Structure of a program

The best way to learn a programming language is by writing programs. Typically, the first
program beginners write is a program called "Hello World", which simply prints "Hello World" to
your computer screen. Although it is very simple, it contains all the fundamental components C+
+ programs have:

1 // my first program in C++

2 #include <iostream>
3
4 int main()
5{
6 std::cout << "Hello World!";
7}

Hello World!

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The left panel above shows the C++ code for this program. The right panel shows the result
when the program is executed by a computer. The grey numbers to the left of the panels are line
numbers to make discussing programs and researching errors easier. They are not part of the
program.
Let's examine this program line by line:
Line 1: // my first program in C++
Two slash signs indicate that the rest of the line is a comment inserted by the
programmer but which has no effect on the behavior of the program. Programmers use
them to include short explanations or observations concerning the code or program. In
this case, it is a brief introductory description of the program.
Line 2: #include <iostream>
Lines beginning with a hash sign (#) are directives read and interpreted by what is
known as the preprocessor. They are special lines interpreted before the compilation of
the program itself begins. In this case, the directive #include <iostream>, instructs
the preprocessor to include a section of standard C++ code, known as header iostream,
that allows to perform standard input and output operations, such as writing the output
of this program (Hello World) to the screen.
Line 3: A blank line.
Blank lines have no effect on a program. They simply improve readability of the code.
Line 4: int main ()
This line initiates the declaration of a function. Essentially, a function is a group of code
statements which are given a name: in this case, this gives the name "main" to the
group of code statements that follow. Functions will be discussed in detail in a later
chapter, but essentially, their definition is introduced with a succession of a type ( int), a
name (main) and a pair of parentheses (()), optionally including parameters.
The function named main is a special function in all C++ programs; it is the function
called when the program is run. The execution of all C++ programs begins with the
main function, regardless of where the function is actually located within the code.
Lines 5 and 7: { and }
The open brace ({) at line 5 indicates the beginning of main's function definition, and
the closing brace (}) at line 7, indicates its end. Everything between these braces is the
function's body that defines what happens when main is called. All functions use braces
to indicate the beginning and end of their definitions.

Line 6: std::cout << "Hello World!";

This line is a C++ statement. A statement is an expression that can actually produce
some effect. It is the meat of a program, specifying its actual behavior. Statements are
executed in the same order that they appear within a function's body.
This statement has three parts: First, std::cout, which identifies the standard
character output device (usually, this is the computer screen). Second, the insertion
operator (<<), which indicates that what follows is inserted into std::cout. Finally, a
sentence within quotes ("Hello world!"), is the content inserted into the standard output.
Notice that the statement ends with a semicolon ( ;). This character marks the end of
the statement, just as the period ends a sentence in English. All C++ statements must
end with a semicolon character. One of the most common syntax errors in C++ is
forgetting to end a statement with a semicolon.
You may have noticed that not all the lines of this program perform actions when the code is
executed. There is a line containing a comment (beginning with //). There is a line with a
directive for the preprocessor (beginning with #). There is a line that defines a function (in this
case, the main function). And, finally, a line with a statements ending with a semicolon (the
insertion into cout), which was within the block delimited by the braces ( { } ) of the main
function.
The program has been structured in different lines and properly indented, in order to make it
easier to understand for the humans reading it. But C++ does not have strict rules on
indentation or on how to split instructions in different lines. For example, instead of
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1 int main ()
2{
3 std::cout << " Hello World!";
4}
We could have written:

int main () { std::cout << "Hello World!"; }

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all in a single line, and this would have had exactly the same meaning as the preceding code.
In C++, the separation between statements is specified with an ending semicolon ( ;), with the
separation into different lines not mattering at all for this purpose. Many statements can be
written in a single line, or each statement can be in its own line. The division of code in different
lines serves only to make it more legible and schematic for the humans that may read it, but has
no effect on the actual behavior of the program.
Now, let's add an additional statement to our first program:

1 // my second program in C++

2 #include <iostream>
3
4 int main ()
5{
6 std::cout << "Hello World! ";
7 std::cout << "I'm a C++
8 program";
}

Hello World! I'm a C++ program

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In this case, the program performed two insertions into std::cout in two different statements.
Once again, the separation in different lines of code simply gives greater readability to the
program, since main could have been perfectly valid defined in this way:

int main () { std::cout << " Hello World! "; std::cout << " I'm
a C++ program "; }

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The source code could have also been divided into more code lines instead:

1 int main ()
2{
3 std::cout <<
4
"Hello World!";
5 std::cout
6
<< "I'm a C++ program";
7}

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And the result would again have been exactly the same as in the previous examples.
Preprocessor directives (those that begin by #) are out of this general rule since they are not
statements. They are lines read and processed by the preprocessor before proper compilation
begins. Preprocessor directives must be specified in their own line and, because they are not
statements, do not have to end with a semicolon (;).

Comments
As noted above, comments do not affect the operation of the program; however, they provide an
important tool to document directly within the source code what the program does and how it
operates.
C++ supports two ways of commenting code:

1 // line comment
2 /* block comment */
The first of them, known as line comment, discards everything from where the pair of slash
signs (//) are found up to the end of that same line. The second one, known as block comment,
discards everything between the /* characters and the first appearance of the */ characters,
with the possibility of including multiple lines.
Let's add comments to our second program:

1 /* my second program in C++

2
with more comments */
3
4 #include <iostream>
5
6 int main ()
7{

Hello World! I'm a C++ program

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8 std::cout << "Hello World! ";

9 // prints Hello World!
10 std::cout << "I'm a C++
program"; // prints I'm a C++
program
}
If comments are included within the source code of a program without using the comment
characters combinations //, /* or */, the compiler takes them as if they were C++
expressions, most likely causing the compilation to fail with one, or several, error messages.

Using namespace std

If you have seen C++ code before, you may have seen cout being used instead of std::cout.
Both name the same object: the first one uses its unqualified name (cout), while the second
qualifies it directly within the namespace std (as std::cout).

cout is part of the standard library, and all the elements in the standard C++ library are
declared within what is a called a namespace: the namespace std.
In order to refer to the elements in the std namespace a program shall either qualify each and
every use of elements of the library (as we have done by prefixing cout with std::), or
introduce visibility of its components. The most typical way to introduce visibility of these
components is by means of using declarations:

using namespace std;

The above declaration allows all elements in the std namespace to be accessed in an
unqualified manner (without the std:: prefix).
With this in mind, the last example can be rewritten to make unqualified uses of cout as:

1 // my second program in C++

2 #include <iostream>
3 using namespace std;
4
5 int main ()
6{
7 cout << "Hello World! ";
8 cout << "I'm a C++ program";
9}

Hello World! I'm a C++ program

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Both ways of accessing the elements of the std namespace (explicit qualification and using
declarations) are valid in C++ and produce the exact same behavior. For simplicity, and to
improve readability, the examples in these tutorials will more often use this latter approach with
using declarations, although note that explicit qualification is the only way to guarantee that
name collisions never happen.
Namespaces are explained in more detail in a later chapter.