example:

ts
#include <iostream>

using namespace std; Va

class Adder{
p
public:
ee

// constructor
rd

Adder(int i = 0)

{
Pa

total = i;

// interface to outside world

void addNum(int number)

total += number;

// interface to outside world

int getTotal()

return total;

};
 private:

// hidden data from outside world

int total;

};

int main( )

Adder a;

a.addNum(10);

a.addNum(20);

a.addNum(30);

cout << "Total " << a.getTotal() <<endl;

ts
return 0;

}
Va
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
p
result:
ee

Total 60
rd

Above class adds numbers together, and returns the sum. The public
Pa

membersaddNum and getTotal are the interfaces to the outside world and
a user needs to know them to use the class. The private member total is
something that is hidden from the outside world, but is needed for the class
to operate properly.

Designing Strategy:
Most of us have learned through bitter experience to make class members
private by default unless we really need to expose them. That's just
goodencapsulation.

This wisdom is applied most frequently to data members, but it applies

equally to all members, including virtual functions.
 Interfaces in C++ (Abstract Classes)
An interface describes the behavior or capabilities of a C++ class without
committing to a particular implementation of that class.

The C++ interfaces are implemented using abstract classes and these
abstract classes should not be confused with data abstraction which is a
concept of keeping implementation details separate from associated data.

A class is made abstract by declaring at least one of its functions as pure

virtual function. A pure virtual function is specified by placing "= 0" in its
declaration as follows:

class Box

ts
public:

// pure virtual function

Va
virtual double getVolume() = 0;
p
private:
ee

double length; // Length of a box

double breadth; // Breadth of a box

rd

double height; // Height of a box

Pa

};

The purpose of an abstract class (often referred to as an ABC) is to

provide an appropriate base class from which other classes can inherit.
Abstract classes cannot be used to instantiate objects and serves only as
an interface. Attempting to instantiate an object of an abstract class
causes a compilation error.

Thus, if a subclass of an ABC needs to be instantiated, it has to implement

each of the virtual functions, which means that it supports the interface
declared by the ABC. Failure to override a pure virtual function in a derived
class, then attempting to instantiate objects of that class, is a compilation
error.
Classes that can be used to instantiate objects are called concrete
classes.

Abstract Class Example:

Consider the following example where parent class provides an interface to
the base class to implement a function called getArea():

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

// Base class

class Shape

ts
{

public: Va
// pure virtual function providing interface framework.

virtual int getArea() = 0;

p
void setWidth(int w)
ee

{
rd

width = w;

}
Pa

void setHeight(int h)

height = h;

protected:

int width;

int height;

};

// Derived classes

class Rectangle: public Shape

public:
 int getArea()

return (width * height);

};

class Triangle: public Shape

public:

int getArea()

return (width * height)/2;

};

ts
int main(void)
Va
{
p
Rectangle Rect;
ee

Triangle Tri;
rd

Rect.setWidth(5);
Pa

Rect.setHeight(7);

// Print the area of the object.

cout << "Total Rectangle area: " << Rect.getArea() << endl;

Tri.setWidth(5);

Tri.setHeight(7);

// Print the area of the object.

cout << "Total Triangle area: " << Tri.getArea() << endl;

return 0;

}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

Total Rectangle area: 35

Total Triangle area: 17

You can see how an abstract class defined an interface in terms of

getArea() and two other classes implemented same function but with
different algorithm to calculate the area specific to the shape.

Designing Strategy:
An object-oriented system might use an abstract base class to provide a
common and standardized interface appropriate for all the external
applications. Then, through inheritance from that abstract base class,

ts
derived classes are formed that all operate similarly.
Va
The capabilities (i.e., the public functions) offered by the external
applications are provided as pure virtual functions in the abstract base
p
class. The implementations of these pure virtual functions are provided in
ee

the derived classes that correspond to the specific types of the application.

This architecture also allows new applications to be added to a system

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easily, even after the system has been defined.

Pa

C++ Files and Streams

So far, we have been using the iostream standard library, which
provides cinand cout methods for reading from standard input and writing
to standard output respectively.

This tutorial will teach you how to read and write from a file. This requires
another standard C++ library called fstream, which defines three new data
types:
Data Type Description

ofstream This data type represents the output file stream and is
used to create files and to write information to files.

ifstream This data type represents the input file stream and is
used to read information from files.

fstream This data type represents the file stream generally, and
has the capabilities of both ofstream and ifstream which
means it can create files, write information to files, and
read information from files.

ts
To perform file processing in C++, header files <iostream> and <fstream>
must be included in your C++ source file. Va
Opening a File:
p
A file must be opened before you can read from it or write to it. Either
ee

theofstream or fstream object may be used to open a file for writing and
ifstream object is used to open a file for reading purpose only.
rd

Following is the standard syntax for open() function, which is a member of

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fstream, ifstream, and ofstream objects.

void open(const char *filename, ios::openmode mode);

Here, the first argument specifies the name and location of the file to be
opened and the second argument of the open() member function defines
the mode in which the file should be opened.

Mode Flag Description

ios::app Append mode. All output to that file to be appended to

the end.
ios::ate Open a file for output and move the read/write control to
the end of the file.

ios::in Open a file for reading.

ios::out Open a file for writing.

ios::trunc If the file already exists, its contents will be truncated

before opening the file.

You can combine two or more of these values by ORing them together. For
example if you want to open a file in write mode and want to truncate it in
case it already exists, following will be the syntax:

ts
ofstream outfile; Va
outfile.open("file.dat", ios::out | ios::trunc );
p
Similar way, you can open a file for reading and writing purpose as follows:
ee

fstream afile;
rd

afile.open("file.dat", ios::out | ios::in );

Pa

Closing a File
When a C++ program terminates it automatically closes flushes all the
streams, release all the allocated memory and close all the opened files. But
it is always a good practice that a programmer should close all the opened
files before program termination.

Following is the standard syntax for close() function, which is a member of

fstream, ifstream, and ofstream objects.

void close();

Writing to a File:
While doing C++ programming, you write information to a file from your
program using the stream insertion operator (<<) just as you use that
operator to output information to the screen. The only difference is that you
use anofstream or fstream object instead of the cout object.

Reading from a File:

You read information from a file into your program using the stream
extraction operator (>>) just as you use that operator to input information
from the keyboard. The only difference is that you use
an ifstream or fstream object instead of the cin object.

Read & Write Example:

Following is the C++ program which opens a file in reading and writing
mode. After writing information inputted by the user to a file named
afile.dat, the program reads information from the file and outputs it onto

ts
the screen:

#include <fstream>
Va
#include <iostream>
p
using namespace std;
ee

int main ()
rd

{
Pa

char data[100];

// open a file in write mode.

ofstream outfile;

outfile.open("afile.dat");

cout << "Writing to the file" << endl;

cout << "Enter your name: ";

cin.getline(data, 100);

// write inputted data into the file.

outfile << data << endl;

 cout << "Enter your age: ";

cin >> data;

cin.ignore();

// again write inputted data into the file.

outfile << data << endl;

// close the opened file.

outfile.close();

// open a file in read mode.

ifstream infile;

ts
infile.open("afile.dat");
Va
cout << "Reading from the file" << endl;
p
infile >> data;
ee

// write the data at the screen.

rd

cout << data << endl;

Pa

// again read the data from the file and display it.

infile >> data;

cout << data << endl;

// close the opened file.

infile.close();

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
sample input and output:
$./a.out

Writing to the file

Enter your name: Zara

Enter your age: 9

Reading from the file

Zara

Above examples make use of additional functions from cin object, like
getline() function to read the line from outside and ignore() function to
ignore the extra characters left by previous read statement.

File Position Pointers:

Both istream and ostream provide member functions for repositioning the

ts
file-position pointer. These member functions are seekg ("seek get") for
Va
istream and seekp ("seek put") for ostream.

The argument to seekg and seekp normally is a long integer. A second

p

argument can be specified to indicate the seek direction. The seek direction
ee

can be ios::beg (the default) for positioning relative to the beginning of a

stream,ios::cur for positioning relative to the current position in a stream
rd

or ios::endfor positioning relative to the end of a stream.

Pa

The file-position pointer is an integer value that specifies the location in the
file as a number of bytes from the file's starting location. Some examples of
positioning the "get" file-position pointer are:

// position to the nth byte of fileObject (assumes ios::beg)

fileObject.seekg( n );

// position n bytes forward in fileObject

fileObject.seekg( n, ios::cur );

// position n bytes back from end of fileObject

fileObject.seekg( n, ios::end );
// position at end of fileObject

fileObject.seekg( 0, ios::end );

ts
Va
C++ Exception Handling
p
ee

An exception is a problem that arises during the execution of a program. A

C++ exception is a response to an exceptional circumstance that arises
rd

while a program is running, such as an attempt to divide by zero.

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Exceptions provide a way to transfer control from one part of a program to

another. C++ exception handling is built upon three keywords: try,
catch, andthrow.

 throw: A program throws an exception when a problem shows up. This is done
using a throw keyword.

 catch: A program catches an exception with an exception handler at the place

in a program where you want to handle the problem. Thecatch keyword
indicates the catching of an exception.

 try: A try block identifies a block of code for which particular exceptions will be
activated. It's followed by one or more catch blocks.
Assuming a block will raise an exception, a method catches an exception
using a combination of the try and catch keywords. A try/catch block is
placed around the code that might generate an exception. Code within a
try/catch block is referred to as protected code, and the syntax for using
try/catch looks like the following:

try

// protected code

}catch( ExceptionName e1 )

// catch block

}catch( ExceptionName e2 )

ts
{

// catch block Va
}catch( ExceptionName eN )

{
p
// catch block
ee

}
rd

You can list down multiple catch statements to catch different type of
exceptions in case your try block raises more than one exception in
Pa

different situations.

Throwing Exceptions:
Exceptions can be thrown anywhere within a code block
using throwstatements. The operand of the throw statements determines a
type for the exception and can be any expression and the type of the result
of the expression determines the type of exception thrown.

Following is an example of throwing an exception when dividing by zero

condition occurs:

double division(int a, int b)

if( b == 0 )
 {

throw "Division by zero condition!";

return (a/b);

Catching Exceptions:
The catch block following the try block catches any exception. You can
specify what type of exception you want to catch and this is determined by
the exception declaration that appears in parentheses following the keyword
catch.

try

ts
{

// protected code

}catch( ExceptionName e )
Va
{
p
// code to handle ExceptionName exception
ee

}
rd

Above code will catch an exception of ExceptionName type. If you want to

specify that a catch block should handle any type of exception that is
Pa

thrown in a try block, you must put an ellipsis, ..., between the parentheses
enclosing the exception declaration as follows:

try

// protected code

}catch(...)

// code to handle any exception

The following is an example, which throws a division by zero exception and

we catch it in catch block.
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

double division(int a, int b)

if( b == 0 )

throw "Division by zero condition!";

return (a/b);

int main ()

ts
{

int x = 50;
Va
int y = 0;
p
double z = 0;
ee

try {
rd

z = division(x, y);
Pa

cout << z << endl;

}catch (const char* msg) {

cerr << msg << endl;

return 0;

Because we are raising an exception of type const char*, so while catching

this exception, we have to use const char* in catch block. If we compile and
run above code, this would produce the following result:

Division by zero condition!

C++ Standard Exceptions:
C++ provides a list of standard exceptions defined in <exception> which
we can use in our programs. These are arranged in a parent-child class
hierarchy shown below:

ts
Va
p
ee
rd
Pa

Here is the small description of each exception mentioned in the above

hierarchy:

Exception Description

std::exception An exception and parent class of all the standard C++

exceptions.
std::bad_alloc This can be thrown by new.

std::bad_cast This can be thrown by dynamic_cast.

std::bad_exception This is useful device to handle unexpected exceptions in a

C++ program

std::bad_typeid This can be thrown by typeid.

std::logic_error An exception that theoretically can be detected by reading

the code.

ts
std::domain_error This is an exception thrown when a mathematically invalid
domain is used Va
std::invalid_argument This is thrown due to invalid arguments.
p
ee

std::length_error This is thrown when a too big std::string is created

rd

std::out_of_range This can be thrown by the at method from for example a

Pa

std::vector and std::bitset<>::operator[]().

std::runtime_error An exception that theoretically can not be detected by

reading the code.

std::overflow_error This is thrown if a mathematical overflow occurs.

std::range_error This is occured when you try to store a value which is out
of range.

std::underflow_error This is thrown if a mathematical underflow occurs.

Define New Exceptions:
You can define your own exceptions by inheriting and
overriding exceptionclass functionality. Following is the example, which
shows how you can use std::exception class to implement your own
exception in standard way:

#include <iostream>

#include <exception>

using namespace std;

struct MyException : public exception

const char * what () const throw ()

ts
{

return "C++ Exception";

Va
}
p
};
ee

int main()
rd

{
Pa

try

throw MyException();

catch(MyException& e)

std::cout << "MyException caught" << std::endl;

std::cout << e.what() << std::endl;

catch(std::exception& e)

//Other errors

}
}

This would produce the following result:

MyException caught

C++ Exception

Here, what() is a public method provided by exception class and it has

been overridden by all the child exception classes. This returns the cause of
an exception.

C++ Dynamic Memory

A good understanding of how dynamic memory really works in C++ is

ts
essential to becoming a good C++ programmer. Memory in your C++
program is divided into two parts: Va
 The stack: All variables declared inside the function will take up memory from
p
the stack.
ee

 The heap: This is unused memory of the program and can be used to allocate
rd

the memory dynamically when program runs.

Pa

Many times, you are not aware in advance how much memory you will need
to store particular information in a defined variable and the size of required
memory can be determined at run time.

You can allocate memory at run time within the heap for the variable of a
given type using a special operator in C++ which returns the address of the
space allocated. This operator is called new operator.

If you are not in need of dynamically allocated memory anymore, you can
usedelete operator, which de-allocates memory previously allocated by
new operator.
The new and delete operators:
There is following generic syntax to use new operator to allocate memory
dynamically for any data-type.

new data-type;

Here, data-type could be any built-in data type including an array or any
user defined data types include class or structure. Let us start with built-in
data types. For example we can define a pointer to type double and then
request that the memory be allocated at execution time. We can do this
using the newoperator with the following statements:

double* pvalue = NULL; // Pointer initialized with null

pvalue = new double; // Request memory for the variable

ts
The memory may not have been allocated successfully, if the free store had
Va
been used up. So it is good practice to check if new operator is returning
NULL pointer and take appropriate action as below:
p
double* pvalue = NULL;
ee

if( !(pvalue = new double ))

rd

cout << "Error: out of memory." <<endl;

Pa

exit(1);

The malloc() function from C, still exists in C++, but it is recommended to

avoid using malloc() function. The main advantage of new over malloc() is
that new doesn't just allocate memory, it constructs objects which is prime
purpose of C++.

At any point, when you feel a variable that has been dynamically allocated
is not anymore required, you can free up the memory that it occupies in the
free store with the delete operator as follows:

delete pvalue; // Release memory pointed to by pvalue

Let us put above concepts and form the following example to show how new
and delete work:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()

double* pvalue = NULL; // Pointer initialized with null

pvalue = new double; // Request memory for the variable

*pvalue = 29494.99; // Store value at allocated address

cout << "Value of pvalue : " << *pvalue << endl;

ts
delete pvalue; // free up the memory. Va
return 0;
p
}
ee

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:
rd

Value of pvalue : 29495

Pa

Dynamic Memory Allocation for Arrays:

Consider you want to allocate memory for an array of characters, i.e., string
of 20 characters. Using the same syntax what we have used above we can
allocate memory dynamically as shown below.

char* pvalue = NULL; // Pointer initialized with null

pvalue = new char[20]; // Request memory for the variable

To remove the array that we have just created the statement would look
like this:

delete [] pvalue; // Delete array pointed to by pvalue

Following the similar generic syntax of new operator, you can allocat for a
multi-dimensional array as follows:

double** pvalue = NULL; // Pointer initialized with null

pvalue = new double [3][4]; // Allocate memory for a 3x4 array

However, the syntax to release the memory for multi-dimensional array will
still remain same as above:

delete [] pvalue; // Delete array pointed to by pvalue

Dynamic Memory Allocation for Objects:

Objects are no different from simple data types. For example, consider the
following code where we are going to use an array of objects to clarify the
concept:

ts
#include <iostream> Va
using namespace std;
p
ee

class Box

{
rd

public:
Pa

Box() {

cout << "Constructor called!" <<endl;

~Box() {

cout << "Destructor called!" <<endl;

};

int main( )

Box* myBoxArray = new Box[4];

delete [] myBoxArray; // Delete array

 return 0;

If you were to allocate an array of four Box objects, the Simple constructor
would be called four times and similarly while deleting these objects,
destructor will also be called same number of times.

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

Constructor called!

Constructor called!

Constructor called!

Constructor called!

ts
Destructor called!

Destructor called!

Destructor called!
Va
Destructor called!
p
ee

Namespaces in C++
rd

Consider a situation, when we have two persons with the same name, Zara,
Pa

in the same class. Whenever we need to differentiate them definitely we

would have to use some additional information along with their name, like
either the area if they live in different area or their mother or father name,
etc.

Same situation can arise in your C++ applications. For example, you might
be writing some code that has a function called xyz() and there is another
library available which is also having same function xyz(). Now the compiler
has no way of knowing which version of xyz() function you are referring to
within your code.

A namespace is designed to overcome this difficulty and is used as

additional information to differentiate similar functions, classes, variables
etc. with the same name available in different libraries. Using namespace,
you can define the context in which names are defined. In essence, a
namespace defines a scope.

Defining a Namespace:
A namespace definition begins with the keyword namespace followed by
the namespace name as follows:

namespace namespace_name {

// code declarations

To call the namespace-enabled version of either function or variable,

prepend the namespace name as follows:

ts
name::code; // code could be variable or function.

Va
Let us see how namespace scope the entities including variable and
functions:
p
#include <iostream>
ee

using namespace std;

rd

// first name space

Pa

namespace first_space{

void func(){

cout << "Inside first_space" << endl;

// second name space

namespace second_space{

void func(){

cout << "Inside second_space" << endl;

int main ()

{
 // Calls function from first name space.

first_space::func();

// Calls function from second name space.

second_space::func();

return 0;

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

Inside first_space

Inside second_space

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The using directive: Va
You can also avoid prepending of namespaces with the using
namespacedirective. This directive tells the compiler that the subsequent
p
ee

code is making use of names in the specified namespace. The namespace is

thus implied for the following code:
rd

#include <iostream>
Pa

using namespace std;

// first name space

namespace first_space{

void func(){

cout << "Inside first_space" << endl;

// second name space

namespace second_space{

void func(){

cout << "Inside second_space" << endl;

}
}

using namespace first_space;

int main ()

// This calls function from first name space.

func();

return 0;

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

Inside first_space

ts
The using directive can also be used to refer to a particular item within a
Va
namespace. For example, if the only part of the std namespace that you
intend to use is cout, you can refer to it as follows:
p
ee

using std::cout;

Subsequent code can refer to cout without prepending the namespace, but
rd

other items in the std namespace will still need to be explicit as follows:
Pa

#include <iostream>

using std::cout;

int main ()

cout << "std::endl is used with std!" << std::endl;

return 0;

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:
std::endl is used with std!

Names introduced in a using directive obey normal scope rules. The name
is visible from the point of the using directive to the end of the scope in
which the directive is found. Entities with the same name defined in an
outer scope are hidden.

Discontiguous Namespaces:
A namespace can be defined in several parts and so a namespace is made
up of the sum of its separately defined parts. The separate parts of a
namespace can be spread over multiple files.

So, if one part of the namespace requires a name defined in another file,
that name must still be declared. Writing a following namespace definition

ts
either defines a new namespace or adds new elements to an existing one:

namespace namespace_name {
Va
// code declarations
p
}
ee

Nested Namespaces:
rd

Namespaces can be nested where you can define one namespace inside
another name space as follows:
Pa

namespace namespace_name1 {

// code declarations

namespace namespace_name2 {

// code declarations

You can access members of nested namespace by using resultion operators

as follows:

// to access members of namespace_name2

using namespace namespace_name1::namespace_name2;

// to access members of namespace:name1

using namespace namespace_name1;

In the above statements if you are using namespace_name1, then it will

make elements of namespace_name2 available in the scope as follows:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

// first name space

namespace first_space{

void func(){

cout << "Inside first_space" << endl;

ts
// second name space

namespace second_space{
Va
void func(){
p
cout << "Inside second_space" << endl;
ee

}
rd

}
Pa

using namespace first_space::second_space;

int main ()

// This calls function from second name space.

func();

return 0;

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

Inside second_space
 C++ Templates
Templates are the foundation of generic programming, which involves
writing code in a way that is independent of any particular type.

A template is a blueprint or formula for creating a generic class or a

function. The library containers like iterators and algorithms are examples
of generic programming and have been developed using template concept.

There is a single definition of each container, such as vector, but we can

define many different kinds of vectors for example, vector <int> or vector
<string>.

You can use templates to define functions as well as classes, let us see how
do they work:

ts
Function Template: Va
The general form of a template function definition is shown here:
p
template <class type> ret-type func-name(parameter list)
ee

{
rd

// body of function

}
Pa

Here, type is a placeholder name for a data type used by the function. This
name can be used within the function definition.

The following is the example of a function template that returns the

maximum of two values:

#include <iostream>

#include <string>

using namespace std;

template <typename T>

inline T const& Max (T const& a, T const& b)

{

return a < b ? b:a;

int main ()

int i = 39;

int j = 20;

cout << "Max(i, j): " << Max(i, j) << endl;

double f1 = 13.5;

double f2 = 20.7;

cout << "Max(f1, f2): " << Max(f1, f2) << endl;

ts
string s1 = "Hello";
Va
string s2 = "World";
p
cout << "Max(s1, s2): " << Max(s1, s2) << endl;
ee

return 0;
rd

}
Pa

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

Max(i, j): 39

Max(f1, f2): 20.7

Max(s1, s2): World

Class Template:
Just as we can define function templates, we can also define class
templates. The general form of a generic class declaration is shown here:

template <class type> class class-name {

.
.

Here, type is the placeholder type name, which will be specified when a
class is instantiated. You can define more than one generic data type by
using a comma-separated list.

Following is the example to define class Stack<> and implement generic

methods to push and pop the elements from the stack:

#include <iostream>

#include <vector>

#include <cstdlib>

#include <string>

ts
#include <stdexcept>

using namespace std;

Va
p
template <class T>
ee

class Stack {
rd

private:

vector<T> elems; // elements

Pa

public:

void push(T const&); // push element

void pop(); // pop element

T top() const; // return top element

bool empty() const{ // return true if empty.

return elems.empty();

};

template <class T>

void Stack<T>::push (T const& elem)

{
 // append copy of passed element

elems.push_back(elem);

template <class T>

void Stack<T>::pop ()

if (elems.empty()) {

throw out_of_range("Stack<>::pop(): empty stack");

// remove last element

elems.pop_back();

ts
template <class T>
Va
T Stack<T>::top () const
p
{
ee

if (elems.empty()) {

throw out_of_range("Stack<>::top(): empty stack");

rd

}
Pa

// return copy of last element

return elems.back();

int main()

try {

Stack<int> intStack; // stack of ints

Stack<string> stringStack; // stack of strings

// manipulate int stack

intStack.push(7);

cout << intStack.top() <<endl;

 // manipulate string stack

stringStack.push("hello");

cout << stringStack.top() << std::endl;

stringStack.pop();

stringStack.pop();

catch (exception const& ex) {

cerr << "Exception: " << ex.what() <<endl;

return -1;

ts
If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

7
Va
hello
p
Exception: Stack<>::pop(): empty stack
ee
rd
Pa

C++ Preprocessor
The preprocessors are the directives, which give instruction to the compiler
to preprocess the information before actual compilation starts.

All preprocessor directives begin with #, and only white-space characters

may appear before a preprocessor directive on a line. Preprocessor
directives are not C++ statements, so they do not end in a semicolon (;).

You already have seen a #include directive in all the examples. This macro
is used to include a header file into the source file.

There are number of preprocessor directives supported by C++ like

#include, #define, #if, #else, #line, etc. Let us see important directives:
The #define Preprocessor:
The #define preprocessor directive creates symbolic constants. The
symbolic constant is called a macro and the general form of the directive
is:

#define macro-name replacement-text

When this line appears in a file, all subsequent occurrences of macro in that
file will be replaced by replacement-text before the program is compiled.
For example:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

ts
#define PI 3.14159
Va
int main ()
p
{
ee

cout << "Value of PI :" << PI << endl;

rd
Pa

return 0;

Now, let us do the preprocessing of this code to see the result, assume we
have source code file, so let us compile it with -E option and redirect the
result to test.p. Now, if you will check test.p, it will have lots of information
and at the bottom, you will fine the value replaced as follows:

$gcc -E test.cpp > test.p

...

int main ()

{
 cout << "Value of PI :" << 3.14159 << endl;

return 0;

Function-Like Macros:
You can use #define to define a macro which will take argument as follows:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

#define MIN(a,b) (((a)<(b)) ? a : b)

ts
int main ()

int i, j;
Va
i = 100;
p
j = 30;
ee

cout <<"The minimum is " << MIN(i, j) << endl;

rd

return 0;
Pa

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

The minimum is 30

Conditional Compilation:
There are several directives, which can use to compile selectively portions
of your program's source code. This process is called conditional
compilation.

The conditional preprocessor construct is much like the if selection

structure. Consider the following preprocessor code:

#ifndef NULL
 #define NULL 0

#endif

You can compile a program for debugging purpose and can debugging turn
on or off using a single macro as follows:

#ifdef DEBUG

cerr <<"Variable x = " << x << endl;

#endif

causes the cerr statement to be compiled in the program if the symbolic

constant DEBUG has been defined before directive #ifdef DEBUG. You can
use #if 0 statment to comment out a portion of the program as follows:

#if 0

ts
code prevented from compiling

#endif
Va
Let us try the following example:
p
ee

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

rd

#define DEBUG
Pa

#define MIN(a,b) (((a)<(b)) ? a : b)

int main ()

int i, j;

i = 100;

j = 30;

#ifdef DEBUG

cerr <<"Trace: Inside main function" << endl;

#endif

#if 0
 /* This is commented part */

cout << MKSTR(HELLO C++) << endl;

#endif

cout <<"The minimum is " << MIN(i, j) << endl;

#ifdef DEBUG

cerr <<"Trace: Coming out of main function" << endl;

#endif

return 0;

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

ts
Trace: Inside main function

The minimum is 30
Va
Trace: Coming out of main function
p

The # and ## Operators:

ee

The # and ## preprocessor operators are available in C++ and ANSI/ISO

rd

C. The # operator causes a replacement-text token to be converted to a

string surrounded by quotes.
Pa

Consider the following macro definition:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

#define MKSTR( x ) #x

int main ()

cout << MKSTR(HELLO C++) << endl;

return 0;
}

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

HELLO C++

Let us see how it worked. It is simple to understand that the C++

preprocessor turns the line:

cout << MKSTR(HELLO C++) << endl;

into the following line:

cout << "HELLO C++" << endl;

The ## operator is used to concatenate two tokens. Here is an example:

ts
#define CONCAT( x, y ) x ## y
Va
When CONCAT appears in the program, its arguments are concatenated and
used to replace the macro. For example, CONCAT(HELLO, C++) is replaced
p
by "HELLO C++" in the program as follows.
ee

#include <iostream>
rd

using namespace std;

Pa

#define concat(a, b) a ## b

int main()

int xy = 100;

cout << concat(x, y);

return 0;

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

100
Let us see how it worked. It is simple to understand that the C++
preprocessor transforms:

cout << concat(x, y);

into the following line:

cout << xy;

Predefined C++ Macros:

C++ provides a number of predefined macros mentioned below:

Macro Description

__LINE__ This contain the current line number of the program

ts
when it is being compiled.
Va
__FILE__ This contain the current file name of the program when it
p
is being compiled.
ee

__DATE__ This contains a string of the form month/day/year that is

rd

the date of the translation of the source file into object

code.
Pa

__TIME__ This contains a string of the form hour:minute:second

that is the time at which the program was compiled.

Let us see an example for all the above macros:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()

cout << "Value of __LINE__ : " << __LINE__ << endl;

cout << "Value of __FILE__ : " << __FILE__ << endl;

 cout << "Value of __DATE__ : " << __DATE__ << endl;

cout << "Value of __TIME__ : " << __TIME__ << endl;

return 0;

If we compile and run above code, this would produce the following result:

Value of __LINE__ : 6

Value of __FILE__ : test.cpp

Value of __DATE__ : Feb 28 2011

Value of __TIME__ : 18:52:48

ts
C++ Signal Handling Va
Signals are the interrupts delivered to a process by the operating system
which can terminate a program prematurely. You can generate interrupts
p
by pressing Ctrl+C on a UNIX, LINUX, Mac OS X or Windows system.
ee

There are signals which can not be caught by the program but there is a
rd

following list of signals which you can catch in your program and can take
appropriate actions based on the signal. These signals are defined in C++
Pa

header file <csignal>.

Signal Description

SIGABRT Abnormal termination of the program, such as a call to abort

SIGFPE An erroneous arithmetic operation, such as a divide by zero or an

operation resulting in overflow.

SIGILL Detection of an illegal instruction

SIGINT Receipt of an interactive attention signal.

SIGSEGV An invalid access to storage.

SIGTERM A termination request sent to the program.

The signal() function:

C++ signal-handling library provides function signal to trap unexpected
events. Following is the syntax of the signal() function:

void (*signal (int sig, void (*func)(int)))(int);

Keeping it simple, this function receives two arguments: first argument as

ts
an integer which represents signal number and second argument as a
pointer to the signal-handling function.
Va
Let us write a simple C++ program where we will catch SIGINT signal using
p
signal() function. Whatever signal you want to catch in your program, you
ee

must register that signal using signal function and associate it with a signal
handler. Examine the following example:
rd
Pa

#include <iostream>

#include <csignal>

using namespace std;

void signalHandler( int signum )

cout << "Interrupt signal (" << signum << ") received.\n";

// cleanup and close up stuff here

// terminate program

exit(signum);
}

int main ()

// register signal SIGINT and signal handler

signal(SIGINT, signalHandler);

while(1){

cout << "Going to sleep...." << endl;

sleep(1);

ts
return 0;

}
Va
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
p
result:
ee

Going to sleep....
rd

Going to sleep....
Pa

Going to sleep....

Now, press Ctrl+c to interrupt the program and you will see that your
program will catch the signal and would come out by printing something as
follows:

Going to sleep....

Going to sleep....

Going to sleep....

Interrupt signal (2) received.

The raise() function:

You can generate signals by function raise(), which takes an integer signal
number as an argument and has the following syntax.
int raise (signal sig);

Here, sig is the signal number to send any of the signals: SIGINT,
SIGABRT, SIGFPE, SIGILL, SIGSEGV, SIGTERM, SIGHUP. Following is the
example where we raise a signal internally using raise() function as follows:

#include <iostream>

#include <csignal>

using namespace std;

void signalHandler( int signum )

cout << "Interrupt signal (" << signum << ") received.\n";

ts
// cleanup and close up stuff here
Va
// terminate program
p
ee

exit(signum);
rd

}
Pa

int main ()

int i = 0;

// register signal SIGINT and signal handler

signal(SIGINT, signalHandler);

while(++i){

cout << "Going to sleep...." << endl;

if( i == 3 ){

raise( SIGINT);

sleep(1);
 }

return 0;

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result and would come out automatically:

Going to sleep....

Going to sleep....

Going to sleep....

Interrupt signal (2) received.

ts
Va
C++ Multithreading
Multithreading is a specialized form of multitasking and a multitasking is the
p

feature that allows your computer to run two or more programs

ee

concurrently. In general, there are two types of multitasking: process-based

rd

and thread-based.
Pa

Process-based multitasking handles the concurrent execution of programs.

Thread-based multitasking deals with the concurrent execution of pieces of
the same program.

A multithreaded program contains two or more parts that can run

concurrently. Each part of such a program is called a thread, and each
thread defines a separate path of execution.

C++ does not contain any built-in support for multithreaded applications.
Instead, it relies entirely upon the operating system to provide this feature.

This tutorial assumes that you are working on Linux OS and we are going to
write multi-threaded C++ program using POSIX. POSIX Threads, or
Pthreads provides API which are available on many Unix-like POSIX systems
such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris.
Creating Threads:
There is following routine which we use to create a POSIX thread:

#include <pthread.h>

pthread_create (thread, attr, start_routine, arg)

Here, pthread_create creates a new thread and makes it executable. This

routine can be called any number of times from anywhere within your code.
Here is the description of the parameters:

Parameter Description

thread An opaque, unique identifier for the new thread returned by

the subroutine.

ts
attr
Va
An opaque attribute object that may be used to set thread
attributes. You can specify a thread attributes object, or
NULL for the default values.
p
ee

start_routine The C++ routine that the thread will execute once it is
rd

created.
Pa

arg A single argument that may be passed to start_routine. It

must be passed by reference as a pointer cast of type void.
NULL may be used if no argument is to be passed.

The maximum number of threads that may be created by a process is

implementation dependent. Once created, threads are peers, and may
create other threads. There is no implied hierarchy or dependency between
threads.

Terminating Threads:
There is following routine which we use to terminate a POSIX thread:

#include <pthread.h>
pthread_exit (status)

Here pthread_exit is used to explicitly exit a thread. Typically, the

pthread_exit() routine is called after a thread has completed its work and is
no longer required to exist.

If main() finishes before the threads it has created, and exits with
pthread_exit(), the other threads will continue to execute. Otherwise, they
will be automatically terminated when main() finishes.

Example:
This simple example code creates 5 threads with the pthread_create()
routine. Each thread prints a "Hello World!" message, and then terminates
with a call to pthread_exit().

ts
#include <iostream>

#include <cstdlib>
Va
#include <pthread.h>
p
ee

using namespace std;

rd

#define NUM_THREADS 5
Pa

void *PrintHello(void *threadid)

long tid;

tid = (long)threadid;

cout << "Hello World! Thread ID, " << tid << endl;

pthread_exit(NULL);

int main ()

pthread_t threads[NUM_THREADS];

int rc;
 int i;

for( i=0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++ ){

cout << "main() : creating thread, " << i << endl;

rc = pthread_create(&threads[i], NULL,

PrintHello, (void *)i);

if (rc){

cout << "Error:unable to create thread," << rc << endl;

exit(-1);

pthread_exit(NULL);

ts
Compile the following program using -lpthread library as follows:

$gcc test.cpp -lpthread

Va
Now, execute your program which should generate result something as
p
follows:
ee

main() : creating thread, 0

rd

main() : creating thread, 1

Pa

main() : creating thread, 2

main() : creating thread, 3

main() : creating thread, 4

Hello World! Thread ID, 0

Hello World! Thread ID, 1

Hello World! Thread ID, 2

Hello World! Thread ID, 3

Hello World! Thread ID, 4

Passing Arguments to Threads:

This example shows how to pass multiple arguments via a structure. You
can pass any data type in a thread callback because it points to void as
explained in the following example:
#include <iostream>

#include <cstdlib>

#include <pthread.h>

using namespace std;

#define NUM_THREADS 5

struct thread_data{

int thread_id;

char *message;

};

ts
void *PrintHello(void *threadarg)

{
Va
struct thread_data *my_data;
p
ee

my_data = (struct thread_data *) threadarg;

rd

cout << "Thread ID : " << my_data->thread_id ;

Pa

cout << " Message : " << my_data->message << endl;

pthread_exit(NULL);

int main ()

pthread_t threads[NUM_THREADS];

struct thread_data td[NUM_THREADS];

int rc;

int i;

for( i=0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++ ){

 cout <<"main() : creating thread, " << i << endl;

td[i].thread_id = i;

td[i].message = "This is message";

rc = pthread_create(&threads[i], NULL,

PrintHello, (void *)&td[i]);

if (rc){

cout << "Error:unable to create thread," << rc << endl;

exit(-1);

pthread_exit(NULL);

ts
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result: Va
main() : creating thread, 0
p
main() : creating thread, 1
ee

main() : creating thread, 2

main() : creating thread, 3

rd

main() : creating thread, 4

Pa

Thread ID : 3 Message : This is message

Thread ID : 2 Message : This is message

Thread ID : 0 Message : This is message

Thread ID : 1 Message : This is message

Thread ID : 4 Message : This is message

Joining and Detaching Threads:

There are following two routines which we can use to join or detach
threads:

pthread_join (threadid, status)

pthread_detach (threadid)
The pthread_join() subroutine blocks the calling thread until the specified
threadid thread terminates. When a thread is created, one of its attributes
defines whether it is joinable or detached. Only threads that are created as
joinable can be joined. If a thread is created as detached, it can never be
joined.

This example demonstrates how to wait for thread completions by using the
Pthread join routine.

#include <iostream>

#include <cstdlib>

#include <pthread.h>

#include <unistd.h>

ts
using namespace std;
Va
#define NUM_THREADS 5
p
ee

void *wait(void *t)

{
rd

int i;
Pa

long tid;

tid = (long)t;

sleep(1);

cout << "Sleeping in thread " << endl;

cout << "Thread with id : " << tid << " ...exiting " << endl;

pthread_exit(NULL);

int main ()

int rc;
 int i;

pthread_t threads[NUM_THREADS];

pthread_attr_t attr;

void *status;

// Initialize and set thread joinable

pthread_attr_init(&attr);

pthread_attr_setdetachstate(&attr, PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE);

for( i=0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++ ){

cout << "main() : creating thread, " << i << endl;

rc = pthread_create(&threads[i], NULL, wait, (void *)i );

if (rc){

ts
cout << "Error:unable to create thread," << rc << endl;

exit(-1);
Va
}
p
}
ee

// free attribute and wait for the other threads

rd

pthread_attr_destroy(&attr);
Pa

for( i=0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++ ){

rc = pthread_join(threads[i], &status);

if (rc){

cout << "Error:unable to join," << rc << endl;

exit(-1);

cout << "Main: completed thread id :" << i ;

cout << " exiting with status :" << status << endl;

cout << "Main: program exiting." << endl;

pthread_exit(NULL);

}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result:

main() : creating thread, 0

main() : creating thread, 1

main() : creating thread, 2

main() : creating thread, 3

main() : creating thread, 4

Sleeping in thread

Thread with id : 0 .... exiting

Sleeping in thread

Thread with id : 1 .... exiting

Sleeping in thread

ts
Thread with id : 2 .... exiting

Sleeping in thread

Thread with id : 3 .... exiting

Va
Sleeping in thread
p
Thread with id : 4 .... exiting
ee

Main: completed thread id :0 exiting with status :0

rd

Main: completed thread id :1 exiting with status :0

Main: completed thread id :2 exiting with status :0

Pa

Main: completed thread id :3 exiting with status :0

Main: completed thread id :4 exiting with status :0

Main: program exiting.

 C++ Web Programming
What is CGI?
 The Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a set of standards that define how
information is exchanged between the web server and a custom script.

 The CGI specs are currently maintained by the NCSA and NCSA defines CGI is as
follows:

 The Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a standard for external gateway

programs to interface with information servers such as HTTP servers.

 The current version is CGI/1.1 and CGI/1.2 is under progress.

Web Browsing

ts
To understand the concept of CGI, let's see what happens when we click a
Va
hyperlink to browse a particular web page or URL.
p
 Your browser contacts the HTTP web server and demand for the URL ie.
ee

filename.

 Web Server will parse the URL and will look for the filename. If it finds
rd

requested file then web server sends that file back to the browser otherwise
Pa

sends an error message indicating that you have requested a wrong file.

 Web browser takes response from web server and displays either the received
file or error message based on the received response.

However, it is possible to set up the HTTP server in such a way that

whenever a file in a certain directory is requested, that file is not sent back;
instead it is executed as a program, and produced output from the program
is sent back to your browser to display.

The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard protocol for enabling

applications (called CGI programs or CGI scripts) to interact with Web
servers and with clients. These CGI programs can be a written in Python,
PERL, Shell, C or C++ etc.
CGI Architecture Diagram
The following simple program shows a simple architecture of CGI:

ts
Va
p
ee
rd
Pa

Web Server Configuration

Before you proceed with CGI Programming, make sure that your Web
Server supports CGI and it is configured to handle CGI Programs. All the
CGI Programs to be executed by the HTTP server are kept in a pre-
configured directory. This directory is called CGI directory and by
convention it is named as /var/www/cgi-bin. By convention CGI files will
have extension as .cgi, though they are C++ executable.

By default, Apache Web Server is configured to run CGI programs in

/var/www/cgi-bin. If you want to specify any other directory to run your
CGI scripts, you can modify the following section in the httpd.conf file:
<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">

AllowOverride None

Options ExecCGI

Order allow,deny

Allow from all

</Directory>

<Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">

Options All

</Directory>

Here, I assumed that you have Web Server up and running successfully and
you are able to run any other CGI program like Perl or Shell etc.

ts
First CGI Program Va
Consider the following C++ Program content:
p
#include <iostream>
ee

using namespace std;

rd

int main ()
Pa

cout << "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";

cout << "<html>\n";

cout << "<head>\n";

cout << "<title>Hello World - First CGI Program</title>\n";

cout << "</head>\n";

cout << "<body>\n";

cout << "<h2>Hello World! This is my first CGI program</h2>\n";

cout << "</body>\n";

cout << "</html>\n";

return 0;
}

Compile above code and name the executable as cplusplus.cgi. This file is
being kept in /var/www/cgi-bin directory and it has following content.
Before running your CGI program make sure you have change mode of file
using chmod 755 cplusplus.cgi UNIX command to make file executable.
Now if you clickcplusplus.cgi then this produces the following output:

Hello World! This is my first CGI program

Above C++ program is a simple program which is writing its output on
STDOUT file ie. screen. There is one important and extra feature available
which is first line to be printed Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n. This
line is sent back to the browser and specify the content type to be displayed
on the browser screen. Now you must have understood basic concept of

ts
CGI and you can write many complicated CGI programs using Python. A
Va
C++ CGI program can interact with any other exernal system, such as
RDBMS, to exchange information.
p
HTTP Header
ee

The line Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n is part of HTTP header, which

is sent to the browser to understand the content. All the HTTP header will
rd

be in the following form

Pa

HTTP Field Name: Field Content

For Example

Content-type: text/html\r\n\r\n

There are few other important HTTP headers, which you will use frequently
in your CGI Programming.

Header Description

Content-type: A MIME string defining the format of the file being

returned. Example is Content-type:text/html
Expires: Date The date the information becomes invalid. This should be
used by the browser to decide when a page needs to be
refreshed. A valid date string should be in the format 01
Jan 1998 12:00:00 GMT.

Location: URL The URL that should be returned instead of the URL
requested. You can use this filed to redirect a request to
any file.

Last-modified: Date The date of last modification of the resource.

Content-length: N The length, in bytes, of the data being returned. The

browser uses this value to report the estimated
download time for a file.

ts
Set-Cookie: String
Va
Set the cookie passed through the string
p

CGI Environment Variables

ee

All the CGI program will have access to the following environment variables.
rd

These variables play an important role while writing any CGI program.
Pa

Variable Name Description

CONTENT_TYPE The data type of the content. Used when the client is
sending attached content to the server. For example file
upload etc.

CONTENT_LENGTH The length of the query information. It's available only

for POST requests

HTTP_COOKIE Return the set cookies in the form of key & value pair.
HTTP_USER_AGENT The User-Agent request-header field contains information
about the user agent originating the request. Its name of
the web browser.

PATH_INFO The path for the CGI script.

QUERY_STRING The URL-encoded information that is sent with GET

method request.

REMOTE_ADDR The IP address of the remote host making the request.

This can be useful for logging or for authentication
purpose.

ts
REMOTE_HOST The fully qualified name of the host making the request.
If this information is not available then REMOTE_ADDR
Va
can be used to get IR address.
p
REQUEST_METHOD The method used to make the request. The most
ee

common methods are GET and POST.

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SCRIPT_FILENAME The full path to the CGI script.

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SCRIPT_NAME The name of the CGI script.

SERVER_NAME The server's hostname or IP Address

SERVER_SOFTWARE The name and version of the software the server is

running.

Here is small CGI program to list out all the CGI variables. Click this link to
see the result Get Environment
#include <iostream>

#include <stdlib.h>

using namespace std;

const string ENV[ 24 ] = {

"COMSPEC", "DOCUMENT_ROOT", "GATEWAY_INTERFACE",

"HTTP_ACCEPT", "HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING",

"HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE", "HTTP_CONNECTION",

"HTTP_HOST", "HTTP_USER_AGENT", "PATH",

"QUERY_STRING", "REMOTE_ADDR", "REMOTE_PORT",

"REQUEST_METHOD", "REQUEST_URI", "SCRIPT_FILENAME",

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"SCRIPT_NAME", "SERVER_ADDR", "SERVER_ADMIN",
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"SERVER_NAME","SERVER_PORT","SERVER_PROTOCOL",

"SERVER_SIGNATURE","SERVER_SOFTWARE" };
p
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int main ()

{
rd
Pa

cout << "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";

cout << "<html>\n";

cout << "<head>\n";

cout << "<title>CGI Envrionment Variables</title>\n";

cout << "</head>\n";

cout << "<body>\n";

cout << "<table border = \"0\" cellspacing = \"2\">";

for ( int i = 0; i < 24; i++ )

cout << "<tr><td>" << ENV[ i ] << "</td><td>";

// attempt to retrieve value of environment variable

char *value = getenv( ENV[ i ].c_str() );

 if ( value != 0 ){

cout << value;

}else{

cout << "Environment variable does not exist.";

cout << "</td></tr>\n";

cout << "</table><\n";

cout << "</body>\n";

cout << "</html>\n";

return 0;

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C++ CGI Library Va
For real examples, you would need to do many operations by your CGI
program. There is a CGI library written for C++ program which you can
p
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download from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/cgicc/ and following the following

steps to install the library:
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$tar xzf cgicc-X.X.X.tar.gz

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$cd cgicc-X.X.X/

$./configure --prefix=/usr

$make

$make install

You can check related documentation available at C++ CGI Lib

Documentation.

GET and POST Methods

You must have come across many situations when you need to pass some
information from your browser to web server and ultimately to your CGI
Program. Most frequently browser uses two methods two pass this
information to web server. These methods are GET Method and POST
Method.
Passing Information using GET method:
The GET method sends the encoded user information appended to the page
request. The page and the encoded information are separated by the ?
character as follows:

http://www.test.com/cgi-bin/cpp.cgi?key1=value1&key2=value2

The GET method is the default method to pass information from browser to
web server and it produces a long string that appears in your browser's
Location:box. Never use the GET method if you have password or other
sensitive information to pass to the server. The GET method has size
limitation and you can pass upto 1024 characters in a request string.

When using GET method, information is passed using QUERY_STRING http

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header and will be accessible in your CGI Program through QUERY_STRING
environment variable Va
You can pass information by simply concatenating key and value pairs
alongwith any URL or you can use HTML <FORM> tags to pass information
p
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using GET method.

Simple URL Example : Get Method

rd

Here is a simple URL which will pass two values to hello_get.py program
Pa

using GET method.

/cgi-bin/cpp_get.cgi?first_name=ZARA&last_name=ALI

Below is program to generate cpp_get.cgi CGI program to handle input

given by web browser. We are going to use C++ CGI library which makes it
very easy to access passed information:

#include <iostream>

#include <vector>

#include <string>

#include <stdio.h>

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <cgicc/CgiDefs.h>

#include <cgicc/Cgicc.h>

#include <cgicc/HTTPHTMLHeader.h>

#include <cgicc/HTMLClasses.h>

using namespace std;

using namespace cgicc;

int main ()

Cgicc formData;

cout << "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";

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cout << "<html>\n";

cout << "<head>\n";

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cout << "<title>Using GET and POST Methods</title>\n";
p
cout << "</head>\n";
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cout << "<body>\n";

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form_iterator fi = formData.getElement("first_name");
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if( !fi->isEmpty() && fi != (*formData).end()) {

cout << "First name: " << **fi << endl;

}else{

cout << "No text entered for first name" << endl;

cout << "<br/>\n";

fi = formData.getElement("last_name");

if( !fi->isEmpty() &&fi != (*formData).end()) {

cout << "Last name: " << **fi << endl;

}else{

cout << "No text entered for last name" << endl;

cout << "<br/>\n";

 cout << "</body>\n";

cout << "</html>\n";

return 0;

Now, compile the above program as follows:

$g++ -o cpp_get.cgi cpp_get.cpp -lcgicc

Generate cpp_get.cgi and put it in your CGI directory and try to access
using following link:

/cgi-bin/cpp_get.cgi?first_name=ZARA&last_name=ALI

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This would generate following result: Va
First name: ZARA
p
Last name: ALI
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Simple FORM Example: GET Method

rd

Here is a simple example which passes two values using HTML FORM and
submit button. We are going to use same CGI script cpp_get.cgi to handle
Pa

this input.

<form action="/cgi-bin/cpp_get.cgi" method="get">

First Name: <input type="text" name="first_name"> <br />

Last Name: <input type="text" name="last_name" />

<input type="submit" value="Submit" />

</form>

Here is the actual output of the above form, You enter First and Last Name
and then click submit button to see the result.
First Name:
Submit
Last Name:

Passing Information using POST method:

A generally more reliable method of passing information to a CGI program
is the POST method. This packages the information in exactly the same way
as GET methods, but instead of sending it as a text string after a ? in the
URL it sends it as a separate message. This message comes into the CGI
script in the form of the standard input.

The same cpp_get.cgi program will handle POST method as well. Let us
take same example as above, which passes two values using HTML FORM
and submit button but this time with POST method as follows:

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<form action="/cgi-bin/cpp_get.cgi" method="post">
Va
First Name: <input type="text" name="first_name"><br />
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Last Name: <input type="text" name="last_name" />
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<input type="submit" value="Submit" />

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</form>
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Here is the actual output of the above form, You enter First and Last Name
and then click submit button to see the result.

First Name:
Submit
Last Name:

Passing Checkbox Data to CGI Program

Checkboxes are used when more than one option is required to be selected.

Here is example HTML code for a form with two checkboxes

<form action="/cgi-bin/cpp_checkbox.cgi"

method="POST"

target="_blank">

<input type="checkbox" name="maths" value="on" /> Maths

<input type="checkbox" name="physics" value="on" /> Physics

<input type="submit" value="Select Subject" />

</form>

The result of this code is the following form

Select Subject
Maths Physics

Below is C++ program, which will generate cpp_checkbox.cgi script to

handle input given by web browser through checkbox button.

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#include <iostream> Va
#include <vector>

#include <string>
p
#include <stdio.h>
ee

#include <stdlib.h>
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#include <cgicc/CgiDefs.h>
Pa

#include <cgicc/Cgicc.h>

#include <cgicc/HTTPHTMLHeader.h>

#include <cgicc/HTMLClasses.h>

using namespace std;

using namespace cgicc;

int main ()

Cgicc formData;

bool maths_flag, physics_flag;

cout << "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";

 cout << "<html>\n";

cout << "<head>\n";

cout << "<title>Checkbox Data to CGI</title>\n";

cout << "</head>\n";

cout << "<body>\n";

maths_flag = formData.queryCheckbox("maths");

if( maths_flag ) {

cout << "Maths Flag: ON " << endl;

}else{

cout << "Maths Flag: OFF " << endl;

cout << "<br/>\n";

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Va
physics_flag = formData.queryCheckbox("physics");

if( physics_flag ) {
p
cout << "Physics Flag: ON " << endl;
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}else{

cout << "Physics Flag: OFF " << endl;

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}
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cout << "<br/>\n";

cout << "</body>\n";

cout << "</html>\n";

return 0;

Passing Radio Button Data to CGI Program

Radio Buttons are used when only one option is required to be selected.

Here is example HTML code for a form with two radio button:

<form action="/cgi-bin/cpp_radiobutton.cgi"

method="post"
 target="_blank">

<input type="radio" name="subject" value="maths"

checked="checked"/> Maths

<input type="radio" name="subject" value="physics" /> Physics

<input type="submit" value="Select Subject" />

</form>

The result of this code is the following form

Select Subject
Maths Physics

Below is C++ program, which will generate cpp_radiobutton.cgi script to

handle input given by web browser through radio buttons.

ts
#include <iostream>

#include <vector> Va
#include <string>

#include <stdio.h>
p
#include <stdlib.h>
ee
rd

#include <cgicc/CgiDefs.h>

#include <cgicc/Cgicc.h>
Pa

#include <cgicc/HTTPHTMLHeader.h>

#include <cgicc/HTMLClasses.h>

using namespace std;

using namespace cgicc;

int main ()

Cgicc formData;

cout << "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";

cout << "<html>\n";

cout << "<head>\n";

 cout << "<title>Radio Button Data to CGI</title>\n";

cout << "</head>\n";

cout << "<body>\n";

form_iterator fi = formData.getElement("subject");

if( !fi->isEmpty() && fi != (*formData).end()) {

cout << "Radio box selected: " << **fi << endl;

cout << "<br/>\n";

cout << "</body>\n";

cout << "</html>\n";

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return 0;

}
Va
Passing Text Area Data to CGI Program
p
ee

TEXTAREA element is used when multiline text has to be passed to the CGI
Program.
rd

Here is example HTML code for a form with a TEXTAREA box:

Pa

<form action="/cgi-bin/cpp_textarea.cgi"

method="post"

target="_blank">

<textarea name="textcontent" cols="40" rows="4">

Type your text here...

</textarea>

<input type="submit" value="Submit" />

</form>

The result of this code is the following form

 Submit

Below is C++ program, which will generate cpp_textarea.cgi script to

handle input given by web browser through text area.

#include <iostream>

#include <vector>

#include <string>

#include <stdio.h>

#include <stdlib.h>

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#include <cgicc/CgiDefs.h>

#include <cgicc/Cgicc.h> Va
#include <cgicc/HTTPHTMLHeader.h>
p
#include <cgicc/HTMLClasses.h>
ee

using namespace std;

rd

using namespace cgicc;

Pa

int main ()

Cgicc formData;

cout << "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";

cout << "<html>\n";

cout << "<head>\n";

cout << "<title>Text Area Data to CGI</title>\n";

cout << "</head>\n";

cout << "<body>\n";

form_iterator fi = formData.getElement("textcontent");
 if( !fi->isEmpty() && fi != (*formData).end()) {

cout << "Text Content: " << **fi << endl;

}else{

cout << "No text entered" << endl;

cout << "<br/>\n";

cout << "</body>\n";

cout << "</html>\n";

return 0;

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Passing Drop Down Box Data to CGI Program
Va
Drop Down Box is used when we have many options available but only one
or two will be selected.
p
Here is example HTML code for a form with one drop down box
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<form action="/cgi-bin/cpp_dropdown.cgi"
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method="post" target="_blank">
Pa

<select name="dropdown">

<option value="Maths" selected>Maths</option>

<option value="Physics">Physics</option>

</select>

<input type="submit" value="Submit"/>

</form>

The result of this code is the following form

Maths Submit

Below is C++ program, which will generate cpp_dropdown.cgi script to

handle input given by web browser through drop down box.

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

#include <string>

#include <stdio.h>

#include <stdlib.h>

#include <cgicc/CgiDefs.h>

#include <cgicc/Cgicc.h>

#include <cgicc/HTTPHTMLHeader.h>

#include <cgicc/HTMLClasses.h>

using namespace std;

using namespace cgicc;

ts
int main ()

{
Va
Cgicc formData;
p
ee

cout << "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";

cout << "<html>\n";

rd

cout << "<head>\n";

Pa

cout << "<title>Drop Down Box Data to CGI</title>\n";

cout << "</head>\n";

cout << "<body>\n";

form_iterator fi = formData.getElement("dropdown");

if( !fi->isEmpty() && fi != (*formData).end()) {

cout << "Value Selected: " << **fi << endl;

cout << "<br/>\n";

cout << "</body>\n";

cout << "</html>\n";

 return 0;

Using Cookies in CGI

HTTP protocol is a stateless protocol. But for a commercial website it is
required to maintain session information among different pages. For
example one user registration ends after completing many pages. But how
to maintain user's session information across all the web pages.

In many situations, using cookies is the most efficient method of

remembering and tracking preferences, purchases, commissions, and other
information required for better visitor experience or site statistics.

How It Works

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Your server sends some data to the visitor's browser in the form of a
Va
cookie. The browser may accept the cookie. If it does, it is stored as a plain
text record on the visitor's hard drive. Now, when the visitor arrives at
another page on your site, the cookie is available for retrieval. Once
p

retrieved, your server knows/remembers what was stored.

ee

Cookies are a plain text data record of 5 variable-length fields:

rd

Expires : The date the cookie will expire. If this is blank, the cookie will expire
Pa


when the visitor quits the browser.

 Domain : The domain name of your site.

 Path : The path to the directory or web page that set the cookie. This may be
blank if you want to retrieve the cookie from any directory or page.

 Secure : If this field contains the word "secure" then the cookie may only be
retrieved with a secure server. If this field is blank, no such restriction exists.

 Name=Value : Cookies are set and retrieved in the form of key and value
pairs.
Setting up Cookies
This is very easy to send cookies to browser. These cookies will be sent
along with HTTP Header before to Content-type filed. Assuming you want to
set UserID and Password as cookies. So cookies setting will be done as
follows

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main ()

cout << "Set-Cookie:UserID=XYZ;\r\n";

ts
cout << "Set-Cookie:Password=XYZ123;\r\n";
Va
cout << "Set-Cookie:Domain=www.tutorialspoint.com;\r\n";

cout << "Set-Cookie:Path=/perl;\n";

p
cout << "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";
ee

cout << "<html>\n";

rd

cout << "<head>\n";

Pa

cout << "<title>Cookies in CGI</title>\n";

cout << "</head>\n";

cout << "<body>\n";

cout << "Setting cookies" << endl;

cout << "<br/>\n";

cout << "</body>\n";

cout << "</html>\n";

return 0;

}
From this example, you must have understood how to set cookies. We
use Set-Cookie HTTP header to set cookies.

Here, it is optional to set cookies attributes like Expires, Domain, and Path.
It is notable that cookies are set before sending magic line "Content-
type:text/html\r\n\r\n.

Compile above program to produce setcookies.cgi, and try to set cookies

using following link. It will set four cookies at your computer:

/cgi-bin/setcookies.cgi

Retrieving Cookies
This is very easy to retrieve all the set cookies. Cookies are stored in CGI
environment variable HTTP_COOKIE and they will have following form.

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key1=value1;key2=value2;key3=value3....
Va
Here is an example of how to retrieving cookies.
p
ee

#include <iostream>

#include <vector>
rd

#include <string>
Pa

#include <stdio.h>

#include <stdlib.h>

#include <cgicc/CgiDefs.h>

#include <cgicc/Cgicc.h>

#include <cgicc/HTTPHTMLHeader.h>

#include <cgicc/HTMLClasses.h>

using namespace std;

using namespace cgicc;

int main ()

{
 Cgicc cgi;

const_cookie_iterator cci;

cout << "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";

cout << "<html>\n";

cout << "<head>\n";

cout << "<title>Cookies in CGI</title>\n";

cout << "</head>\n";

cout << "<body>\n";

cout << "<table border = \"0\" cellspacing = \"2\">";

// get environment variables

const CgiEnvironment& env = cgi.getEnvironment();

ts
for( cci = env.getCookieList().begin();
Va
cci != env.getCookieList().end();
p
++cci )
ee

cout << "<tr><td>" << cci->getName() << "</td><td>";

rd

cout << cci->getValue();

Pa

cout << "</td></tr>\n";

cout << "</table><\n";

cout << "<br/>\n";

cout << "</body>\n";

cout << "</html>\n";

return 0;

Now, compile above program to produce getcookies.cgi, and try to get a list
of all the cookies available at your computer:
/cgi-bin/getcookies.cgi

This will produce a list of all the four cookies set in previous section and all
other cookies set at your computer:

UserID XYZ

Password XYZ123

Domain www.tutorialspoint.com

Path /perl

File Upload Example:

To upload a file the HTML form must have the enctype attribute set
tomultipart/form-data. The input tag with the file type will create a
"Browse" button.

ts
<html> Va
<body>

<form enctype="multipart/form-data"
p
action="/cgi-bin/cpp_uploadfile.cgi"
ee

method="post">
rd

<p>File: <input type="file" name="userfile" /></p>

<p><input type="submit" value="Upload" /></p>

Pa

</form>

</body>

</html>

The result of this code is the following form:

File:

Upload

Note: Above example has been disabled intentionally to save people

uploading files on our server. But you can try above code with your server.

Here is the script cpp_uploadfile.cpp to handle file upload:

#include <iostream>

#include <vector>

#include <string>

#include <stdio.h>

#include <stdlib.h>

#include <cgicc/CgiDefs.h>

#include <cgicc/Cgicc.h>

#include <cgicc/HTTPHTMLHeader.h>

#include <cgicc/HTMLClasses.h>

using namespace std;

using namespace cgicc;

ts
int main ()
Va
{
p
Cgicc cgi;
ee

cout << "Content-type:text/html\r\n\r\n";

rd

cout << "<html>\n";

Pa

cout << "<head>\n";

cout << "<title>File Upload in CGI</title>\n";

cout << "</head>\n";

cout << "<body>\n";

// get list of files to be uploaded

const_file_iterator file = cgi.getFile("userfile");

if(file != cgi.getFiles().end()) {

// send data type at cout.

cout << HTTPContentHeader(file->getDataType());

// write content at cout.

file->writeToStream(cout);

}
 cout << "<File uploaded successfully>\n";

cout << "</body>\n";

cout << "</html>\n";

return 0;

The above example is writing content at cout stream but you can open
your file stream and save the content of uploaded file in a file at desired
location.

ts
Va
p
ee
rd
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