CS 44001/54001

CS III: Programming Patterns

Mikhail Nesterenko
Procedural Programming
without classes: using standalone functions,
primitive types and simple control structures
 Before We Go
• a computer program is governed by rules
• what are
– syntax rules?
– semantic rules?
– stylistic rules?

• C++ was originally developed by Bjarne Stroustrup. Now maintained by

International Standards Organization (ISO) which publishes standards approx.
every 3 years: C++11, C++14, C++17 …
– unspecified behavior – not mentioned in standard, ex: order of parameter
evaluation in a function invocation
– undefined behavior – defined in the standard but left without
specific result, ex: dereferencing nullptr
– implementation-defined behavior - depends on the
implementation ex: sizeof(int)

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 Types, Variables
• primitive (basic/built-in) types – string, int, bool, char, double
– exist but won’t need
• int may be long or short, signed or unsigned
• char may be signed or unsigned
• floating point types may be float, double or long double
– auto – type to be determined by compiler (C++11)
auto i =7; // nice for type of loop variables
could also be auto & and const auto
– decltype(expr) – type is same as expr (C++11)
decltype(i) j =8;

• variable – denotes memory location of particular type, holds values

– what is block? what is local variable? Can a variable be local to a block?
what is scope of a variable?

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 Operators, Arity
operators – built-in functions
• fixed number of operands (parameters)

arity – the number of operands

• unary
++ and -- prefix/sufix(postifx) preincrement/postincrement or
predecrement /postdecrement
• use prefix porm
• prefix form returns an l-value (what’s that?)
• binary
– assingment, compound assingment
• ternary – what’s that?

What are these operators? What is their arity?

= ! - ++ += << ||

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 Expressions

• what is a constant? Literal constant? What other kind of constant is there?

– how is contant type determined?
• What is expression? What is expression evaluation? How is expression type
determined?

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 Conditionals and Loops
• conditionals
– if/else
– switch
– ternary expression
• loops
– while
– do-while
– for
• for(init_statement; expression; post_statement)
action
• range-based-for (C++11)
int a[] = {10,20,30,40};
for(auto e: a)
cout << e;
can be auto &e or const auto &e
how do I write a range-based-for to add 5 to each element of the array?
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 Functions
• what is function invocation/call/definition/declaration?
• what is the difference between argument and parameter?
• in procedural programming functions are standalone
• function definition – includes head and body (implementation)
• function overloading – multiple different functions within the same scope
provided that they have different signatures
double max(double, double);
int max(int, int);
• resolution (of function call) – compile time process of associating function
invocation with function declaration
int i = max(10, 20); // resolved to second declaration
• client/caller – function that invokes another function
– when dealing with programming patterns, function that uses the pattern

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 Function Parameters, Default Values
• parameters may be passed by value, by reference, what’s the difference?

• default values
– default parameter value may be specified at function declaration
void move(int from, int to=0, int by =1);
or definition, but not both
– convention – specify at declaration.
– client has an option of specifying parameter or using default value
move (2, 3, 4);
move (2, 3);
move (2);

– provides convenient alternative to overloading

– only trailing parameters may have default values

void move(int from, int to=0, int by); // illegal
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 References
reference – alias (another name) for data
• declared as type&
• has to be initialized at declaration and cannot be changed
int& b = a;
++b; // changes a
• can hold only lvalues – values that refer to memory location, can be used
on the left-hand-side of assignment
– as opposed to rvalues
• used for parameter passing
void swap(int &a; int &b){
int tmp = a;
a = b;
b = tmp;
}

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 References (cont.)
reference can be used to return values
• in which case function can be used on the left-hand side of
assignment
int& getElement(int x[], int i) {
return x[i];
}

...
int a[] = {10, 20, 30};

cout << getElement(a, 1);

getElement(a, 2) = 55;

• careful with returning local function variables by reference: they are

destroyed when function returns, why?

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 Pointers and Functions
function may also return a pointer
int* getElement(int x[], int i) {
return &x[i];
}

...
int a[] = {10, 20, 30};
cout << *getElement(a, 2);
*getElement(a, 5) = 55;

dereferenced pointer is an lvalue

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 nullptr
• nullptr – null pointer constant (C++11 addition)
– is of type pointer unlike NULL and 0, which are integer type
• what’s wrong with NULL and zero?
void myFunc(int); // overloaded function
void myFunc(char *);

func(NULL); // invokes first function

• use nullptr to signify uninitialized pointer

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 Strings

• what is the difference between c-style and C++ style strings?

• how to convert c-style <-> c++-style string?
• what is argc argv ?
• what is concatentation?
• what do find() substr() insert(), replace(), erase() do?
• what is the difference between
void myfunc(string);
void myfunc(string &) and
void myfunc(const string&);

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 Static Variables
• static variables are initialized only once and retain their value across function
invocations
void login() {
static int number1 = 0;
int number2 = 0;
++number1; ++number2;
cout << number1 << number2;
}

int main(){
login();
login();
login();
}
• prints 112131

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