1

Syllabus
OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING C++
1. Introduction :

What is object oriented programming? Why do we need object-

oriented. Programming characteristics of object-oriented languages. C
and C++.

2. C++ Programming basics :

Output using cout. Directives. Input with cin. Type bool. The setw
manipulator. Type conversions.

3. Functions :

Returning values from functions. Reference arguments. Overloaded

function. Inline function. Default arguments. Returning by reference.

4. Object and Classes :

Making sense of core object concepts (Encapsulation, Abstraction,

Polymorphism, Classes, Messages Association, Interfaces)
Implementation of class in C++, C++ Objects as physical object, C++
object as data types constructor. Object as function arguments. The
default copy constructor, returning object from function. Structures
and classes. Classes objects and memory static class data. Const
and classes.

5. Arrays and string arrays fundamentals. Arrays as class Member

Data :

Arrays of object, string, The standard C++ String class

6. Operator overloading :

Overloading unary operations. Overloading binary operators, data

conversion, pitfalls of operators overloading and conversion
keywords. Explicit and Mutable.

7. Inheritance :

Concept of inheritance. Derived class and based class. Derived

class constructors, member function, inheritance in the English
distance class, class hierarchies, inheritance and graphics shapes,
public and private inheritance, aggregation : Classes within classes,
inheritance and program development.
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8. Pointer :

Addresses and pointers. The address of operator and pointer and

arrays. Pointer and Faction pointer and C-types string. Memory
management : New and Delete, pointers to objects, debugging
pointers.

9. Virtual Function :

Virtual Function, friend function, Static function, Assignment and copy

initialization, this pointer, dynamic type information.

10. Streams and Files :

Streams classes, Stream Errors, Disk File I/O with streams, file
pointers, error handling in file I/O with member function, overloading
the extraction and insertion operators, memory as a stream object,
command line arguments, and printer output.

11. Templates and Exceptions :

Function templates, Class templates Exceptions

12. The Standard Template Library :

Introduction algorithms, sequence containers, iteators, specialized

iteators, associative containers, strong user-defined object, function
objects.

Term work / Practical : Each candidate will submit a journal in which at

least 10 assignments based on the above syllabus and the internal paper.
Test will be graded for 10 marks and assignments will be graded for 15
marks.

1. Object Oriented Programming in C++ by Robert Lafore Techmedia

Publication.

2. The complete reference C – by Herbert shieldt Tata McGraw Hill

Publication.

3. Object Oriented Programming in C++ Saurav Sahay Oxford University

Press.

4. Object Oriented Programming in C++ R Rajaram New Age

International Publishers 2nd.

5. OOPS C++ Big C++ Cay Horstmann Wiley Publication.

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Practical for C++

Programming exercises and project using C++ programming

languages, to study various features of the languages. Stress to be laid
on writing well structured modular and readable programs accompanied
by good documentation.

The topic wise assignments are as follows :

1. Function Blocks

a. Handling default reference arguments

b. Handling inline and overloaded function

2. Objects and Classes

a. Creating UDT using classes and object

3. Arrays and String as objects

a. Insertion, Deletion, reversal sorting of elements into a single


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1
FUNDAMENTALS OF C++
Unit Structure
1.1 Introduction of C++
1.2 Object-Oriented Programming
1.3 Encapsulation
1.4 Polymorphism
1.5 Inheritance
1.6 The Need for C++
1.7 Characteristics of OOPs
1.8 C++ and C

1.1 INTRODUCTION OF C++

The history of C++ begins with C. C++ is built upon the

foundation of C. Thus, C++ is a superset of C. C++ expanded and
enhanced the C language to support object-oriented programming
(which is described later in this module). C++ also added several
other improvements to the C language, including an extended set
of library routines. However, much of the spirit and flavor of C++ is
directly inherited from C. Therefore, to fully understand and
appreciate C++, you need to understand the “how and why”
behind C.

C++ was invented by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1979, at Bell

Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He initially called the new
language “C with Classes ” However in 1983 the name was
changed to C++ Stroustrup built C++ on the foundation of C
including all of C’s features attributes and benefits He also adhered
to C’s underlying philosophy that the programmer not the language
is in charge t this point it is critical to understand that Stroustrup did
not create an entirely new programming language. Instead, he
enhanced an already highly successful language.

Most of the features that Stroustrup added to C were

designed to support object-oriented programming. In essence, C++
is the object-oriented version of C. By building upon the foundation
of C, Stroustrup provided a smooth migration path to OOP. Instead
of having to learn an entirely new language, a C programmer
needed to learn only a few new features before reaping the benefits
of the object-oriented methodology
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1.2 OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

Central to C++ is object-oriented programming (OOP). OOP

was the impetus for the creation of C++ Because of this it is useful
to understand OOP’s basic principles before you write even a
simple C++ program.

Object-oriented programming took the best ideas of

structured programming and combined them with several new
concepts. The result was a different and better way of organizing a
program. In the most general sense, a program can be organized in
one of two ways: around its code (what is happening) or around its
data (who is being affected). Using only structured programming
techniques, programs are typically organized around code. This
approach can be thought of as “code acting on data ”

Object-oriented programs work the other way around. They

are organized around data, with the key principle being “data
controlling access to code ” In an object -oriented language; you
define the data and the routines that are permitted to act on that
data. Thus, a data type defines precisely what sort of operations
can be applied to that data.

To support the principles of object-oriented programming, all

OOP languages, including C++, have three traits in common
encapsulation, polymorphism and inheritance. Let’s examine each.

1.3 ENCAPSULATION

Encapsulation is a programming mechanism that binds

together code and the data it manipulates, and that keeps both safe
from outside interference and misuse. In an object-oriented
language, code and data can be bound together in such a way that
a self-contained black box is created. Within the box are all
necessary data and code. When code and data are linked together
in this fashion, an object is created. In other words, an object is the
device that supports encapsulation.

1.4 POLYMORPHISM

Polymorphism (from Greek meaning “many forms”) is the

quality that allows one interface to access a general class of
actions. A simple example of polymorphism is found in the steering
wheel of an automobile. The steering wheel (the interface) is the
same no matter what type of actual steering mechanism is used.
That is, the steering wheel works the same whether your car has
manual steering, power steering, or rack-and-pinion steering. Thus,
 6

turning the steering wheel left causes the car to go left no matter
what type of steering is used. The benefit of the uniform interface
is, of course, that once you know how to operate the steering
wheel, you can drive any type of car.

The same principle can also apply to programming. For

example, consider a stack (which is a first-in, last- out list). You
might have a program that requires three different types of stacks.
One stack is used for integer values, one for floating-point values,
and one for characters. In this case, the algorithm that implements
each stack is the same, even though the data being stored differs.
In a non–object-oriented language, you would be required to create
three different sets of stack routines, with each set using different
names. However, because of polymorphism, in C++ you can create
one general set of stack routines that works for all three situations.
This way, once you know how to use one stack, you can use them
all.

1.5 INHERITANCE

Inheritance is the process by which one object can acquire

the properties of another object. This is important because it
supports the concept of hierarchical classification. If you think about
it, most knowledge is made manageable by hierarchical (that is,
top-down) classifications. For example, a Red Delicious apple is
part of the classification apple, which in turn is part of the fruit class,
which is under the larger class food. That is, the food class
possesses certain qualities (edible, nutritious, and so on) which
also, logically, apply to its subclass, fruit. In addition to these
qualities, the fruit class has specific characteristics (juicy, sweet,
and so on) that distinguish it from other food. The apple class
defines those qualities specific to an apple (grows on trees, not
tropical, and so on). A Red Delicious apple would, in turn, inherit all
the qualities of all preceding classes and would define only those
qualities that make it unique.

Without the use of hierarchies, each object would have to

explicitly define all of its characteristics. Using inheritance, an
object need only define those qualities that make it unique within its
class. It can inherit its general attributes from its parent. Thus, it is
the inheritance mechanism that makes it possible for one object to
be a specific instance of a more general case.

1.6 THE NEED FOR C++

Given the preceding discussion, you might be wondering

why C++ was invented. Since C was a successful computer
programming language, why was there a need for something else?
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The answer is complexity. Throughout the history of programming,

the increasing complexity of programs has driven the need for
better ways to manage that complexity. C++ is a response to that
need. To better understand the correlation between increasing
program complexity and computer language development, consider
the following. Approaches to programming have changed
dramatically since the invention of the computer.

For example when computers were first invented

programming was done by using the computer’s front panel to
toggle in the binary machine instructions. As long as programs
were just a few hundred instructions long, this approach worked. As
programs grew, assembly language was invented so that
programmers could deal with larger, increasingly complex
programs by using symbolic representations of the machine
instructions. As programs continued to grow, high-level languages
were developed to give programmers more tools with which to
handle the complexity.

The first widely used computer language was, of course,

FORTRAN. While FORTRAN was a very impressive first step, it is
hardly a language that encourages clear, easy-to-understand
programs. The 1960s gave birth to structured programming, which
is the method of programming encouraged by languages such as
C. With structured languages it was, for the first time, possible to
write moderately complex programs fairly easily. However, even
with structured programming methods, once a project reaches a
certain size, its complexity exceeds what a programmer can
manage. By the late 1970s, many projects were near or at this
point.

In response to this problem, a new way to program began to

emerge: object-oriented programming (OOP). Using OOP, a
programmer could handle larger, more complex programs. The
trouble was that C did not support object-oriented programming.
The desire for an object-oriented version of C ultimately led to the
creation of C++.

In the final analysis, although C is one of the most liked and

widely used professional programming languages in the world,
there comes a time when its ability to handle complexity is
exceeded. Once a program reaches a certain size, it becomes so
complex that it is difficult to grasp as a totality. The purpose of C++
is to allow this barrier to be broken and to help the programmer
comprehend and manage larger, more complex programs.
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1.7 CHARACTERISTICS OF OOPS

OOP offers several benefits to both the program designer and the
user. The principal advantages are.
1) Emphasis is on data rather than procedure.
2) Programs are divided into what are known as objects.
3) Data structures are designed such that they characterize the
objects.
4) Functions that operate on the data of an object are tied together
in the data structure.
5) Data is hidden and cannot be accessed by external functions.
6) Objects may communicate with each other through functions.
7) New data and functions can be easily added wherever
necessary.
8) Follows bottom up approach in program design.
9) Through inheritance, we can eliminate redundant code and
extend the use of existing classes
10) We can build program from the standard working module that
communicate with one another, rather than having to start
writing the code from scratch. This leads to saving of
development time and higher productivity.
11) The principal of data hiding helps the programmer to build
secure programs that cannot be invaded by code in other part
of the program.
12) It is possible to have multiple instance of an object to co-exist
without any interference
13) It is easy to partition the work in a project, based on objects.
14) Object oriented systems can be easily upgraded from small to
large systems.
15) Message passing techniques for communication between
objects makes the interface description with external systems
much simpler.
16) Software complexity can be easily managed.

1.8 C++ AND C

 C is procedure oriented programming & c++ is object

oriented programming.

 C is top to bottom programming approach; c++ is bottom to

top programming approach.
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 C ++ has inheritance concept but c has not inheritance

concept

 C is structured design, c++ is object oriented design

 C input/output is based on library and the processes are

carried out by including functions.

 C++ I/O is made through console commands cin and cout.

 Undeclared functions in c++ are not allowed. The function

has to have a prototype defined before the main() before use
in c++ although in c the functions can be declared at the
point of use.

 Although it is possible to implement anything which C++

could implement in C, C++ aids to standardize a way in
which objects are created and managed, whereas the C
programmer who implements the same system has a lot of
liberty on how to actually implement the internals, and style
among programmers will vary a lot on the design choices
made.


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2
C++ PROGRAMMING BASICS

Unit Structure
2.1 Some of the important concepts in oops are
2.2 Basic Data Types in C++
2.3 Variables in C++
2.4 Operators in C++

2.1 SOME OF THE IMPORTANT CONCEPTS IN OOPS

ARE

1) Objects
2) Classes
3) Data abstraction & Encapsulation.
4) Inheritance
5) Polymorphism
6) Dynamic binding.
7) Message passing.

2.1.1 Object:-

i) Objects are the basic run-time entities in an object-oriented

system.
ii) They may represent a person, a place a bank account, a table of
data or any item that the program has to handle.
iii) Programming problem is analyzed in terms of objects and the
nature of communication between them.
iv) Objects take up space in the memory & have an associated
address like structure in c.
v) When a program executes, the object interacts by sending
messages to one another.

Ex. If there are two objects “customer” and “account”, then the
customer object may send a message to the account object
requesting for the bank balance. Thus each object contains data,
and code to manipulate the data.
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2.1.2 Classes

i) The entire set of data and code of an object can be made a user-
defined data type with the help of a class. Objects are actually
variable of the type class.
ii) Once a class has been defined, we can create any number of
objects belonging to that class. Thus a class is collection of
objects of similar type.
iii) Classes are user defined data types and behaves like the built in
type of a programming language.
iv) The syntax for defining class is class class-name
{
----------------
----------------
}

2.1.3 Data abstraction and Encapsulation

i) The wrapping up of data and functions into a single unit called
class is known as encapsulation.
ii) The data is not accessible to the outside world, and only those
functions which are wrapped in the class can access it.
iii) These functions provide the interface between the objects data
and the program. This insulation of the data from direct access
by the program is called data hiding or information hiding.
iv) Abstraction refers to the act of representing essential features
without including the background details or explanations.
v) Classes use the concept of abstraction and are defined as a list
of abstract attributes such as size, weight and coast, and
functions to operate on these attributes.
2.1.4 Inheritance

i) Inheritance is the process by which object of one class acquire

the properties of objects of another class.
ii) In OOPs, the concept of inheritance provides the idea of
reusability. This means that we can add additional features to
an existing class without modifying it.
iii) This is possible by deriving a new class from the existing one.
The new class will have combined features of both the classes.

2.1.5 Polymorphism
i) Polymorphism is important oops concept. It means ability to take
more than one form.
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ii) In polymorphism an operation may show different behavior in

different instances. The behavior depends upon the type of data
used in the operation.

For Ex- Operation of addition for two numbers, will generate

a sum. If the operands are strings, then the operation would
produce a third string by concatenation.

iii) The process of making an operator to show different behavior in

different instance is called as operator overloading. C++ support
operator overloading.

2.1.6 Dynamic Binding

i) Binding refers to the linking of a procedure call to the code to be

executed in response to the call.
ii) Dynamic binding means that the code associated with a given
procedure call is not known until the time of the call at run time.

2.1.7 Message Passing

i) OOPs consist of a set of objects that communicate with each

other.
ii) Message passing involves following steps
iii) Creating classes that define objects and their behavior
iv) Creating objects from class definitions and
v) Establishing communication among objects.
vi) A message for an object is a request for execution of a
procedure & therefore will invoke a function in the receiving
object that generates the desired result.

Message passing involves specifying the name of the object,

the name of the function i.e. message and the information to be
sent.

Ex customer. balance(account no)

object message information

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A First Simple C++ Program

# include<iostream.h>
int main()
{
cout<<.Hello World.;
return 0;
}

 C++ program is a collection of functions. Every C++ program

must have a main() function.

 The iostream file:-

The header file iostream should be included at the beginning
of all programs that uses one output statement.

 Input / Output operator

1. Input Operator cin :-

The identifier cin is a predefined object in c++ that
corresponds to the standard input stream. Here this stream
represents keyboard.

Syntax:- cin>>variable;

The operator >> is known as extraction or get from operator

& assigns it to the variable on its right.

2. Output operator cout :-

The identifier cout is predefined object that represents the
standard output stream in c++. Here standard output stream
represents the screen.

Syntax:- cout<<string;

The operator << is called the insertion or put to operator. It

inserts the contents of the variable on its right to the object on its
left.

3. Return type of main():-

In C++, main returns an integer type value to the operating
system. So return type for main() is explicitly specified as int.
Therefore every main() in c++ should end with a return 0 statement.
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2.2 BASIC DATA TYPES IN C++

C++ Data Types

User defined type Built in type Derived type

Structure Array
Union Function
Class Pointer
Enumeration reference

Integral Type void Floating type

int char Float double

Built-in-type

1) Integral type : – The data types in this type are int and char.
The modifiers signed, unsigned, long & short may be applied to
character & integer basic data type. The size of int is 2 bytes and
char is 1 byte.

2) void – void is used

i) To specify the return type of a function when it is not returning
any value.
ii) To indicate an empty argument list to a function.

Ex- Void function1(void)

iii) In the declaration of generic pointers.

EX- void *gp

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A generic pointer can be assigned a pointer value of any

basic data type.

Ex . int *ip // this is int pointer

gp = ip //assign int pointer to void.

A void pointer cannot be directly assigned to their type

pointers in c++ we need to use cast operator.

Ex - Void * ptr1;
Char * ptr2;
ptr2 = ptr1;
is allowed in c but not in c++

ptr2 = (char *)ptr1

is the correct statement

3) Floating type:
The data types in this are float & double. The size of the float
is 4 byte and double is 8 byte. The modifier long can be applied to
double & the size of long double is 10 byte.

User-defined type:
i) The user-defined data type structure and union are same as
that of C.
ii) Classes – Class is a user defined data type which can be used
just like any other basic data type once declared. The class
variables are known as objects.
iii) Enumeration
a) An enumerated data type is another user defined type which
provides a way of attaching names to numbers to increase
simplicity of the code.

b) It uses enum keyword which automatically enumerates a list of

words by assigning them values 0, 1, 2,..etc.

c) Syntax:-
enum shape {
circle,
square,
triangle
}

Now shape becomes a new type name & we can declare

new variables of this type.

EX . shape oval;
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d) In C++, enumerated data type has its own separate type.

Therefore c++ does not permit an int value to be automatically
converted to an enum value.

Ex. shape shapes1 = triangle, // is allowed

shape shape1 = 2; // Error in c++
shape shape1 = (shape)2; //ok

e) By default, enumerators are assigned integer values starting

with 0, but we can over-ride the default value by assigning some
other value.

EX enum colour {red, blue, pink = 3}; //it will assign red to o, blue
to 1, & pink to 3 or enum colour {red = 5, blue, green}; //it will
assign red to 5, blue to 6 & green to 7.

Derived Data types:

1) Arrays
An array in c++ is similar to that in c, the only difference is
the way character arrays are initialized. In c++, the size should be
one larger than the number of character in the string where in c, it is
exact same as the length of string constant.

Ex - char string1[3] = “ab”; // in c++

char string1[2] = “ab”; // in c.

2) Functions
Functions in c++ are different than in c there is lots of
modification in functions in c++ due to object orientated concepts in
c++.

3) Pointers
Pointers are declared & initialized as in c.

Ex int * ip; // int pointer

ip = &x; //address of x through indirection

c++ adds the concept of constant pointer & pointer to a constant

pointer.

char const *p2 = .HELLO.; // constant pointer

Next you have a summary of the basic fundamental data

types in C++, as well as the range of values that can be
represented with each one:
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Name Description Size* Range*

Char Character or 1bytesigned: -128 t127

small integer unsigned: 0 to 255
short int Short Integer. 2bytes signed: -32768 to 32767
(short) unsigned: 0 to65535
Int Integer. 4bytes signed: - 2147483648 to
2147483647
unsigned: 0 to 4294967295
long int Long integer. 4bytes signed: -2147483648 to
(long) 2147483647
unsigned: 0 to 4294967295
Bool Boolean value. It 1byte true or false
can take one of
two values: true
or false.
Float Floating point 4bytes 3.4e +/- 38 (7 digits)
number.
double Double precision 8bytes 1.7e +/- 308 (15 digits)
floating point
number.
long Long double 8bytes 1.7e +/- 308 (15 digits)
double precision floating
point number.
wchar_t Wide character. 2bytes 1 wide character

2.3 VARIABLES IN C++

Declaration of variables.

C requires all the variables to be defined at the beginning of

a scope. But c++ allows the declaration of variable anywhere in the
scope. That means a variable can be declared right at the place of
its first use. It makes the program easier to understand.

In order to use a variable in C++, we must first declare it

specifying which data type we want it to be. The syntax to declare a
new variable is to write the specifier of the desired data type (like
int, bool, float...) followed by a valid variable identifier.

For example: int a;

float mynumber;

These are two valid declarations of variables. The first one

declares a variable of type int with the identifier a. The second one
declares a variable of type float with the identifier mynumber. Once
 18

declared, the variables a and mynumber can be used within the

rest of their scope in the program.

If you are going to declare more than one variable of the

same type, you can declare all of them in a single statement by
separating their identifiers with commas.

For example: int a, b, c;

This declares three variables (a, b and c), all of them of type
int, and has exactly the same meaning as: int a;
int b;
int c;

The integer data types char, short, long and int can be
either signed or unsigned depending on the range of numbers
needed to be represented. Signed types can represent both
positive and negative values, whereas unsigned types can only
represent positive values (and zero). This can be specified by using
either the specifier signed or the specifier unsigned before the type
name.

For example: unsigned short int Number OfSisters;

signed int My Account Balance;

By default, if we do not specify either signed or unsigned

most compiler settings will assume the type to be signed, therefore
instead of the second declaration above we could have written:
int MyAccountBalance;

with exactly the same meaning (with or without the keyword

signed)

An exception to this general rule is the char type, which

exists by itself and is considered a different fundamental data type
from signed char and unsigned char, thought to store characters.
You should use either signed or unsigned if you intend to store
numerical values in a char-sized variable.

short and long can be used alone as type specifiers. In this

case, they refer to their respective integer fundamental types: short
is equivalent to short int and long is equivalent to long int. The
following two variable declarations are equivalent:
short Year;
short int Year;

Finally, signed and unsigned may also be used as

standalone type specifiers, meaning the same as signed int and
 19

unsigned int respectively. The following two declarations are

equivalent:
unsigned NextYear;
unsigned int NextYear;

To see what variable declarations look like in action within a

program, we are going to see the C++ code of the example about
your mental memory proposed at the beginning of this section:

Scope of variables:

All the variables that we intend to use in a program must

have been declared with its type specifier in an earlier point in the
code, like we did in the previous code at the beginning of the body
of the function main when we declared that a, b, and result were of
type int.

A variable can be either of global or local scope. A global

variable is a variable declared in the main body of the source code,
outside all functions, while a local variable is one declared within
the body of a function or a block.

Global variables can be referred from anywhere in the code,

even inside functions, whenever it is after its declaration.

The scope of local variables is limited to the block enclosed

in braces ({}) where they are declared. For example, if they are
declared at the beginning of the body of a function (like in function
main) their scope is between its declaration point and the end of
that function. In the example above, this means that if another
function existed in addition to main, the local variables declared in
main could not be accessed from the other function and vice versa.
 20

Dynamic initialization of variables.

In c++, a variable can be initialized at run time using
expressions at the place of declaration. This is refereed to as
dynamic initialization.

Ex int m = 10;

Here variable m is declared and initialized at the same time.

Reference variables

i) A reference variable provides an alias for a previously defined

variable.

ii) Example:-
If we make the variable sum a reference to the
variable total, then sum & total can be used
interchangeably to represent that variable.

iii) Reference variable is created as:-

data type & reference name = variable name.

Ex int sum = 200;

int &total = sum;

Here total is the alternative name declared to represent the

variable sum. Both variable refer to the same data object in
memory.

iv) A reference variable must be initialized at the time of

declaration.

v) C++ assigns additional meaning to the symbol .&..Here & is not

an address operation. The notation int & means referenceto int.
A major application of reference variable is in passing
arguments to functions.

Ex void fun (int &x) // uses reference

{
x = x + 10; // x increment, so x also incremented.
}
int main( )
{
int n = 10;
fun(n); // function call
}
 21

When the function call fun(n) is executed, it will assign x to

ni.e. int &x = n;

Therefore x and n are aliases & when function increments x.

n is also incremented. This type of function call is called call by
reference.

Introduction to strings:

Variables that can store non-numerical values that are

longer than one single character are known as strings.

The C++ language library provides support for strings

through the standard string class. This is not a fundamental type,
but it behaves in a similar way as fundamental types do in its most
basic usage.

A first difference with fundamental data types is that in order

to declare and use objects (variables) of this type we need to
include an additional header file in our source code: <string> and
have access to the std namespace (which we already had in all our
previous programs thanks to the using namespace statement).The
following initialization formats are valid for strings:
string mystring = “This is a string”;
string mystring (“This is a string”);

Strings can also perform all the other basic operations that
fundamental data types can, like being declared without an initial
value and being assigned values during execution.

2.4 OPERATORS IN C++

2.4.1 Assignment (=):

The assignment operator assigns a value to a variable.

a=5;

This statement assigns the integer value 5 to the variable a.

The part at the left of the assignment operator (=) is known as the
lvalue (left value) and the right one as the rvalue (right value). The
lvalue has to be a variable whereas the rvalue can be a constant, a
variable, the result of an operation or any combination of these.
The most important rule when assigning is the right-to-left rule: The
assignment operation always takes place from right to left, and
never the other way:
a= b

This statement assigns to variable a (the lvalue) the value

contained in variable b (the rvalue). The value that was stored until
 22

this moment in a is not considered at all in this operation, and in

fact that value is lost.

2.4.2 Arithmetic operators ( +, -, *, /, % )

The five arithmetical operations supported by the C++ language

are:

+ addition
- subtraction
* multiplication
/ division
% modulo

Operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and

division literally correspond with their respective mathematical
operators. The only one that you might not be so used to see may
be modulo; whose operator is the percentage sign (%). Modulo is
the operation that gives the remainder of a division of two values.
For example, if we write:
a = 11 %3

The variable a will contain the value 2, since 2 is the

remainder from dividing 11 between 3.

2.4.3 Compound assignment (+=, -=, *=, /=, %=, >>=, <<=,
&=, ^=, |=)

When we want to modify the value of a variable by

performing an operation on the value currently stored in that
variable we can use compound assignment operators:

expression is equivalent to

value += increase; value = value + increase;

a -= 5; a = a - 5;
a /= b; a = a / b;
price *= units + 1; price = price * (units + 1);

2.4.4 Increase and decrease (++, --)

Shortening even more some expressions, the increase

operator (++) and the decrease operator (--) increase or reduce by
one the value stored in a variable. They are equivalent to +=1 and
to -=1, respectively. Thus:
c++;
c+=1;
c=c+1;
 23

are all equivalent in its functionality: the three of them increase by

one the value of c.

A characteristic of this operator is that it can be used both as

a prefix and as a suffix. That means that it can be written either
before the variable identifier (++a) or after it (a++). Although in
simple expressions like a++ or ++a both have exactly the same
meaning, in other expressions in which the result of the increase or
decrease operation is evaluated as a value in an outer expression
they may have an important difference in their meaning: In the case
that the increase operator is used as a prefix (++a) the value is
increased before the result of the expression is evaluated and
therefore the increased value is considered in the outer expression;
in case that it is used as a suffix (a++) the value stored in a is
increased after being evaluated and therefore the value stored
before the increase operation is evaluated in the outer expression.
Notice the difference:

Example1 Example 2
B=3; B=3;
A=++B; A=B++;

Outpu //A contains 4 //A contains 3, B contains 4

In Example 1, B is increased before its value is copied to A.

While in Example 2, the value of B is copied to A and then B is
increased.

2.4.5 Relational and equality operators ( ==, !=, >, <, >=, <= ):

In order to evaluate a comparison between two expressions

we can use the relational and equality operators. The result of a
relational operation is a Boolean value that can only be true or
false, according to its Boolean result.

We may want to compare two expressions, for example, to

know if they are equal or if one is greater than the other is. Here is
a list of the relational and equality operators that can be used in
C++:

Operators Meaning
== Equal to
!= Not equal to
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal to
<= Less than or equal to
 24

Here there are some examples:

(7 == 5) // evaluates to false.
(5 > 4) // evaluates to true.
(3 != 2) // evaluates to true.
(6 >= 6) // evaluates to true.
(5 < 5) // evaluates to false.

Of course, instead of using only numeric constants, we can use

any valid expression, including variables. Suppose that a=2, b=3
and c=6,

(a == 5) // evaluates to false since a is not equal to 5.

(a*b >= c) // evaluates to true since (2*3 >= 6) is true.
(b+4 > a*c) // evaluates to false since (3+4 > 2*6) is false.
((b=2) == a) // evaluates to true.

Be careful! The operator = (one equal sign) is not the same

as the operator == (two equal signs), the first one is an assignment
operator (assigns the value at its right to the variable at its left) and
the other one (==) is the equality operator that compares whether
both expressions in the two sides of it are equal to each other.
Thus, in the last expression ((b=2) == a), we first assigned the
value 2 to b and then we compared it to a, that also stores the
value 2, so the result of the operation is true.

2.4.6 Logical operators ( !, &&, || ):

The Operator ! is the C++ operator to perform the Boolean

operation NOT, it has only one operand, located at its right, and the
only thing that it does is to inverse the value of it, producing false if
its operand is true and true if its operand is false. Basically, it
returns the opposite Boolean value of evaluating its operand.

For example:
!(5 == 5) // evaluates to false because the expression at its right
(5 == 5) is true.
!(6 <= 4) // evaluates to true because (6 <= 4) would be false.
!true // evaluates to false
!false // evaluates to true.

The logical operators && and || are used when evaluating

two expressions to obtain a single relational result. The operator &&
corresponds with Boolean logical operation AND. This operation
results true if both its two operands are true, and false otherwise.
The following panel shows the result of operator && evaluating the
expression a && b:
 25

&& OPERATOR

a b a && b
true true true
true false false
false true false
false false false

The operator || corresponds with Boolean logical operation OR.

This operation results true if either one of its two operands is true,
thus being false only when both operands are false themselves.
Here are the possible results of a || b:

|| OPERATOR
a b a || b
true true true
true false true
false true true
false false falseFor example:
( (5 == 5) && (3 > 6) ) // evaluates to false ( true && false ).
( (5 == 5) || (3 > 6) ) // evaluates to true ( true || false ).

2.4.7 Conditional operator ( ? )

The conditional operator evaluates an expression returning a

value if that expression is true and a different one if the expression
is evaluated as false. Its format is:
condition ? result1 : result2

If condition is true the expression will return result1, if it is not

it will return result2.

7==5 ? 4 : 3 // returns 3, since 7 is not equal to 5.

7==5+2 ? 4 : 3 // returns 4, since 7 is equal to 5+2.
5>3 ? a : b // returns the value of a, since 5 is greater than 3.
a>b ? a : b // returns whichever is greater, a or b.

2.4.8 Comma operator ( , ):

The comma operator (,) is used to separate two or more

expressions that are included where only one expression is
expected. When the set of expressions has to be evaluated for a
value, only the rightmost expression is considered.
For example, the following code:
a = (b=3, b+2);

Would first assign the value 3 to b, and then assign b+2 to

variable a. So, at the end, variable a would contain the value 5
while variable b would contain value 3.
 26

2.4.9 sizeof()

This operator accepts one parameter, which can be either a

type or a variable itself and returns the size in bytes of that type or
object:
a = sizeof (char);

This will assign the value 1 to a, because char is a one-byte

long type.

The value returned by sizeof is a constant, so it is always

determined before program execution.

Some of the new operators in c++ are-

1. :: Scope resolution operators.

2. ::* pointer to member decelerator.
3. * pointer to member operator.
4. .* pointer to member operator.
5. delete memory release operator.
6. endl Line feed operator
7. new Memory allocation operator.
8. stew Field width operator.

Scope resolution Operator.

1) C++ is a block - structured language. The scope of the variable

extends from the point of its declaration till the end of the block
containing the declaration.

2) Consider following program.

...
....
{ int x = 1;
===
}
=====
{ int x = 2;
} =====

The two declaration of x refer to two different memory

locations containing different values. Blocks in c++ are often
nested. Declaration in a inner block hides a declaration of the same
variable in an outer block.

3) In C, the global version of a variable cannot be accessed from

within the inner block. C++ resolves this problem by using scope
resolution operator (::), because this operator allows access to the
global version of a variable.
 27

4) Consider following program.

# include<iostream.h >
int m = 10;
int main ( )
{
int m = 20;
{
int k = m;
int m = 30;
cout << .K = . <<k;
cout << .m = .<<m;
cout << : : m = . << : : m;
}
cout << .m. = .<< m;
cout << .::m = <<::m;
return 0;
}

The output of program is

k = 20
m = 30
:: m = 10
m = 20
:: m =10

In the above program m is declared at three places. And ::m

will always refer to global m.

5) A major application of the scope resolution operator is in the

classes to identify the class to which a member functions
belongs.

Member dereferencing operators .

C++ permits us to define a class containing various types of

data & functions as members. C++ also permits us to access the
class members through pointers. C++ provides a set of three
pointer. C++ provides a set of three pointers to member operators.

1) ::* - To access a pointer to a member of a class.

2) .* - To access a member using object name & a pointer
to that member.
3) * - To access a member using a pointer in the object &
a pointer to the member.

Memory management operators.

1) We use dynamic allocation techniques when it is not known in

advance how much of memory space is needed. C++ supports
 28

two unary operators new and delete that perform the task of
allocating & freeing the memory.

2) An object can be created by using new and destroyed by using

delete. A data object created inside a block with new, will
remain existence until it is explicitly destroyed by using delete.

3) It takes following form.

variable = new data type

The new operator allocated sufficient memory to hold a data

object of type data-type & returns the address of the object.

EX p = new int.

Where p is a pointer of type int. Here p must have already been

declared as pointer of appropriate types.

4) New can be used to create a memory space for any data type
including user defined type such all array, classes etc.

Ex int * p = new int [10]

Creates a memory space for an array of 10 integers.

5) When a data object is no longer needed, it is destroyed to

release the memory space for reuse. The general form is delete
variable. If we want to free a dynamically allocated array, we must
use following form.

delete [size] variable.

The size specifies the no of elements in the array to be freed.

6) The new operator has following advantages over the function

malloc() in c -.

i) It automatically computes the size of the data object. No need to

use sizeOf()
ii) If automatically returns the correct pointer type, so that there is
no need to use a type cast.
iii) new and delete operators can be overloaded.
iv) It is possible to initialize the object while creating the memory
space.
 29

Manipulators:
Manipulators are operators that are used to format the data
display. There are two important manipulators.

1) endl
2) stew

1) endl : -
This manipulator is used to insert a linefeed into an output. It
has same effect as using .\n. for newline.

Ex cout<< .a. << a << endl <<.n=. <<n;

<< endl<<.p=.<<p<<endl;

The output is
a = 2568
n = 34
p = 275

2) Setw : -
With the stew, we can specify a common field width for all
the numbers and force them to print with right alignment.

EX cout<<stew (5) <<sum<<endl;

The manipulator setw(5) specifies a field width of 5 for

printing the value of variable sum the value is right justified.

3 5 6

Type cast operator.

C++ permits explicit type conversion of variables or

expressions using the
type cast operator.

Syntax . type name (expression)

Ex avg = sum/float(i)

Here a type name behaves as if it is a function for converting

values to a designated type.


 30

3
CONTROL STATEMENTS

Unit Structure

3.1 Introduction :
3.2 if – else Statement
3.3 Nested ifs :
3.4 The switch Statement
3.5 The for Loop
3.6 The while Loop
3.7 The do-while Loop
3.8 Using break to Exit a Loop
3.9 Using the goto Statement

3.1 INTRODUCTION :

This module discusses the statements that control a

program’s flow of execution. There are three categories of :
selection statements, which include the if and the switch; iteration
statements, which include the for, while, and do-while loops; and
jump statements, which include break, continue, return, and goto.
Except for return, which is discussed later in this book, the
remaining control statements, including the if and for statements to
which you have already had a brief introduction, are examined
here.

3.2 IF – ELSE STATEMENT

The complete form of the if statement is

if(expression) statement
else statement

where the targets of the if and else are single statements.

The else clause is optional. The targets of both the if and else can
also be blocks of statements. The general form of the if using
blocks of statements is
 31

if(expression)
{
statement sequence
}
else
{
statement sequence
}

If the conditional expression is true, the target of the if will be

executed; otherwise, the target of the else, if it exists, will be
executed. At no time will both be executed. The conditional
expression controlling the if may be any type of valid C++
expression that produces a true or false result.

This program uses the ‘if’ statement to determine whether

the user’s guess matches the magic number. If it does, the
message is printed on the screen. Taking the Magic Number
program further, the next version uses the else to print a message
when the wrong number is picked:

#include<iostream>
#include<cstdlib>
int main()
{
int magic;// magic number
int guess;// users guess
magic = rand(); // get a random number
cout << “Enter your guess”
cin >> guess;
if (guess == magic) cout << “Right”;
else cout<< “ sorry , your are wrong”;
return 0;
}

3.3 NESTED IFS :

A nested if is an if statement that is the target of another if or

else. Nested ifs are very common in programming. The main thing
to remember about nested ifs in C++ is that an else statement
always refers to the nearest if statement that is within the same
block as the else and not already associated with an else.
 32

The general form of the nested if using blocks of statements is

if(expression)
{
statement sequence
if(expression)
{
statement sequence
}
else
{
statement sequence
}
}
else
{
statement sequence
}

Here is an example
if(i)
{
if(j) result =1;
if(k) result =2;
else result = 3;
}
else result = 4;

The final else is not associated with if(j) (even though it is the
closest if without an else), because it is not in the same block.
Rather, the final else is associated with if(i). The inner else is
associated with if(k) because that is the nearest if. You can use a
nested if to add a further improvement to the Magic Number
program. This addition provides the player with feedback about a
wrong guess.

3.4 THE SWITCH STATEMENT

The second of C++’s selection statements is the switch. The

switch provides for a multiway branch. Thus, it enables a program
to select among several alternatives. Although a series of nested if
statements can perform multiway tests, for many situations the
switch is a more efficient approach. It works like this: the value of
 33

an expression is successively tested against a list of constants.

When a match is found, the statement sequence associated with
that match is executed. The general form of the switch statement is
Switch(expression)

{ case constant 1 :
Statement sequence
Break;
case constant 2 :
Statement sequence
Break;
case constant 3 :
Statement sequence
Break;
.
.
.
Default:
Statement sequence
}

The switch expression must evaluate to either a character or

an integer value. (Floatingpoint expressions, for example, are not
allowed.) Frequently, the expression controlling the switch is simply
a variable. The case constants must be integer or character literals.

The default statement sequence is performed if no matches

are found. The default is optional; if it is not present, no action takes
place if all matches fail. When a match is found, the statements
associated with that case are executed until the break is
encountered or, in a concluding case or default statement, until the
end of the switch is reached.

There are four important things to know about the switch

statement:

The switch differs from the if in that switch can test only for
equality (that is, for matches between the switch expression and
the case constants), whereas the if conditional expression can be
of any type.

No two case constants in the same switch can have identical

values. Of course, a switch statement enclosed by an outer switch
may have case constants that are the same.

A switch statement is usually more efficient than nested ifs.

 34

The statement sequences associated with each case are not

blocks. However, the entire switch statement does define a block.
The importance of this will become apparent as you learn more
about C++.

The following program demonstrates the switch. It asks for a

number between 1 and 3, inclusive. It then displays a proverb
linked to that number. Any other number causes an error message
to be displayed.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int num;
cout<< “Enter a number from 1 to 3”;
cin >>num;
switch(num)
{
case 1:
cout << “ A rolling stone gathers no moss.\n”;
break;

case 2:
cout<< “ A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.\n”;
break;

case 3:
cout<< “ A full and his money soon parted.\n”;
break;

default :
cout<< “ you must enter 1 , 2 or 3.\n”;
break;
}
return 0;
}

Here is a sample run

Enter a number from 1 to 32

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
 35

3.5 THE FOR LOOP

You have been using a simple form of the for loop since
Module 1. You might be surprised at just how powerful and flexible
the for loop is. Let’s begin by reviewing the basics, starting with the
most traditional forms of the for.

The general form of the for loop for repeating a single statement is
for(initialization; expression; increment) statement;
For repeating a block, the general form is
for(initialization; expression; increment)
{
statement sequence
}

The initialization is usually an assignment statement that

sets the initial value of the loop control variable, which acts as the
counter that controls the loop. The expression is a conditional
expression that determines whether the loop will repeat. The
increment defines the amount by which the loop control variable will
change each time the loop is repeated. Notice that these three
major sections of the loop must be separated by semicolons. The
for loop will continue to execute as long as the conditional
expression tests true. Once the condition becomes false, the loop
will exit, and program execution will resume on the statement
following the for block.

The following program uses a for loop to print the square

roots of the numbers between 1 and 99. Notice that in this example,
the loop control variable is called num.

#include <iostream>
#inclume<cmath>
int main()
{
int num;
double sq_root;

for(num=1;num<100;num++)
{
sq_root=sqrt((double)num);
cout<<num<<””<<sq_root<<’\n’;
}
return 0;
}
 36

This program uses the standard function sqrt( ). As

explained in Module 2, the sqrt( ) function returns the square root of
its argument. The argument must be of type double, and the
function returns a value of type double. The header <cmath> is
required.

3.6 THE WHILE LOOP

Another loop is the while. The general form of the while loop
is while(expression) statement; where statement may be a single
statement or a block of statements. The expression defines the
condition that controls the loop, and it can be any valid expression.
The statement is performed while the condition is true. When the
condition becomes false, program control passes to the line
immediately following the loop.

The following program illustrates this characteristic of the

while loop. It displays a line of periods. The number of periods
displayed is equal to the value entered by the user. The program
does not allow lines longer than 80 characters. The test for a
permissible number of periods is performed inside the loop’s
conditional expression, not outside of it.

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int len;
cout<<”Enter length(1 to 79)”;
cin>>len;
while(len>0 $$ len<80)
{
cout<<’.’;
len--;
}
return 0;
}

If len is out of range, then the while loop will not execute
even once. Otherwise, the loop executes until len reaches zero.
There need not be any statements at all in the body of the while
loop. Here is an example: while(rand() != 100) ; This loop iterates
until the random number generated by rand( ) equals 100.
 37

3.7 THE DO-WHILE LOOP

The last of C++’s loops is the do-while. Unlike the for and the
while loops, in which the condition is tested at the top of the loop,
the do-while loop checks its condition at the bottom of the loop.
This means that a do-while loop will always execute at least once.
The general form of the do-while loop is
do { statements; } while(condition);

Although the braces are not necessary when only one

statement is present, they are often used to improve readability of
the do-while construct, thus preventing confusion with the while.
The do-while loop executes as long as the conditional expression is
true.
The following program loops until the number 100 is entered:

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int num;
do
{
cout << “Enter a number (100 to stop):”;
cin>> num;
}
while(num!=100);
return 0;
}

3.8 USING BREAK TO EXIT A LOOP

It is possible to force an immediate exit from a loop,

bypassing the loop’s conditional test, by using the break statement.
When the break statement is encountered inside a loop, the loop is
immediately terminated, and program control resumes at the next
statement following the loop. Here is a simple example:
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int t;
 38

for(t=0;t<100;t++)
{
if(t==10) break;
cout<<t<< ‘ ’;
}
return 0;
}

The output from the program is shown here: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

As the output illustrates, this program prints only the

numbers 0 through 9 on the screen before ending. It will not go to
100, because the break statement will cause it to terminate early.

Using continue

It is possible to force an early iteration of a loop, bypassing

the loop’s normal control structure. This is accomplished using
continue. The continue statement forces the next iteration of the
loop to take place, skipping any code between itself and the
conditional expression that controls the loop.

For example, the following program prints the even numbers

between 0 and 100:

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int x;
for(x=0;x<100;x++)
{
if(x%2) continue;
cout<<x<< ‘ ’;
}
return 0;
}

Only even numbers are printed, because an odd number will

cause the continue statement to execute, resulting in early iteration
of the loop, bypassing the cout statement. Remember that the %
operator produces the remainder of an integer division. Thus, when
x is odd, the remainder is 1, which is true. When x is even, the
remainder is 0, which is false. In while and do-while loops, a
continue statement will cause control to go directly to the
 39

conditional expression and then continue the looping process. In

the case of the for, the increment part of the loop is performed, then
the conditional expression is executed, and then the loop
continues.

3.9 USING THE GOTO STATEMENT

The goto is C++’s unconditional jump statement. Thus, when

encountered, program flow jumps to the location specified by the
goto.
There are times when the use of the goto can clarify
program flow rather than confuse it. The goto requires a label for
operation. A label is a valid C++ identifier followed by a colon.
Furthermore, the label must be in the same function as the goto
that uses it.

For example, a loop from 1 to 100 could be written using a

goto and a label, as shown here:
x=1;
loop1:
x++;
if(x<100) goto loop1;

One good use for the goto is to exit from a deeply nested routine.
For example, consider the following code fragment:

for(…){
for(…){
while(…){
if(…)goto stop
.
.
.
}
}
}
stop:
cout<<”Enter in program.\n”;
Eliminating the goto would force a number of additional tests
to be performed. A simple break statement would not work here,
because it would only cause the program to exit from the innermost
loop.

 40

4
FUNCTIONS
Unit Structure
4.1 Introduction :
4.2 Function
4.3 Arguments passed by value and by reference.
4.4 Default values in parameters
4.5 Overloaded functions
4.6 inline functions
4.7 Recursivity

4.1 INTRODUCTION :

Using functions we can structure our programs in a more

modular way, accessing all the potential that structured
programming can offer to us in C++.

4.2 FUNCTION

A function is a group of statements that is executed when it

is called from some point of the program. The following is its format:

type name ( parameter1, parameter2, ...) { statements

}

where:
 type is the data type specifier of the data returned by the
function.
 name is the identifier by which it will be possible to call the
function.
 parameters (as many as needed): Each parameter consists
of a data type specifier followed by an identifier, like any
regular variable declaration (for example: int x) and which
acts within the function as a regular local variable. They
allow to pass arguments to the function when it is called. The
different parameters are separated by commas.
 statements is the function's body. It is a block of statements
surrounded by braces { }.
 41

Here you have the first function example:

// function example
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int addition (int a, int b)

{
int r;
r=a+b;
return (r);
}

int main ()
{
int z;
z = addition (5,3);
cout << "The result is " << z;
return 0;
}

The result is 8

In order to examine this code, first of all remember

something said at the beginning of this tutorial: a C++ program
always begins its execution by the main function. So we will begin
there.

We can see how the main function begins by declaring the

variable z of type int. Right after that, we see a call to a function
called addition. Paying attention we will be able to see the similarity
between the structure of the call to the function and the declaration
of the function itself some code lines above:

The parameters and arguments have a clear

correspondence. Within the main function we called to addition
passing two values: 5 and 3, that correspond to the int a and int b
parameters declared for function addition.

At the point at which the function is called from within main,

the control is lost by main and passed to function addition. The
 42

value of both arguments passed in the call (5 and 3) are copied to

the local variables int a and int b within the function.

Function addition declares another local variable (int r), and

by means of the expression r=a+b, it assigns to r the result of a
plus b. Because the actual parameters passed for a and b are 5
and 3 respectively, the result is 8.

The following line of code:

return (r);

finalizes function addition, and returns the control back to the

function that called it in the first place (in this case, main). At this
moment the program follows it regular course from the same point
at which it was interrupted by the call to addition. But additionally,
because the return statement in function addition specified a value:
the content of variable r (return (r);), which at that moment had a
value of 8. This value becomes the value of evaluating the function
call.

So being the value returned by a function the value given to the

function call itself when it is evaluated, the variable z will be set to
the value returned by addition (5, 3), that is 8. To explain it another
way, you can imagine that the call to a function (addition (5,3)) is
literally replaced by the value it returns (8).

The following line of code in main is:

cout << "The result is " << z;

That, as you may already expect, produces the printing of the

result on the screen.

4.3 ARGUMENTS PASSED BY VALUE AND BY

REFERENCE.

Until now, in all the functions we have seen, the arguments

passed to the functions have been passed by value. This means
that when calling a function with parameters, what we have passed
to the function were copies of their values but never the variables
themselves.

For example, suppose that we called our first function

addition using the following code:
 43

int x=5, y=3, z;

z = addition ( x , y );

What we did in this case was to call to function addition

passing the values of x and y, i.e. 5 and 3 respectively, but not the
variables x and y themselves.

This way, when the function addition is called, the value of

its local variables a and b become 5 and 3 respectively, but any
modification to either a or b within the function addition will not have
any effect in the values of x and y outside it, because variables x
and y were not themselves passed to the function, but only copies
of their values at the moment the function was called.

But there might be some cases where you need to

manipulate from inside a function the value of an external variable.
For that purpose we can use arguments passed by reference, as in
the function duplicate of the following example:

// passing parameters by reference

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

void duplicate (int& a, int& b, int& c)

{
a*=2;
b*=2;
c*=2;
}

int main ()
{
int x=1, y=3, z=7;
duplicate (x, y, z);
cout << "x=" << x << ", y=" << y << ", z=" << z;
return 0;
}

The output is : x=2, y=6, z=14

 44

The first thing that should call your attention is that in the
declaration of duplicate the type of each parameter was followed by
an ampersand sign (&). This ampersand is what specifies that their
corresponding arguments are to be passed by reference instead of
by value.

When a variable is passed by reference we are not passing

a copy of its value, but we are somehow passing the variable itself
to the function and any modification that we do to the local
variables will have an effect in their counterpart variables passed as
arguments in the call to the function.

To explain it in another way, we associate a, b and c with the

arguments passed on the function call (x, y and z) and any change
that we do on a within the function will affect the value of x outside
it. Any change that we do on b will affect y, and the same with c
and z.

That is why our program's output, that shows the values

stored in x, y and z after the call to duplicate, shows the values of
all the three variables of main doubled.

If when declaring the following function:

void duplicate (int& a, int& b, int& c)

we had declared it this way:

void duplicate (int a, int b, int c)

i.e., without the ampersand signs (&), we would have not

passed the variables by reference, but a copy of their values
instead, and therefore, the output on screen of our program would
have been the values of x, y and z without having been modified.

Passing by reference is also an effective way to allow a

function to return more than one value. For example, here is a
function that returns the previous and next numbers of the first
parameter passed.

// more than one returning value

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
 45

void prevnext (int x, int& prev, int& next)

{
prev = x-1;
next = x+1;
}

int main ()
{
int x=100, y, z;
prevnext (x, y, z);
cout << "Previous=" << y << ", Next=" << z;
return 0;
}

The output is : Previous=99, Next=101

4.4 DEFAULT VALUES IN PARAMETERS

When declaring a function we can specify a default value for

each parameter. This value will be used if the corresponding
argument is left blank when calling to the function. To do that, we
simply have to use the assignment operator and a value for the
arguments in the function declaration. If a value for that parameter
is not passed when the function is called, the default value is used,
but if a value is specified this default value is ignored and the
passed value is used instead.

For example:
// default values in functions
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int divide (int a, int b=2)

{
int r;
r=a/b;
return (r);
}

int main ()
{
cout << divide (12);
 46

cout << endl;

cout << divide (20,4);
return 0;
}

The output is : 6
5

As we can see in the body of the program there are two calls
to function divide. In the first one:

divide (12)

we have only specified one argument, but the function

divide allows up to two. So the function divide has assumed that the
second parameter is 2 since that is what we have specified to
happen if this parameter was not passed (notice the function
declaration, which finishes with int b=2, not just int b). Therefore the
result of this function call is 6 (12/2).
In the second call:

divide (20,4)

there are two parameters, so the default value for b (int b=2)
is ignored and b takes the value passed as argument, that is 4,
making the result returned equal to 5 (20/4).

4.5 OVERLOADED FUNCTIONS

In C++ two different functions can have the same name if

their parameter types or number are different. That means that you
can give the same name to more than one function if they have
either a different number of parameters or different types in their
parameters.

For example:
// overloaded function
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int operate (int a, int b)

{
return (a*b);
}
float operate (float a, float b)
 47

{
return (a/b);
}

int main ()
{
int x=5,y=2;
float n=5.0,m=2.0;
cout << operate (x,y);
cout << "\n";
cout << operate (n,m);
cout << "\n";
return 0;
}

The output is : 10
2.5

In this case we have defined two functions with the same

name, operate, but one of them accepts two parameters of type int
and the other one accepts them of type float. The compiler knows
which one to call in each case by examining the types passed as
arguments when the function is called. If it is called with two ints as
its arguments it calls to the function that has two int parameters in
its prototype and if it is called with two floats it will call to the one
which has two float parameters in its prototype.

In the first call to operate the two arguments passed are of

type int, therefore, the function with the first prototype is called; This
function returns the result of multiplying both parameters. While the
second call passes two arguments of type float, so the function with
the second prototype is called. This one has a different behavior: it
divides one parameter by the other. So the behavior of a call to
operate depends on the type of the arguments passed because the
function has been overloaded.

Notice that a function cannot be overloaded only by its return

type. At least one of its parameters must have a different type.

4.6 INLINE FUNCTIONS

The inline specifier indicates the compiler that inline

substitution is preferred to the usual function call mechanism for a
specific function. This does not change the behavior of a function
itself, but is used to suggest to the compiler that the code
 48

generated by the function body is inserted at each point the

function is called, instead of being inserted only once and perform a
regular call to it, which generally involves some additional overhead
in running time.

The format for its declaration is:

inline type name ( arguments ... ) { instructions ... }

and the call is just like the call to any other function. You do not
have to include the inline keyword when calling the function, only in
its declaration.

Most compilers already optimize code to generate inline

functions when it is more convenient. This specifier only indicates
the compiler that inline is preferred for this function.

4.7 RECURSIVITY

Recursivity is the property that functions have to be called by

themselves. It is useful for many tasks, like sorting or calculate the
factorial of numbers. For example, to obtain the factorial of a
number (n!) the mathematical formula would be:

n! = n * (n-1) * (n-2) * (n-3) ... * 1

more concretely, 5! (factorial of 5) would be:

5! = 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120

and a recursive function to calculate this in C++ could be:

// factorial calculator
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

long factorial (long a)

{
if (a > 1)
return (a * factorial (a-1));
else
return (1);
}

int main ()
 49

{
long number;
cout << "Please type a number: ";
cin >> number;
cout << number << "! = " << factorial (number);
return 0;
}

The output is : Please type a number: 9

9! = 362880

Notice how in function factorial we included a call to itself,

but only if the argument passed was greater than 1, since otherwise
the function would perform an infinite recursive loop in which once it
arrived to 0 it would continue multiplying by all the negative
numbers (probably provoking a stack overflow error on runtime).
This function has a limitation because of the data type we used in
its design (long) for more simplicity. The results given will not be
valid for values much greater than 10! or 15!, depending on the
system you compile it.


 50

5
OBJECT AND CLASSES

Unit Structure
5.1 Introduction to Classes
5.2 Class Definition
5.3 Classes and Objects
5.4 Access specifis- Private Public and Protected members
5.5 Member Functions of a Class
5.6 Passing and Returning Objects
5.7 Creating and Using a Copy Constructor

5.1 INTRODUCTION TO CLASSES

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a conceptual

approach to design programs. It can be implemented in many
languages, whether they directly support OOP concepts or not. The
C language also can be used to implement many of the object-
oriented principles. However, C++ supports the object-oriented
features directly. All these features like Data abstraction, Data
encapsulation, Information hiding etc have one thing in common –
the vehicle that is used to implement them. The vehicle is “ class.”

Class is a user defined data type just like structures, but with
a difference. It also has three sections namely private, public and
protected. Using these, access to member variables of a class can
be strictly controlled.

5.2 CLASS DEFINITION

The following is the general format of defining a class template:

class class_name
{
permission_label_1:
member1;
permission_label_2:
member2;
...
} object_name;
 51

example:-
class tag_name
{
public : // Must
type member_variable_name;
:
type member_function_name();
:
private: // Optional
type member_variable_name;
:
type member_function_name();
:
};

The keyword class is used to define a class template. The

private and public sections of a class are given by the keywords
‘private’ and ‘public’ respectively. They determine the accessibility
of the members. All the variables declared in the class, whether in
the private or the public section, are the members of the class.
Since the class scope is private by default, you can also omit the
keyword private. In such cases you must declare the variables
before public, as writing public overrides the private scope of the
class.

e.g.
class tag_name
{
type member_variable_name; // private
:
type member_function_name(); // private
:
public : // Must
type member_variable_name;
:
type member_function_name();
:
};

The variables and functions from the public section are

accessible to any function of the program. However, a program can
access the private members of a class only by using the public
member functions of the class. This insulation of data members
from direct access in a program is called information hiding.
 52

e.g.
class player
{
public :
void getstats(void);
void showstats(void);
int no_player;
private :
char name[40];
int age;
int runs;
int tests;
float average;
float calcaverage(void);
};

The above example models a cricket player. The variables in

the private section – name, age, runs, highest, tests, and average –
can be accessed only by member functions of the class
calcaverage(), getstats() and showstats(). The functions in the
public section - getstats() and showstats() can be called from the
program directly , but function calcaverage() can be called only
from the member functions of the class – getstats() and
showstats().

With information hiding one need not know how actually the
data is represented or functions implemented. The program need
not know about the changes in the private data and functions. The
interface(public) functions take care of this. The OOP methodology
is to hide the implementation specific details, thus reducing the
complexities involved.

5.3 CLASSES AND OBJECTS

As seen earlier, a class is a vehicle to implement the OOP

features in the C++ language. Once a class is declared, an object
of that type can be defined. An object is said to be a specific
instance of a class just like Maruti car is an instance of a vehicle or
pigeon is the instance of a bird. Once a class has been defined
several objects of that type can be declared. For instance, an object
of the class defined above can be declared with the following
statement:
 53

player Sachin, Dravid, Mohan ;

[Or]
class player Sachin , Dravid, Mohan ;

where Sachin and Dravid are two objects of the class player.
Both the objects have their own set of member variables. Once the
object is declared, its public members can be accessed using the
dot operator with the name of the object. We can also use the
variable no_player in the public section with a dot operator in
functions other than the functions declared in the public section of
the class.

e.g.
Sachin.getstats();
Dravid.showstats();
Mohan.no_player = 10;

5.4 ACCESS SPECIFIS- PRIVATE PUBLIC AND

PROTECTED MEMBERS

Class members can either be declared in public’,’protected’

or in the ‘private’ sections of the class. But as one of the features of
OOP is to prevent data from unrestricted access, the data members
of the class are normally declared in the private section. The
member functions that form the interface between the object and
the program are declared in public section ( otherwise these
functions can not be called from the program ). The member
functions which may have been broken down further or those,
which do not form a part of the interface, are declared in the private
section of the class. By default all the members of the class are
private. The third access specifier ‘protected’ that is not used in the
above example, pertains to the member functions of some new
class that will be inherited from the base class. As far as non-
member functions are concerned, private and protected are one
and the same.

Summary of Access specifiers:

• private members of a class are accessible only from other
members of their same class or from their "friend" classes.
• protected members are accessible from members of their same
class and friend classes, and also from members of their
derived classes.
• Finally, public members are accessible from anywhere the class
is visible.
 54

5.5 MEMBER FUNCTIONS OF A CLASS

A member function of the class is same as an ordinary

function. Its declaration in a class template must define its return
value as well as the list of its arguments. You can declare or define
the function in the class specifier itself, in which case it is just like a
normal function. But since the functions within the class specifier is
considered inline by the compiler we should not define large
functions and functions with control structures, iterative statements
etc should not be written inside the class specifier.

However, the definition of a member function differs from

that of an ordinary function if written outside the class specifier. The
header of a member function uses the scope operator (::) to specify
the class to which it belongs. The syntax is:

return_type class_name :: function_name (parameter list)

{
:
:
}

e.g.
void player :: getstats (void)
{
:
:
}

void player :: showstats (void)

{
:
:
}

This notation indicates that the functions getstats () and

showstats() belong to the class player.

EXAMPLE OF CLASS: Find the area of the rectangle

// class example
#include <iostream.h>
class CRectangle
{
int x, y;
public:
void set_values (int,int);
 55

int area (void) {return (x*y);}

};

void CRectangle::set_values (int a, int b)

{
x = a;
y = b;
}

int main ()
{
CRectangle rect, rectb;

rect.set_values (3,4);
rectb.set_values (5,6);

cout << "rect area: " << rect.area() << endl;

cout << "rectb area: " << rectb.area() << endl;
}

The output is :
rect area: 12
rectb area: 30

5.6 PASSING AND RETURNING OBJECTS

Objects can be passed to a function and returned back just

like normal variables. When an object is passed by content , the
compiler creates another object as a formal variable in the called
function and copies all the data members from the actual variable
to it. Objects can also be passed by address, which will be
discussed later.

e.g.
class check
{
public :
check add(check);

void get()
{
 56

cin >> a;
}

void put()
{
cout << a;
}
private :
int a;
};
void main()
{
check c1,c2,c3;
c1.get();
c2.get();
c3 = c1.add(c2);
c3.put();
}
check check :: add ( check c2)
{
check temp;
temp.a = a + c2.a;
return ( temp);
}

The above example creates three objects of class check. It

adds the member variable of two classes, the invoking class c1 and
the object that is passed to the function , c2 and returns the result
to another object c3.

You can also notice that in the class add() the variable of the
object c1 is just referred as ‘a’ where as the member of the object
passed .i.e. c2 is referred as ‘c2.a’ . This is because the member
function will be pointed by the pointer named this in the compiler
where as what we pass should be accessed by the extraction
operator ‘.’. we may pass more than one object and also normal
variable. we can return an object or a normal variable from the
function. We have made use of a temporary object in the function
add() in order to facilitate return of the object.
 57

5.7 CREATING AND USING A COPY CONSTRUCTOR

To begin, let’s review why you might need to explicitly define

a copy constructor. By default, when an object is passed to a
function, a bitwise (that is, exact) copy of that object is made and
given to the function parameter that receives the object. However,
there are cases in which this identical copy is not desirable. For
example, if the object uses a resource, such as an open file, then
the copy will use the same resource as does the original object.
Therefore, if the copy makes a change to that resource, it will be
changed for the original object, too!

Furthermore, when the function terminates, the copy will be

destroyed, thus causing its destructor to be called. This may cause
the release of a resource that is still needed by the original object.

A similar situation occurs when an object is returned by a

function. The compiler will generate a temporary object that holds a
copy of the value returned by the function. (This is done
automatically and is beyond your control.) This temporary object
goes out of scope once the value is returned to the calling routine,
causing the temporary object’s destructor to be called. However, if
the destructor destroys something needed by the calling code,
trouble will follow.

At the core of these problems is the creation of a bitwise

copy of the object. To prevent them, you need to define precisely
what occurs when a copy of an object is made so that you can
avoid undesired side effects. The way you accomplish this is by
creating a copy constructor.

Before we explore the use of the copy constructor, it is

important for you to understand that C++ defines two distinct types
of situations in which the value of one object is given to another.
The first situation is assignment. The second situation is
initialization, which can occur three ways:

When one object explicitly initializes another, such as in a

declaration.

When a copy of an object is made to be passed to a

function.

When a temporary object is generated (most commonly, as

a return value).

The copy constructor applies only to initializations. The copy

constructor does not apply to assignments.
 58

The most common form of copy constructor is shown here:

classname (const classname &obj)

{
// body of constructor
}

Here, obj is a reference to an object that is being used to

initialize another object. For example, assuming a class called
MyClass,and y as an object of type MyClass, then the following
statements would invoke the MyClass copy constructor:

MyClass x = y; // y explicitly initializing x

func1(y); // y passed as a parameter
y = func2(); // y receiving a returned object

In the first two cases, a reference to y would be passed to

the copy constructor. In the third, a reference to the object returned
by func2( ) would be passed to the copy constructor. Thus, when
an object is passed as a parameter, returned by a function, or used
in an initialization, the copy constructor is called to duplicate the
object.

Remember, the copy constructor is not called when one

object is assigned to another. For example, the following sequence
will not invoke the copy constructor:

MyClass x;
MyClass y; x = y; // copy constructor not used here.

Again, assignments are handled by the assignment operator, not

the copy constructor. The following program demonstrates a copy
constructor:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Myclass
{
int val;
int copynumber;

public:
//Normal constructor
Myclass(int i)
{
 59

val=i;
copynumber = 0;
cout<< “Inside normal constructor\n”;
}

//Copy constructor

Myclass(const Myclass &o)

{
val=o.val;
copynumber=o.copynumber+1;
cout<< “ Inside copy constructor \n”;
}

~Myclass()
{
if (copynumber==0)
cout<< “Destructing original \n”;
else
cout<< “Destructing Copy”<< copynumber <<
“\n”;
}
int getval()
{
return val;
}
};
void display(Myclass ob)
{
cout<< ob.getval()<< “\n”;
}
int main()
{
Myclass a(10);
display a;
return 0;
}
 60

The output is:

Inside normal constructor
Inside copy constructor
10
Destructing copy 1
Destructing original

Here is what occurs when the program is run: When a is

created inside main( ), the value of its copy number is set to 0 by
the normal constructor. Next, a is passed to ob of display( ). When
this occurs, the copy constructor is called, and a copy of a is
created. In the process, the copy constructor increments the value
of copy number. When display( ) returns, ob goes out of scope.
This causes its destructor to be called. Finally, when main( )
returns, a goes out of scope.

You might want to try experimenting with the preceding

program a bit. For example, create a function that returns a My
Class object, and observe when the copy constructor is called.


 61

6
STRUCTURES AND UNION

Unit Structure
6.1 Structures
6.2 Pointers to structures
6.3 Nesting structures
6.4 User Defined Data Types
6.5 Unions
6.6 Enumerations (enum)

6.1 STRUCTURES

A data structure is a set of diverse types of data that may

have different lengths grouped together under a unique declaration.
Its form is the following:

struct model_name
{
type1 element1;
type2 element2;
type3 element3;
.
.
} object_name;

where model_name is a name for the model of the structure

type and the optional parameter object_name is a valid identifier (or
identifiers) for structure object instantiations. Within curly brackets {
} they are the types and their sub-identifiers corresponding to the
elements that compose the structure.

If the structure definition includes the parameter

model_name (optional), that parameter becomes a valid type name
equivalent to the structure. For example:
 62

struct products
{
char name [30];
float price;
};
products apple;
products orange, melon;

We have first defined the structure model products with two

fields: name and price, each of a different type. We have then used
the name of the structure type (products) to declare three objects of
that type: apple, orange and melon.

Once declared, products has become a new valid type name

like the fundamental ones int, char or short and we are able to
declare objects (variables) of that type.

The optional field object_name that can go at the end of the

structure declaration serves to directly declare objects of the
structure type. For example, we can also declare the structure
objects apple, orange and melon this way:

struct products {
char name [30];
float price;
} apple, orange, melon;

Moreover, in cases like the last one in which we took

advantage of the declaration of the structure model to declare
objects of it, the parameter model_name (in this case products)
becomes optional. Although if model_name is not included it will not
be possible to declare more objects of this same model later.

It is important to clearly differentiate between what is a

structure model, and what is a structure object. Using the terms we
used with variables, the model is the type, and the object is the
variable. We can instantiate many objects (variables) from a single
model (type).

Once we have declared our three objects of a determined

structure model (apple, orange and melon) we can operate with the
fields that form them. To do that we have to use a point (.) inserted
between the object name and the field name. For example, we
 63

could operate with any of these elements as if they were standard

variables of their respective types:

apple.name
apple.price
orange.name
orange.price
melon.name
melon.price

each one being of its corresponding data type: apple.name,

orange.name and melon.name are of type char[30], and
apple.price, orange.price and melon.price are of type float.

We are going to leave apples, oranges and melons and go

with an example about movies:

// example about structures

#include <iostream.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

struct movies_t {
char title [50];
int year;
} mine, yours;

void printmovie (movies_t movie);

int main ()
{
char buffer [50];
strcpy (mine.title, "2001 A Space Odyssey");

mine.year = 1968;
cout << "Enter title: ";
cin.getline (yours.title,50);
cout << "Enter year: ";
cin.getline (buffer,50);
yours.year = atoi (buffer);
 64

cout << "My favourite movie is:\n ";

printmovie (mine);
cout << "And yours:\n ";
printmovie (yours);
return 0;
}

void printmovie (movies_t movie)

{
cout << movie.title;
cout << " (" << movie.year << ")\n";
}

Output :
Enter title: Alien
Enter year: 1979
My favourite movie is:
2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)
And yours:
Alien (1979)

The example shows how we can use the elements of a

structure and the structure itself as normal variables. For example,
yours.year is a valid variable of type int, and mine.title is a valid
array of 50 chars.

Notice that mine and yours are also treated as valid

variables of type movies_t when being passed to the function
printmovie(). Therefore, one of the most important advantages of
structures is that we can refer either to their elements individually or
to the entire structure as a block.

Structures are a feature used very often to build data bases,

specially if we consider the possibility of building arrays of them.

// array of structures
#include <iostream.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define N_MOVIES 5
 65

struct movies_t
{
char title [50];
int year;
} films [N_MOVIES];

void printmovie (movies_t movie);

int main ()
{
char buffer [50];
int n;
for (n=0; n<N_MOVIES; n++)
{
cout << "Enter title: ";
cin.getline (films[n].title,50);
cout << "Enter year: ";
cin.getline (buffer,50);
films[n].year = atoi (buffer);
}
cout << "\nYou have entered these
movies:\n";
for (n=0; n<N_MOVIES; n++)
printmovie (films[n]);
return 0;
}
void printmovie (movies_t movie)
{
cout << movie.title;
cout << " (" << movie.year << ")\n";
}
Output :
Enter title: Alien
Enter year: 1979
Enter title: Blade Runner
 66

Enter year: 1982

Enter title: Matrix
Enter year: 1999
Enter title: Rear Window
Enter year: 1954
Enter title: Taxi Driver
Enter year: 1975
You have entered these movies:
Alien (1979)
Blade Runner (1982)
Matrix (1999)
Rear Window (1954)
Taxi Driver (1975)

6.2 POINTERS TO STRUCTURES

Like any other type, structures can be pointed by pointers.

The rules are the same as for any fundamental data type: The
pointer must be declared as a pointer to the structure:
struct movies_t
{
char title [50];
int year;
};
movies_t amovie;
movies_t * pmovie;

Here amovie is an object of struct type movies_t and pmovie

is a pointer to point to objects of struct type movies_t. So, the
following, as with fundamental types, would also be valid:

pmovie = &amovie;

Ok, we will now go with another example, that will serve to

introduce a new operator:

// pointers to structures

#include <iostream.h>
 67

#include <stdlib.h>
struct movies_t
{
char title [50];
int year;
};

int main ()
{
char buffer[50];
movies_t amovie;
movies_t * pmovie;
pmovie = & amovie;

cout << "Enter title: ";

cin.getline (pmovie->title,50);
cout << "Enter year: ";
cin.getline (buffer,50);

pmovie->year = atoi (buffer);

cout << "\nYou have entered:\n";
cout << pmovie->title;
cout << " (" << pmovie->year << ")\n";
return 0;
}
Output:
Enter title: Matrix
Enter year: 1999
You have entered:
Matrix (1999)

The previous code includes an important introduction:

operator ->. This is a reference operator that is used exclusively
with pointers to structures and pointers to classes. It allows us not
to have to use parenthesis on each reference to a structure
member. In the example we used:
 68

pmovie->title
that could be translated to:
(*pmovie).title

both expressions pmovie->title and (*pmovie).title are valid and

mean that we are evaluating the element title of the structure
pointed by pmovie. You must distinguish it clearly from:

*pmovie.title
that is equivalent to
*(pmovie.title)

and that would serve to evaluate the value pointed by element title
of structure movies, that in this case (where title is not a pointer) it
would not make much sense.

6.3 NESTING STRUCTURES

Structures can also be nested so that a valid element of a

structure can also be another structure.

struct movies_t
{
char title [50];
int year;
}

struct friends_t
{
char name [50];
char email [50];
movies_t favourite_movie;
} charlie, maria;

friends_t * pfriends = &charlie;

 69

Therefore, after the previous declaration we could use the following

expressions:

charlie.name
maria.favourite_movie.title
charlie.favourite_movie.year
pfriends->favourite_movie.year

(where, by the way, the last two expressions are equivalent).

The concept of structures that has been discussed in this

section is the same as used in C language, nevertheless, in C++,
the structure concept has been extended up to the same
functionality of a class with the peculiarity that all of its elements are
considered public.

6.4 USER DEFINED DATA TYPES

We have already seen a data type that is defined by the user

(programmer): the structures. But in addition to these there are
other kinds of user defined data types:

Typedef

C++ allows us to define our own types based on other

existing data types. In order to do that we shall use keyword
typedef, whose form is:

typedef existing_type new_type_name ;

where existing_type is a C++ fundamental or any other

defined type and new_type_name is the name that the new type we
are going to define will receive.

For example:

typedef char C;
typedef unsigned int WORD;
typedef char * string_t;
typedef char field [50];

In this case we have defined four new data types: C, WORD,

string_t and field as char, unsigned int, char* and char[50]
respectively, that we could perfectly use later as valid types:
 70

C achar, anotherchar, *ptchar1;

WORD myword;
string_t ptchar2;
field name;

Typedef can be useful to define a type that is repeatedly

used within a program and it is possible that we will need to change
it in a later version, or if a type you want to use has too long a name
and you want it to be shorter.

6.5 UNIONS

Unions allow a portion of memory to be accessed as

different data types, since all of them are in fact the same location
in memory. Its declaration and use is similar to the one of structures
but its functionality is totally different:
union model_name
{
type1 element1;
type2 element2;
type3 element3;
.
.
} object_name;

All the elements of the union declaration occupy the same

space of memory. Its size is the one of the greatest element of the
declaration.

For example:
union mytypes_t
{
char c;
int i;
float f;
} mytypes;
defines three elements:
mytypes.c mytypes.i
mytypes.f
 71

each one of a different data type. Since all of them are referring to a
same location in memory, the modification of one of the elements
will afect the value of all of them.

One of the uses a union may have is to unite an elementary

type with an array or structures of smaller elements. For example,

union mix_t
{
long l;
struct
{
short hi;
short lo;
} s;
char c[4];
} mix;

defines three names that allow us to access the same group

of 4 bytes: mix.l, mix.s and mix.c and which we can use according
to how we want to access it, as long, short or char respectively.

Anonymous unions
In C++ we have the option that unions be anonymous. If we
include a union in a structure without any object name (the one that
goes after the curly brackets { }) the union will be anonymous and
we will be able to access the elements directly by its name. For
example, look at the difference between these two declarations:

Union
struct
{
char title[50];
char author[50];
union
{
float dollars;
int yens;
};
} book;
 72

anonymous union
struct
{
char title[50];
char author[50];
union
{
float dollars;
int yens;
} price;
} book;

The only difference between the two pieces of code is that in

the first one we gave a name to the union (price) and in the second
we did not. The difference is when accessing members dollars and
yens of an object.

In the first case it would be:

book.price.dollars
book.price.yens

whereas in the second it would be:

book.dollars
book.yens

Once again I remind you that because it is a union, the fields

dollars and yens occupy the same space in the memory so they
cannot be used to store two different values. That means that you
can include a price in dollars or yens, but not both.

6.6 ENUMERATIONS (ENUM)

Enumerations serve to create data types to contain

something different that is not limited to either numerical or
character constants nor to the constants true and false. Its form is
the following:

enum model_name
{
value1,
value2,
value3,
.
.
} object_name;
 73

For example, we could create a new type of variable called

color to store colors with the following declaration:

enum colors_t {black, blue, green, cyan, red, purple, yellow,

white};

Notice that we do not include any fundamental data type in

the declaration. To say it another way, we have created a new data
type without it being based on any existing one: the type color_t,
whose possible values are the colors that we have enclosed within
curly brackets {}. For example, once declared the colors_t
enumeration in the following expressions will be valid:

colors_t mycolor;

mycolor = blue;
if (mycolor == green) mycolor = red;

In fact our enumerated data type is compiled as an integer

and its possible values are any type of integer constant specified. If
it is not specified, the integer value equivalent to the first possible
value is 0 and the following ones follow a +1 progression. Thus, in
our data type colors_t that we defined before, black would be
equivalent to 0, blue would be equivalent to 1, green to 2 and so
on.

If we explicitly specify an integer value for some of the

possible values of our enumerated type (for example the first one)
the following values will be the increases of this, for example:

enum months_t
{
january=1, february, march, april,
may, june, july, august,
september, october, november, December
} y2k;

In this case, variable y2k of the enumerated type months_t

can contain any of the 12 possible values that go from January to
December and that are equivalent to values between 1 and 12, not
between 0 and 11 since we have made January equal to 1.


 74

7
ARRAYS

Unit Structure

7.1 Arrays
7.2 One-dimensional arrays
7.3 Two-Dimensional Arrays
7.4 Arrays of Strings
7.5 Arrays of Objects
7.6 Introduction to strings class

7.1 ARRAYS

An array is a collection of variables of the same type that are

referred to by a common name. Arrays may have from one to
several dimensions, although the one-dimensional array is the most
common. Arrays offer a convenient means of creating lists of
related variables.

The array that you will probably use most often is the
character array, because it is used to hold a character string. The
C++ language does not define a built-in string data type. Instead,
strings are implemented as arrays of characters. This approach to
strings allows greater power and flexibility than are available in
languages that use a distinct string type.

7.2 ONE-DIMENSIONAL ARRAYS

A one-dimensional array is a list of related variables. Such

lists are common in programming.

For example, you might use a one-dimensional array to store the

account numbers of the active users on a network. Another array
might store the current batting averages for a baseball team. When
computing the average of a list of values, you will often use an
array to hold the values. Arrays are fundamental to modern
programming.
 75

The general form of a one-dimensional array declaration is

type name[size];

Here, type declares the base type of the array. The base
type determines the data type of each element that makes up the
array. The number of elements the array can hold is specified by
size. For example, the following declares an integer array named
sample that is ten elements long:
int sample[10];

An individual element within an array is accessed through an

index. An index describes the position of an element within an
array. In C++, all arrays have zero as the index of their first
element. Because sample has ten elements, it has index values of
0 through 9. You access an array element by indexing the array
using the number of the element. To index an array, specify the
number of the element you want, surrounded by square brackets.
Thus, the first element in sample is sample[0], and the last element
is sample[9].

For example, the following program loads sample with the numbers
0 through 9:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main();
{
int sample[10]; // this reserves 10 integer
elements
int t;

//Load the array

for(t=0; t<10; ++t)
cout<< “this is
sample[“<<t<<”]:<<sample[t]<<”\n”;

return 0;
}
 76

The output from this example is shown here:

This is sample[0]: 0
This is sample[1]: 1
This is sample[2]: 2
This is sample[3]: 3
This is sample[4]: 4
This is sample[5]: 5
This is sample[6]: 6
This is sample[7]: 7
This is sample[8]: 8
This is sample[9]: 9

In C++, all arrays consist of contiguous memory locations.

(That is, all array elements reside next to each other in memory.)
The lowest address corresponds to the first element, and the
highest address corresponds to the last element.

Arrays are common in programming because they let you

deal easily with sets of related ariables. Here is an example.

The following program creates an array of ten elements and

assigns each element a value. It then computes the average of
those values and finds the minimum and the maximum value.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int i, avg, min_val, max_val;
int nums[10];

num[0]=10;
num[1]=18;
num[2]=75;
num[3]=0;
num[4]=1;
 77

num[5]=56;
num[6]=100;
num[7]=12;
num[8]=-19;
num[9]=88;

//Compute the average

avg=0;
for(i=0;i<10;i++)
{
avg+=nums[i];
}
avg /=10;
cout<< “Average is” <<avg<< ‘\n’;

//find minimum and maximum values

min_val=max_val=num[0];
for(i=1;i<10;i++)
{
if(nums[i]<min_val)
{
min_val=nums[i];
}
if(nums[i]>max_val)
{
max_val=nums[i];
}
}
cout<< “Minimum value:”<< min_val<< ‘\n’;
cout<< “Maximum value:”<<max_val<< ‘\n’;

return 0;
}
 78

The output from the program is shown here:

Average is 34
Minimum value: -19
Maximum value: 100

Notice how the program cycles through the elements in the

nums array. Storing the values in an array makes this process
easy. As the program illustrates, the loop control variable of a for
loop is used as an index. Loops such as this are very common
when working with arrays.

7.3 TWO-DIMENSIONAL ARRAYS

C++ allows multidimensional arrays. The simplest form of

the multidimensional array is the two-dimensional array. A two-
dimensional array is, in essence, a list of one-dimensional arrays.

To declare a two-dimensional integer array twoD of size

10,20, you would write

int twoD[10][20];

Pay careful attention to the declaration. Unlike some other

computer languages, which use commas to separate the array
dimensions, C++ places each dimension in its own set of brackets.
Similarly, to access an element, specify the indices within their own
set of brackets. For example, for point 3,5 of array twoD, you would
use twoD[3][5].

In the next example, a two-dimensional array is loaded with the

numbers 1 through 12.

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int t,i, nums[3][4];

for(t=0;t<3;++t)
{
for(i=0;i<4;++i)
{
 79

nums[t][i]=(t*4)+i+1;
cout<<nums[t][i]<< ‘ ’ ;
}
cout<< ‘\n’;
}
return 0;
}

In this example, nums[0][0] will have the value 1, nums[0][1]

the value 2, nums[0][2] the value 3, and so on. The value of
nums[2][3] will be 12. Conceptually, the array will look like that
shown here:

0 1 2 3

0 1 2 3 4

1 5 6 7 8
num[1][2]
2 9 10 11 12

7.4 ARRAYS OF STRINGS

A special form of a two-dimensional array is an array of

strings. It is not uncommon in programming to use an array of
strings. The input processor to a database, for instance, may verify
user commands against a string array of valid commands. To
create an array of strings, a two-dimensional character array is
used, with the size of the left index determining the number of
strings and the size of the right index specifying the maximum
length of each string, including the null terminator. For example, the
following declares an array of 30 strings, each having a maximum
length of 79 characters plus the null terminator.

char str_array[30][80];

Accessing an individual string is quite easy: you simply

specify only the left index. For example, the following statement
calls gets( ) with the third string in str_array:

gets(str_array[2]);
 80

To access an individual character within the third string, you

will use a statement like this:

cout << str_array[2][3];

This displays the fourth character of the third string.

The following program demonstrates a string array by

implementing a very simple computerized telephone directory. The
two-dimensional array numbers holds pairs of names and numbers.
To find a number, you enter the name. The number is displayed.

#include<iostream>
#include<cstdio>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int i;
char str[80];
char numbers[10][80]= { “Tom”=, “555-3322”,
“Mary”, “555-8976”,
“Jon”, “555-1037”,
“Rachel”, “555-1400”
};
cout<< “Enter name:”;
cin>> str;

for(i=0;i<10;i+=2)
{
if(!strcmp(str,numbers[i]))
{
cout<< “Number is ” <<numbers[i+1] << “\n”;
break;
}
if(i==10)
{
cout<< “Not found\n”;
}
}
return 0;
}

Here is a sample run:

Enter name: Jon

Number is 555-1037
 81

Notice how the for loop increments its loop control variable, i,
by 2 each time through the loop. This is necessary because names
and numbers alternate in the array.

7.5 ARRAYS OF OBJECTS

You can create arrays of objects in the same way that you
create arrays of any other data type. For example, the following
program creates an array of MyClass objects. The objects that
comprise the elements of the array are accessed using the normal
array-indexing syntax.

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

class MyClass
{
int x;

public:
void set_x(int i) {x=i;}
int get_x() {return x;}
};

int main()
{
MyClass obs[4];
int i;

for(i=0;i<4;i++)
{obs[i].set_x(i);}

for(i=0;i<4;i++)
{
cout<< “obs[ “<<i<<”].get_x():
”<<obs[i].get_x()<< “\n”;
}
return 0;
}

This program produces the following output:

obs[0].get_x(): 0
obs[1].get_x(): 1
obs[2].get_x(): 2
obs[3].get_x(): 3
 82

7.6 INTRODUCTION TO STRINGS CLASS

Variables that can store non-numerical values that are

longer than one single character are known as strings.

The C++ language library provides support for strings

through the standard string class. This is not a fundamental type,
but it behaves in a similar way as fundamental types do in its most
basic usage.

A first difference with fundamental data types is that in order

to declare and use objects (variables) of this type we need to
include an additional header file in our source code: <string> and
have access to the std namespace (which we already had in all our
previous programs thanks to the using namespace statement).

// my first string
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
string mystring = "This is a string";
cout << mystring;
return 0;
}

The output is :

This is a string

As you may see in the previous example, strings can be

initialized with any valid string literal just like numerical type
variables can be initialized to any valid numerical literal. Both
initialization formats are valid with strings:

string mystring = "This is a string";

string mystring ("This is a string");

Strings can also perform all the other basic operations that
fundamental data types can, like being declared without an initial
value and being assigned values during execution:

// my first string
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
 83

int main ()
{
string mystring;
mystring = "This is the initial string content";
cout << mystring << endl;
mystring = "This is a different string content";
cout << mystring << endl;
return 0;
}

The output is :

This is the initial string content

This is a different string content


 84

8
OPERATOR OVERLOADING

Unit Structure
8.1 Operator Overloading
8.2 Defining operator overloading
8.3 Unary Operator over loading -
8.4 Binary Operator overloading

8.1 OPERATOR OVERLOADING

Overloading means assigning different meaning to an

operation depending on
the context. C++ permits overloading of operators, thus allowing us
to assign multiple
meanings to the operators.

Example:-
The input/output operators << and >> are good examples of
operator overloading
although the built in definition of the << operator is for shifting of
bits. It is also used
for displaying the values of various data types.

We can overload all the C++ operators except the following,

1. Class member access operators (., . *)

2. Scope resolution operator (: :)
3. Size operator (sizeOof)
4. Conditional operator (?:)

8.2 DEFINING OPERATOR OVERLOADING

i) To define an additional task to an operator, operator function is

used.
The general form is .

Return type classname :: operator op (anglist)

{
Function body //task defined
}
 85

Where return type is the type of value returned by the

specified operation and op
is the operator being overloaded. Operator op is the function name.

ii) Operator functions must be either member functions or friend

function. The difference is a friend function will have only one
argument for unary operators and two for binary operators.
While a member function has no arguments for unary operators
and only one for binary operators. This is because the object
used to invoke the member function is passed implicitly and
therefore is available for the member function. This is not case
with friend function, because arguments may be passed either
by value or by reference.

iii) Example .
Vector operator . ( ) ; // unary minus
Vector operator + (vector); // vector addition
Friend vector operator + (vector, vector) // vector
addition
Friend vector operator . (vector); // unary minus
Vector operator . (vector & a); // subtraction
Int operator == (vector); // comparision
Friend int operator == (vector,vector) //comparision

iv) The process of overloading involves .

a) Create a class that defines the data type that is to be used in
the overloading operation.
b) Declare the operator function operator op () in the public part
of the class. It may be either a member or friend function.
c) Define the operator function to implement the required
operation.

v) Overloaded operator functions can be invoked by expressions

such as.

Op x or x op

For unary operators and

x op y

for binary operators.

And op x would be interpreted as
operator op (x)
 86

for friend functions and x op y would be interpreted as

x.operator op (y)

in member function and

operator op (x,y) in friend function.

8.3 UNARY OPERATOR OVER LOADING -

i) In overloading unary operator, a friend function will have only

one argument, while a member function will have no arguments.
ii) Let us consider the unary minus operator. A minus operator,
when used as a unary takes just one operand.
iii) This operator changes the sign of an operand when applied to a
basic data item.

Following example shows how to overload this operator so

that it can be applied to an object in much the same way as is
applied to an int or float variables.

# include <iostream.h>
class unary
{
int x, y, z;
public:
void getdata (int a, int , intc);
void display (void);
void operator . (); // overload unary minus.
};
void unary :: getdata (int a, int b, int c)
{
x = a;
y = b;
z = c;
}
void unary : : display (void)
{
cout << x << . . << y << . . << z << .\n.;
}
void unary ::operator .()
{
 87

x = -x ;
y = -y ;
z = -z ;
}
main ( )
{
unary u;
u.getdata(20, -30, 40);
cout << . u : . ;
u. display ( ) ;
-u;
cout << . u : . ;
u. display ( ) ;
}

The output is : - u : 20 -30 40

u : -20 30 -40

iv) The function operator . ( ) takes no argument because this

function is a member function of the same class, it can directly
access the member of the object which activated it.

v) It is possible to overload a unary minus operator using a friend

function as follows :

Friend void operator . (unary & u);

Void operator . (unary & u)
{
u.x = -u.x;
u.y = -u.y;
u.z = -u.z;
}

The argument is passed by reference. It will not work if we

pass argument by value because only a copy of the object that
activated the call is passed to operator.(). Therefore changes made
inside the operator function will not reflect in the called object.
 88

8.4 BINARY OPERATOR OVERLOADING

i) In overloading binary operator, a friend function will have two

arguments, while a member function will have one argument.
ii) Following example shows how to overload + operator to add 2
complex number

# include<iostream.h>
class complex
{
float x, y;
public :
complex ( );
complex (float real, float imag)
{
x = real;
y = imag;
}
complex operator +(complex);
void display(void);
};
complex complex:: operator+(complex c)
{
complex temp;
temp.x = x + c.z;
temp.y = y + c.y;
return (temp);
}
void complex : : display (void)
{
cout << z << . + j .<< y << . \n .;
}
main ( )
{
complex c1,c2,c3;
c1 = complex (2.5, 3.5);
c2 = complex (1.6, 2.7);
c3 = c1 + c2;
cout << .c1 = .; c1.display( ) ;
cout << .c2 = .; c2.display( ) ;
cout << .c3 = .; c3.display( ) ;
}

The output is c1 = 2.5 + j 3.5

c2 = 1.6 + j 2.7
c3 = 4.1 + j 6.2
 89

iii) In the above program, the function operator +, is expected to

add two complex values and return a complex value as a result
but receives only one value as argument.

iv) The function is executed by the statement c3 = c1 + c2

Here, the object c1 is used to invoke the function and c2 plays
the role of an argument that is passed to the function. The
above statement is equivalent to c3 = c1.operator +(c2)

Here, in the operator +() function, the data members of c1

are accessed directly and the data member of c2 are accessed
using the dot operator. Thus in overloading binary operators, the
left-hand operand is used to invoke the operator function and the
right-hand operand is passed
as an argument.

Type Casting

Converting an expression of a given type into another type is

known as type-casting. We have already seen some ways to type
cast:

Implicit conversion

Implicit conversions do not require any operator. They are

automatically performed when a value is copied to a compatible
type. For example:

short a=2000;
int b;
b=a;

Here, the value of a has been promoted from short to int and
we have not had to specify any type-casting operator. This is
known as a standard conversion. Standard conversions affect
fundamental data types, and allow conversions such as the
conversions between numerical types (short to int, int to float,
double to int...), to or from bool, and some pointer conversions.
Some of these conversions may imply a loss of precision, which the
compiler can signal with a warning. This can be avoided with an
explicit conversion.

Implicit conversions also include constructor or operator

conversions, which affect classes that include specific constructors
or operator functions to perform conversions.
 90

For example:
class A {};
class B { public: B (A a) {} };
A a;
B b=a;

Here, a implicit conversion happened between objects of

class A and class B, because B has a constructor that takes an
object of class A as parameter. Therefore implicit conversions from
A to B are allowed.

Explicit conversion

C++ is a strong-typed language. Many conversions, specially

those that imply a different interpretation of the value, require an
explicit conversion. We have already seen two notations for explicit
type conversion: functional and c-like casting:

short a=2000;
int b;
b = (int) a; // c-like cast notation
b = int (a); // functional notation

The functionality of these explicit conversion operators is

enough for most needs with fundamental data types. However,
these operators can be applied indiscriminately on classes and
pointers to classes, which can lead to code that while being
syntactically correct can cause runtime errors.

For example, the following code is syntactically correct:

// class type-casting
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class CDummy
{
float i,j;
};

class CAddition
{
int x,y;
public:
CAddition (int a, int b)
{
x=a;
y=b;
}
 91

int result()
{
return x+y;}
};

int main ()
{
CDummy d;
CAddition * padd;
padd = (CAddition*) &d;
cout << padd->result();
return 0;
}

The program declares a pointer to CAddition, but then it

assigns to it a reference to an object of another incompatible type
using explicit type-casting:

padd = (CAddition*) &d;

Traditional explicit type-casting allows to convert any pointer

into any other pointer type, independently of the types they point to.
The subsequent call to member result will produce either a run-time
error or a unexpected result.

Pitfalls in automatic type conversion

Because the compiler must choose how to quietly perform a
type conversion, it can get into trouble if you don’t design your
conversions correctly. A simple and obvious situation occurs with a
class X that can convert itself to an object of class Y with an
operator Y( ) . If class Y has a constructor that takes a single
argument of type X, this represents the identical type conversion.
The compiler now has two ways to go from X to Y, so it will
generate an ambiguity error when that conversion occurs:

// Ambiguity in type conversion

class Y; // Class declaration

class X
{
public:
operator Y() const; // Convert X to Y
};

class Y
{
public:
Y(X); // Convert X to Y
 92

};

void f(Y);

int main()
{
X x;
//! f(x); // Error: ambiguous conversion
} ///:~

The obvious solution to this problem is not to do it: Just

provide a single path for automatic conversion from one type to
another.

A more difficult problem to spot occurs when you provide

automatic conversion to more than one type. This is sometimes
called fan-out:

// Type conversion fanout

class A {};
class B {};

class C
{
public:
operator A() const;
operator B() const;
};

// Overloaded h():
void h(A);
void h(B);

int main()
{
C c;
//! h(c); // Error: C -> A or C -> B ???
} ///:~

Class C has automatic conversions to both A and B. The

insidious thing about this is that there’s no problem until someone
innocently comes along and creates two overloaded versions of
h( ). (With only one version, the code in main( ) works fine.)

Again, the solution – and the general watchword with

automatic type conversion – is to only provide a single automatic
conversion from one type to another. You can have conversions to
 93

other types; they just shouldn’t be automatic. You can create

explicit function calls with names like make_A( ) and make_B( ).

What is explicit keyword?

 A constructor that takes a single argument operates as an
implicit conversion operator by default. This is also referred
as converting constructor.
 To prevent this implicit conversion keyword explicit has been
introduced in C++. This makes the constructor as non-
converting.
 This keyword has effect only when defined on a single
argument constructor or on a constructor which has default
arguments for all but one argument.
 Compile time error will be reported if an attempt is made to
create an object via conversion as in statements like
"MyClass obj2 = 200;".

EXAMPLE: Demonstrate the usage of explicit keyword

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class MyClass
{
int data;
public:
explicit MyClass(int aData) {
cout << "Constructor invoked" << endl;
data = aData;
}
};

int main ()
{

MyClass obj1(100);

/*
* Object creation by conversion as below reports a compiler error.
* Error E2034 explicit.cpp 15: Cannot convert 'int' to 'MyClass'
* in function main()
*/
// MyClass obj2 = 200;
}


 94

9
INHERITANCE

Unit Structure
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Types of Inheritance
9.3 Derived and Base Class
9.4 Public Inheritance
9.5 Private Inheritance

9.1 INTRODUCTION :

C++ supports the concept of reusability once a class has

been written and tested, it can be adapted by other programmers to
suit their requirements. This is basically done by creating new
classes, reusing the properties of the existing ones. The
mechanism of deriving a new class from an old one is called
inheritance.

The old class is referred to as base class or super class. And

the new one is called as derived class or subclass.

Inheritance:
The Inheritance is the mechanism of deriving one class from
the other class. Let us assume that the class def is derived from the
existing base class abc. In that case abc is called as base class
and def is called as derived class. The feature that is facility of the
base class will be inherited to the derived class. The derived class
will have its own features. The features of the derived class will
never be inherited to the base class.

Need of Inheritance:
In object oriented programming there are applications for
which the classes are develop, every classes will have its own
features .Consider a situation where we require all the features of a
particular existing class and we also need some additional features.
The above requirement can be satisfied with three different
methods.
 95

1) Modify the original existing class by acting new features into it.
The disadvantage of this method is that the users of the original
class will get some extra facility and they can misuse them

2) Rewrite the new class with all the required features i.e. the
features of the existing class plus the new features. The
disadvantage of this method is that it will be consuming more time
and space.

3) Derive the new class from the existing class and only write the
new features in the derived class. The features of the original class
will be inherited to the new class. This method consumes less
space and time. Moreover the original class is not modified. Hence
user of original class will not get extra facilities.

9.2 TYPES OF INHERITANCE: -

1. Single Inheritance : A derived class with only one base class, is

called Single Inheritance.

2. Multiple Inheritance : A derived class with several base

classes, is called multiple Inheritance.

A B

C
 96

3. Hierarchical Inheritance : The properties of one class may be

inherited by more than one class is called hierarchical Inheritance.

BASE CLASS A

B C D

4. Multilevel Inheritance : The mechanism of deriving a class from

another derived class is known as multilevel Inheritance.

BASE CLASS A

B
BINTERMEDIATE BASE CLASS

c
DERIVED CLASS C

5. Hybrid Inheritance : The hybrid Inheritance is a combination of

all types of
Iheritance.

B C

D
 97

9.3 DERIVED AND BASE CLASS

1. Base class: -
A base class can be defined as a normal C++ class,
which may consist of some data and functions.

Ex .
class Base
{
:::::
}

2. Derived Class: -

i). A class which acquires properties from base class is called

derived class.
ii). A derived class can be defined by class in addition to its own
detail.

The general form is .

class derived-class-name: visibility-mode

base-class-name
{
:::::
}

The colon indicates that the derived class name is

derived from the base-classname.

The visibility-mode is optional and if present it is either private

or public.

9.4 PUBLIC INHERITANCE

i) When the visibility-mode is public the base class is publicly

inherited.
ii) In public inheritance, the public members of the base class
become public members of the derived class and therefore
they are accessible to the objects of the derived class.
iii) Syntax is .
class ABC : public PQR
{
members of ABC
};

Where PQR is a base class illustrate public inheritance.

 98

iv) Let us consider a simple example to illustrate public

inheritance.

# include<iostream.h>
class base
{
int no1;
public:
int no2;
void getdata();
int getno1();
void showno1();
};
class derived: public Base // public derivation.
{
int no3;
public:
void add();
void display();
};
void Base :: getdata()
{
no1 = 10;
no2 = 20;
}
int Base :: getno1()
{
return no1;
}
void Base :: showno1()
{
cout <<.Number1 =.<<no1 <<.\n.;
}
void Derived :: add()
{
no3 = no2 + getno1(); // no1 is private
}
void Derived :: display()
{
cout << .Number1 = .<<getno1() <<.\n.;
cout << .Number2 = .<<no2<<\n.;
 99

cout << .Sum . <<no3 << .\n.;

}
main ( )
{
derived d;
d.getdata ( );
d.add ( );
d.showno1 ( );
d.display ( ) ;
d.b = 100;
d.add ( ) ;
d.display ( ) ;
return 0;
}

The output of the program is

Number1 = 10
Number1 = 10
Number2 = 20
Sum = 30
Number1 = 10
Number2 = 100
Sum = 110

v) In the above program class Derived is public derivation of the

base class Base.

Thus a public member of the base class Base is also public

member of the derived class Derived.

9.5 PRIVATE INHERITANCE

i) When the visibility mode is private, the base class is privately

inherited.

ii) When a base class is privately inherited by a derived class,

public members of the base class becomes private members
of the derived class and therefore the public members of the
base class can only be accessed by the member functions of
the derived class. They are inaccessible to the objects of the
derived class.
 100

iii) Public member of a class can be accessed by its own

objects using the dot operator. So in private Inheritance, no
member of the base class is accessible to the objects of the
derived class.

iv) Syntax is .
class ABC: private PQR
{
member of ABC
}

v) Let us consider a simple example to illustrate private

inheritance.

#include <iostream.h>
class base
{
int x;
public :
int y;
void getxy() ;
int get_x(void) ;
void show_x(void) ;
};
void base ::getxy(void)
{
cout<<.Enter Values for x and y : . ;
cin >> x >> y ;
}
int base : : get_x()
{
return x;
}
void base :: show_x()
{
cout <<.x = . << x << .\n.;
}
void Derived : : mul( )
{
getxy();
z = y * get_x ( ) ;
}
void Derived ::display()
 101

{
show_x ( ) ;
cout <<.y = . <<y<<.\n.;
cout<<.z = . <<z<<.\n.;
}
main ( )
{
Derived d;
d. mul();
d.display() ;
//d.y = 4a; won.t work y has become
private.
d.mul();
d.display();
}

The output is Output: -

Enter values for x and y: 510

X=5
Y = 10
Z = 50

Enter values for x and y:1220

X = 12
Y = 20
Z = 240

Derived Class Constructor

When a base class has a constructor, the derived class

must explicitly call it to initialize the base class portion of the
object. A derived class can call a constructor defined by its base
class by using an expanded form of the derived class’
constructor declaration.

The general form of this expanded declaration is shown here:

derived-constructor(arg-list) : base-cons(arg-list);
{
body of derived constructor
}
 102

Here, base-cons is the name of the base class inherited

by the derived class. Notice that a colon separates the
constructor declaration of the derived class from the base class
constructor. (If a class inherits more than one base class, then
the base class constructors are separated from each other by
commas.)

The following program shows how to pass arguments to a

base class constructor. It defines a constructor for TwoDShape
that initializes the width and height properties.

// Add a constructor to TwoDshape.

#include<iostream>
#include<cstring>
using namespace std;

// A class for two-dimensional objects.

class TwoDshape
{
//These are private
double width;
double height;
public:
//Constructor for TwoDshape.
TwoDshape(double w, double h)
{
width=w;
height=h;
}
void showdim()
{
cout<<”Width and height are”<< width<<
“and” <<height<<”\n”;
}

//accessor functions
double getWidth() {return width;}
double getHeight(){return height;}
void setWidth(double w)P{width=w;}
void setHeight(double h){height=h;}
};
 103

//Triangle is derived from TwoDshape.

class Triangle : public TwoDshape
{
char style[20]; // now private
public:
// Constructor for triagle.
Triagle(char *str, double w, double h) :
TwoDshape(w, h)
{
strcpy(style, str);
}

double area()
{
return getWidth() *getHeight()/2;
}

void showStyle()
{
cout<<”Triangle is”<<style<<”\n”;
}
};

int main()
{
Triangle t1(“isosceles”,4.0,4.0);
Triangle t2(“right”,8.0, 12.0);
cout<<”Info for t1:\n”;
t1.showStyle();
t1.showDim();
cout<<”Area is” << t1.area()<<”\n”;

cout<<”\n”;
cout<<”Info for t2:\n”;
t2.shwoStyle();
t2.showDim();
cout<<”Area is”<<t2.area()<<”\n”;

return0;
}
 104

Here, Triangle( ) calls TwoDShape with the parameters w

and h, which initializes width and height using these values.
Triangle no longer initializes these values itself. It need only
initialize the value unique to it: style. This leaves TwoDShape
free to construct its subobject in any manner that it so chooses.
Furthermore, TwoDShape can add functionality about which
existing derived classes have no knowledge, thus preventing
existing code from breaking.

Any form of constructor defined by the base class can be

called by the derived class’ constructor. The constructor
executed will be the one that matches the arguments

Summary of access privileges

1. If the designer of the base class wants no one, not even a

derived class to access a member, then that member should be
made private.
2. If the designer wants any derived class function to have access
to it, then that member must be protected.
3. if the designer wants to let everyone, including the instances,
have access to that member , then that member should be
made public.

Summary of derivations

1. Regardless of the type of derivation, private members are

inherited by the derived class, but cannot be accessed by the new
member function of the derived class , and certainly not by the
instances of the derived class .

2. In a private derivation, the derived class inherits public and

protected members as private. a new members function can access
these members, but instances of the derived class may not. Also
any members of subsequently derived classes may not gain access
to these members because of the first rule.

3. In public derivation, the derived class inherits public members as

public , and protected as protected . a new member function of the
derived class may access the public and protected members of the
base class ,but instances of the derived class may access only the
public members.

4. In a protected derivation, the derived class inherits public and

protected members as protected .a new members function of the
derived class may access the public and protected members of the
base class, both instances of the derived class may access only the
public members .
 105

Table of Derivation and access specifiers

Derivation Type Base Class Access in Derived

Member Class

Private Private (inaccessible )

Public Private
Protected Private
Public Private (inaccessible )
Public Public
Protected Protected
Protected Private (inaccessible )
Public Protected
Protected Protected

We can summarize the different access types according to

whom can access them in the following way:

Access public protected private

members of the yes yes yes
same class
members of yes yes no
derived classes
Not-members yes no no

where "not-members" represent any reference from outside

the class, such as from main(), from another class or from any
function, either global or local.


 106

10
POINTERS

Unit Structure
10.1 Introduction :
10.2 Pointer
10.3 The Pointer Operators
10.4 The Base Type of a Pointer
10.5 Assigning Values through a Pointer
10.6 Pointers and Arrays
10.7 Arrays of Pointers
10.8 Function Pointer
10.9 Assign an Address to a Function Pointer
10.10 Calling a Function using a Function Pointer
10.11 Pass a Function Pointer as an Argument
10.12 Return a Function Pointer
10.13 Pointers to Objects
10.14 Operators new and new[]
10.15 Operator delete and delete[]

10.1 INTRODUCTION :

The pointer is one of C++’s most powerful features. It is also

one of its most troublesome. Despite their potential for misuse,
pointers are a crucial part of C++ programming. For example, they
allow C++ to support such things as linked lists and dynamic
memory allocation. They also provide one means by which a
function can alter the contents of an argument. However, these and
other uses of pointers will be discussed in subsequent modules. In
this module, you will learn the basics about pointers and see how to
manipulate them.

In a few places in the following discussions, it is necessary

to refer to the size of several of C++’s basic data types. For the
sake of discussion, assume that characters are one byte in length,
integers are four bytes long, floats are four bytes long, and doubles
have a length of eight bytes. Thus, we will be assuming a typical
32-bit environment
 107

10.2 POINTER

A pointer is an object that contains a memory address. Very

often this address is the location of another object, such as a
variable. For example, if x contains the address of y, then x is said
to “point to” y.

Pointer variables must be declared as such. The general

form of a pointer variable declaration is
type *var-name;

Here, type is the pointer’s base type. The base type

determines what type of data the pointer will be pointing to. var-
name is the name of the pointer variable. For example, to declare ip
to be a pointer to an int, use this declaration:

int *ip;

Since the base type of ip is int, it can be used to point to int

values. Here, a float pointer is declared:
float *fp;

In this case, the base type of fp is float, which means that it

can be used to point to a float value. In general, in a declaration
statement, preceding a variable name with an * causes that
variable to become a pointer.

10.3 THE POINTER OPERATORS

There are two special operators that are used with pointers:
* and &. The & is a unary operator that returns the memory address
of its operand. (Recall that a unary operator requires only one
operand.)

For example, ptr = &total;

This puts into ptr the memory address of the variable total.
This address is the location of total in the computer’s internal
memory. It has nothing to do with the value of total. The operation
of & can be remembered as returning “the address of” the variable
it precedes. Therefore, the preceding assignment statement could
be verbalized as “ptr receives the address of total.” To better
understand this assignment, assume that the variable total is
located at address 100. Then, after the assignment takes place, ptr
has the value 100.

The second operator is *, and it is the complement of &. It is

a unary operator that returns the value of the variable located at the
 108

address specified by its operand. Continuing with the same

example, if ptr contains the memory address of the variable total,
then

val = *ptr;

will place the value of total into val. For example, if total
originally had the value 3,200, then val will have the value 3,200,
because that is the value stored at location 100, the memory
address that was assigned to ptr. The operation of * can be
remembered as “at address.” In this case, then, the statement
could be read as “val receives the value at address ptr.”

The following program executes the sequence of the operations

just described:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int total;
int *ptr;
int val;
total = 3200; // assign 3,200 to total
ptr = &total; // get address of total
val = *ptr; // get value at that address
cout << "Total is: " << val << '\n';
return 0;
}

It is unfortunate that the multiplication symbol and the “at

address” symbol are the same. This fact sometimes confuses
newcomers to the C++ language. These operators have no
relationship to each other. Keep in mind that both & and * have a
higher precedence than any of the arithmetic operators except the
unary minus, with which they have equal precedence. The act of
using a pointer is often called indirection because you are
accessing one variable indirectly through another variable.

10.4 THE BASE TYPE OF A POINTER

In the preceding discussion, you saw that it was possible to

assign val the value of total indirectly through a pointer. At this
point, you may have thought of this important question: How does
C++ know how many bytes to copy into val from the address
pointed to by ptr? Or, more generally, how does the compiler
transfer the proper number of bytes for any assignment involving a
pointer? The answer is that the base type of the pointer determines
 109

the type of data upon which the pointer operates. In this case,
because ptr is an int pointer, four bytes of information are copied
into val (assuming a 32-bit int) from the address pointed to by ptr.
However, if ptr had been a double pointer, for example, then eight
bytes would have been copied.

It is important to ensure that pointer variables always point

to the correct type of data. For example, when you declare a
pointer to be of type int, the compiler assumes that anything it
points to will be an integer variable. If it doesn’t point to an integer
variable, then trouble is usually not far behind!

For example, the following fragment is incorrect:

int *p; double f; // ... p = &f; // ERROR

This fragment is invalid because you cannot assign a double

pointer to an integer pointer. That is, &f generates a pointer to a
double, but p is a pointer to an int. These two types are not
compatible. (In fact, the compiler would flag an error at this point
and not compile your program.)

Although two pointers must have compatible types in order

for one to be assigned to another, you can override this restriction
(at your own risk) using a cast.

For example, the following fragment is now technically correct: 26

C++ A Beginner’s Guide by Herbert Schildt
int *p ; double f; // ... p = (int *) &f; // Now
technically OK

The cast to int * causes the double pointer to be converted to

an integer pointer. However, to use a cast for this purpose is
questionable practice. The reason is that the base type of a pointer
determines how the compiler treats the data it points to. In this
case, even though p is actually pointing to a floating-point value,
the compiler still “thinks” that p is pointing to an int (because p is an
int pointer).

To better understand why using a cast to assign one type of

pointer to another is not usually a good idea, consider the following
short program:

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
double x, y;
 110

int *p;

x=123.23;
p=(int *);
y=*p; // This statement wont yield the
desire result
cout<<y;
return 0;
}

Here is the output produced by the program. (You might see

a different value.)

1.37439e+009

This value is clearly not 123.23! Here is why. In the program,

p (which is an integer pointer) has been assigned the address of x
(which is a double). Thus, when y is assigned the value pointed to
by p, y receives only four bytes of data (and not the eight required
for a double value), because p is an integer pointer. Therefore, the
cout statement displays not 123.23, but a garbage value instead

10.5 ASSIGNING VALUES THROUGH A POINTER

You can use a pointer on the left-hand side of an assignment

statement to assign a value to the location pointed to by the pointer.
Assuming that p is an int pointer, this assigns the value 101 to the
location pointed to by
p. *p = 101;

You can verbalize this assignment like this: “At the location
pointed to by p, assign the value 101.” To increment or decrement
the value at the location pointed to by a pointer, you can use a
statement like this:
(*p)++;

The parentheses are necessary because the * operator has

lower precedence than does the ++ operator.

The following program demonstrates an assignment through

a pointer:

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int *p, num;
P=&num;
 111

*p=100;
cout<<num<< ‘ ’\n;
(*p)++;
cout<<num<< ‘ ’\n;
(*p)--;
cout<<num<< ‘ ’\n;
return 0;
}

The output from the program is shown here:

100
101
100

10.6 POINTERS AND ARRAYS

In C++, there is a close relationship between pointers and

arrays. In fact, frequently a pointer and an array are
interchangeable. Consider this fragment:

char str[80]; char *p1; p1 = str;

Here, str is an array of 80 characters and p1 is a character

pointer. However, it is the third line that is of interest. In this line, p1
is assigned the address of the first element in the str array. (That is,
after the assignment, p1 will point to str[0].) Here’s why: In C++,
using the name of an array without an index generates a pointer to
the first element in the array.Thus, the assignment

p1 = str;

assigns the address of str[0] to p1. This is a crucial point to

understand: When an unindexed array name is used in an
expression, it yields a pointer to the first element in the array.
Since, after the assignment, p1 points to the beginning of str, you
can use p1 to access elements in the array. For example, if you
want to access the fifth element in str, you can use

str[4] or

*(p1+4)

Both statements obtain the fifth element. Remember, array

indices start at zero, so when str is indexed, a 4 is used to access
the fifth element. A 4 is also added to the pointer p1 to get the fifth
element, because p1 currently points to the first element of str.
 112

The parentheses surrounding p1+4 are necessary because

the * operation has a higher priority than the + operation. Without
them, the expression would first find the value pointed to by p1 (the
first location in the array) and then add 4 to it. In effect, C++ allows
two methods of accessing array elements: pointer arithmetic and
array indexing. This is important because pointer arithmetic can
sometimes be faster than array indexing—especially when you are
accessing an array in strictly sequential order. Since speed is often
a consideration in programming, the use of pointers to access array
elements is very common in C++ programs. Also, you can
sometimes write tighter code by using pointers instead of array
indexing.

Here is an example that demonstrates the difference

between using array indexing and pointer arithmetic to access the
elements of an array. We will create two versions of a program that
reverse the case of letters within a string. The first version uses
array indexing. The second uses pointer arithmetic. The first
version is shown here:

// Reverse case using array indexing.

#include <iostream>
#include <cctype>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int i;
char str[80] = "This Is A Test";
cout << "Original string: " << str << "\n";
for(i = 0; str[i]; i++)
{
if(isupper(str[i])) str[i] = tolower(str[i]);
else if(islower(str[i])) str[i] = toupper(str[i]);
}
cout << "Inverted-case string: " << str;
return 0
}

The output from the program is shown here:

Original string: This Is A Test Inverted-case string:

tHIS iS a tEST

Notice that the program uses the isupper( ) and islower( )

library functions to determine the case of a letter. The isupper( )
function returns true when its argument is an uppercase letter;
islower( ) returns true when its argument is a lowercase letter.
Inside the for loop, str is indexed, and the case of each letter is
 113

checked and changed. The loop iterates until the null terminating
str is indexed. Since a null is zero (false), the loop stops.

10.7 ARRAYS OF POINTERS

Pointers can be arrayed like any other data type. For

example, the declaration for an int pointer array of size 10 is

int *pi[10];

Here, pi is an array of ten integer pointers. To assign the address of

an int variable called var to the third element of the pointer array,
you would write

int var;
pi[2] = &var;

Remember, pi is an array of int pointers. The only thing that

the array elements can hold are the addresses of integer values—
not the values themselves. To find the value of var, you would write
*pi[2]

Like other arrays, arrays of pointers can be initialized. A

common use for initialized pointer arrays is to hold pointers to
strings. Here is an example that uses a two-dimensional array of
character pointers to implement a small dictionary:

#include<iostream>
#include<cstring>
using namespace std

int main()
{
char *dictionary[ ][2]={“pencil”, “ A writing instrument”,
“keyboard”, “ An input device.”,
“rifle”, “A shoulder-fired
firearm”,
“airplane”, “A fixed-wing
aircraft.”,
“network”, “An interconnected
group of computers.”,
“ ”, “ ”
};
char word[80];
int I;
cout<< “Enter word:”;
cin>>word;

for(i=0; *dictionary[i][0];i++)
 114

{
if(!strcmp(dictionary[i][0], word);
{
cout<<dictionary[i][1]<< “\n”;
break;
}
}

if(!*dictionary[i][0]
cout<<word<< “not found. \n”
return 0;
}

Here is a sample run:

Enter word: network

An interconnected group of computers.

When the array dictionary is created, it is initialized with a set

of words and their meanings. Recall, C++ stores all string constants
in the string table associated with your program, so the array need
only store pointers to the strings. The program works by testing the
word entered by the user against the strings stored in the
dictionary. If a match is found, the meaning is displayed. If no
match is found, an error message is printed.

Notice that dictionary ends with two null strings. These mark
the end of the array. Recall that a null string contains only the
terminating null character. The for loop runs until the first character
in a string is null. This condition is tested with this expression:

*dictionary[i][0]

The array indices specify a pointer to a string. The * obtains

the character at that location. If this character is null, then the
expression is false and the loop terminates. Otherwise, the
expression is true and the loop continues.

10.8 FUNCTION POINTER

Function Pointers are pointers, i.e. variables, which point to

the address of a function. You must keep in mind, that a running
program gets a certain space in the main-memory. Both, the
executable compiled program code and the used variables, are put
inside this memory. Thus a function in the program code is, like e.g.
a character field, nothing else than an address. It is only important
how you, or better your compiler/processor, interpret the memory a
pointer points to
 115

Since a function pointer is nothing else than a variable, it

must be defined as usual. In the following example

we define two function pointers named pt2Function and

pt2Member. They point to functions, which take one float and two
char and return an int. In the C++ example it is assumed, that the
function, our pointer points to, is a member function of TMyClass.

int (*pt2Function) (float, char, char); // C

int (TMyClass::*pt2Member)(float, char, char); // C++

10.9 ASSIGN AN ADDRESS TO A FUNCTION

POINTER

It’s quite easy to assign the address of a function to a

function pointer. You simply take the name of a suitable and known
function or member function. It’s optional to use the address
operator & in front of the function’s name.

Note: You may have got to use the complete name of the member
function including class-name and scope-operator (::). Also you
have got to ensure, that you are allowed to access the function right
in scope where your assignment stands.

int DoIt (float a, char b, char c)

{
printf("DoIt\n");
return a+b+c;
}
int DoMore(float a, char b, char c)
{
printf("DoMore\n");
return a-b+c;
}
pt2Function = DoMore; // assignment
pt2Function = &DoIt; // alternative using address
operator

class TMyClass
{
public:
int DoIt (float a, char b, char c)
{ cout << "TMyClass::DoIt" << endl; return
a+b+c; };
int DoMore(float a, char b, char c)
 116

{
cout << "TMyClass::DoMore" << endl;
return a-b+c;
};
/* more of TMyClass */
};

pt2Member = TMyClass::DoIt; // assignment

pt2Member = &TMyClass::DoMore; // alternative
using address operator

10.10 CALLING A FUNCTION USING A FUNCTION

POINTER

In C you have two alternatives of how to call a function using

a function pointer: You can just use the name of the function pointer
instead of the name of the function or you can explicitly de-
reference it. In C++ it’s a little bit tricky since you need to have an
instance of a class to call one of their (non-static) member
functions. If the call takes place within another member function
you can use the this-pointer.

Example :
int result1 = pt2Function (12, ’a’, ’b’); // C short way
int result2 = (*pt2Function) (12, ’a’, ’b’); // C
TMyClass instance;
int result3 = (instance.*pt2Member)(12, ’a’, ’b’); // C++
int result4 = (*this.*pt2Member)(12, ’a’, ’b’); // C++ if
this-pointer can be used

10.11 PASS A FUNCTION POINTER AS AN

ARGUMENT

You can pass a function pointer as a function’s calling

argument. You need this for example if you want to pass a pointer
to a callback function. The following code shows how to pass a
pointer to a function which returns an int and takes a float and two
char:

// <pt2Func> is a pointer to a function which returns an int

and takes a float and two char

void PassPtr(int (*pt2Func)(float, char, char))

{
float result = pt2Func(12, ’a’, ’b’); // call using function
pointer
cout << result << endl;
 117

// execute example code - ’DoIt’ is a suitable function like

defined above in 2.1-4

void Pass_A_Function_Pointer()
{
cout << endl << "Executing
’Pass_A_Function_Pointer’" << endl;
PassPtr(&DoIt);
}

10.12 RETURN A FUNCTION POINTER

It’s a little bit tricky but a function pointer can be a function’s

return value. In the following example there are two solutions of
how to return a pointer to a function which is taking a float and
returns two float. If you want to return a pointer to a member
function you have just got to change the definitions/declarations of
all function pointers.

// function takes a char and returns a pointer to a function

float (*GetPtr1(const char opCode))(float, float)
{
if(opCode == ’+’) return &Plus;
if(opCode == ’-’) return &Minus;
}

// solution using a typedef

typedef float(*pt2Func)(float, float);

// <opCode> specifies which function to return

pt2Func GetPtr2(const char opCode)
{
if(opCode == ’+’) return &Plus;
if(opCode == ’-’) return &Minus;
}
// execute example code
void Return_A_Function_Pointer()
{
cout << endl << "Executing
’Return_A_Function_Pointer’" << endl;
 118

float (*pt2Function)(float, float); // define a function

pointer
pt2Function=GetPtr1(’+’); // get function pointer from
function ’GetPtr1’
cout << pt2Function(2, 4) << endl; // call function
using the pointer
pt2Function=GetPtr2(’-’); // get function pointer from
function ’GetPtr2’
cout << pt2Function(2, 4) << endl; // call function
using the pointer
}

10.13 POINTERS TO OBJECTS

You can access an object either directly (as has been the
case in all preceding examples), or by using a pointer to that object.
To access a specific element of an object when using a pointer to
the object, you must use the arrow operator: –>. It is formed by
using the minus sign followed by a greater-than sign.

To declare an object pointer, you use the same declaration

syntax that you would use to declare a pointer for any other type of
data.

The next program creates a simple class called P_example,

defines an object of that class called ob, and defines a pointer to an
object of type P_example called p. It then illustrates how to access
ob directly, and how to use a pointer to access it indirectly

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

class P_example
{
int num;
public:
void set_num(int val) {Num=val;}”
void show_num(){cout<<num<< “\n”;
};

int main()
{
P_example ob, *p;

ob.set_num(1); //Call functions directly on ob

ob.show_num();
 119

P=&ob; // Assign P the address of ob

P ->set_num(20); //Call functions through a pointer
to tob
P ->show_num();

return 0;
}

10.14 OPERATORS NEW AND NEW[]

In order to request dynamic memory we use the operator

new. new is followed by a data type specifier and -if a sequence of
more than one element is required- the number of these within
brackets []. It returns a pointer to the beginning of the new block of
memory allocated. Its form is:
pointer = new type
pointer = new type [number_of_elements]

The first expression is used to allocate memory to contain

one single element of type type. The second one is used to assign
a block (an array) of elements of type type, where
number_of_elements is an integer value representing the amount
of these. For example:

int * bobby;
bobby = new int [5];

In this case, the system dynamically assigns space for five

elements of type int and returns a pointer to the first element of the
sequence, which is assigned to bobby. Therefore, now, bobby
points to a valid block of memory with space for five elements of
type int.

The first element pointed by bobby can be accessed either

with the expression bobby[0] or the expression *bobby. Both are
equivalent as has been explained in the section about pointers. The
second element can be accessed either with bobby[1] or
*(bobby+1) and so on...

You could be wondering the difference between declaring a

normal array and assigning dynamic memory to a pointer, as we
have just done. The most important difference is that the size of an
 120

array has to be a constant value, which limits its size to what we

decide at the moment of designing the program, before its
execution, whereas the dynamic memory allocation allows us to
assign memory during the execution of the program (runtime) using
any variable or constant value as its size.

The dynamic memory requested by our program is allocated

by the system from the memory heap. However, computer memory
is a limited resource, and it can be exhausted. Therefore, it is
important to have some mechanism to check if our request to
allocate memory was successful or not.

C++ provides two standard methods to check if the

allocation was successful:

One is by handling exceptions. Using this method an

exception of type bad_alloc is thrown when the allocation fails.
Exceptions are a powerful C++ feature explained later in these
tutorials. But for now you should know that if this exception is
thrown and it is not handled by a specific handler, the program
execution is terminated.

This exception method is the default method used by new,

and is the one used in a declaration like:

bobby = new int [5]; // if it fails an exception is thrown

The other method is known as nothrow, and what happens

when it is used is that when a memory allocation fails, instead of
throwing a bad_alloc exception or terminating the program, the
pointer returned by new is a null pointer, and the program continues
its execution.

This method can be specified by using a special object

called nothrow as parameter for new:

bobby = new (nothrow) int [5];

In this case, if the allocation of this block of memory failed,

the failure could be detected by checking if bobby took a null
pointer value:

int * bobby;
bobby = new (nothrow) int [5];
if (bobby == 0)
{
// error assigning memory. Take measures.
};
 121

This nothrow method requires more work than the exception

method, since the value returned has to be checked after each and
every memory allocation, but I will use it in our examples due to its
simplicity. Anyway this method can become tedious for larger
projects, where the exception method is generally preferred. The
exception method will be explained in detail later in this tutorial.

10.15 OPERATOR DELETE AND DELETE[]

Since the necessity of dynamic memory is usually limited to

specific moments within a program, once it is no longer needed it
should be freed so that the memory becomes available again for
other requests of dynamic memory. This is the purpose of the
operator delete, whose format is:
delete pointer;
delete [] pointer;

The first expression should be used to delete memory

allocated for a single element, and the second one for memory
allocated for arrays of elements.
The value passed as argument to delete must be either a pointer to
a memory block previously allocated with new, or a null pointer (in
the case of a null pointer, delete produces no effect).

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
int i,n;
int * p;
cout << "How many numbers would you like to
type? ";
cin >> i;
p= new (nothrow) int[i];
if (p == 0)
cout << "Error: memory could not be allocated";
else
{
for (n=0; n<i; n++)
{
cout << "Enter number: ";
cin >> p[n];
}
 122

cout << "You have entered: ";

for (n=0; n<i; n++)
cout << p[n] << ", ";
delete[] p;
}
return 0;
}

The output is:

How many numbers would you like to type? 5
Enter number : 75
Enter number : 436
Enter number : 1067
Enter number : 8
Enter number : 32
You have entered: 75, 436, 1067, 8, 32,

Notice how the value within brackets in the new statement is

a variable value entered by the user (i), not a constant value:
p= new (nothrow) int[i];

But the user could have entered a value for i so big that our
system could not handle it. For example, when I tried to give a
value of 1 billion to the "How many numbers" question, my system
could not allocate that much memory for the program and I got the
text message we prepared for this case (Error: memory could not
be allocated). Remember that in the case that we tried to allocate
the memory without specifying the nothrow parameter in the new
expression, an exception would be thrown, which if it's not handled
terminates the program.

It is a good practice to always check if a dynamic memory

block was successfully allocated. Therefore, if you use the nothrow
method, you should always check the value of the pointer returned.
Otherwise, use the exception method, even if you do not handle the
exception. This way, the program will terminate at that point without
causing the unexpected results of continuing executing a code that
assumes a block of memory to have been allocated when in fact it
has not.


 123

11
VIRTUAL FUNCTION
Unit Structure
11.1 Virtual Base Classes
11.2 Abstract Classes
11.3 Virtual Functions
11.4 Pure Virtual Functions

11.1 VIRTUAL BASE CLASSES

This ambiguity can be resolved if the class derived contains

only one copy of the class base. This can be done by making the
base class a virtual class. This keyword makes the two classes
share a single copy of their base class . It can be done as follows :

class base
{
:
:
};

class Aclass : virtual public base

{
:
:
};

class Bclass : virtual public base

{
:
:
};

class derived : public Aclass, public Bclass

{
:
:
};
This will resolve the ambiguity involved.
 124

11.2 ABSTRACT CLASSES

Abstract classes are the classes, which are written just to act
as base classes. Consider the following classes.

class base
{
:
};
class Aclass : public base
{
:
:
};
class Bclass : public base
{
:
};
class Cclass : public base
{
:
:
};
void main()
{
Aclass objA;
Bclass objB;
Cclass objC;
:
:
}

There are three classes – Aclass, Bclass, Cclass – each of

which is derived from the class base. The main () function declares
three objects of each of these three classes. However, it does not
declare any object of the class base. This class is a general class
whose sole purpose is to serve as a base class for the other three.
Classes used only for the purpose of deriving other classes from
them are called as abstract classes. They simply serve as base
class , and no objects for such classes are created.

11.3 VIRTUAL FUNCTIONS

The keyword virtual was earlier used to resolve ambiguity for

a class derived from two classes, both having a common ancestor.
These classes are called virtual base classes. This time it helps in
implementing the idea of polymorphism with class inheritance. The
 125

function of the base class can be declared with the keyword virtual.
The program with this change and its output is given below.

class Shape
{
public :
virtual void print()
{
cout << “ I am a Shape “ << endl;
}
};
class Triangle : public Shape
{
public :
void print()
{
cout << “ I am a Triangle “ << endl;
}
};
class Circle : public Shape
{
public :
void print()
{
cout << “ I am a Circle “ << endl;
}
};

void main()
{
Shape S;
Triangle T;
Circle C;

S.print();
T.print();
C.print();

Shape *ptr;
ptr = &S;
ptr -> print();
ptr = &T;
ptr -> print();
ptr = &C;
ptr -> print();
}
 126

The output of the program is given below:

I am a Shape
I am a Triangle
I am a Circle
I am a Shape
I am a Triangle
I am a Circle

Now, the output of the derived classes are invoked correctly.

When declared with the keyword virtual, the compiler selects the
function to be invoked, based upon the contents of the pointer and
not the type of the pointer. This facility can be very effectively used
when many such classes are derived from one base class .
Member functions of each of these can be ,then, invoked using a
pointer to the base class .

11.4 PURE VIRTUAL FUNCTIONS

As discussed earlier, an abstract class is one, which is used

just for deriving some other classes. No object of this class is
declared and used in the program. Similarly, there are pure virtual
functions which themselves won’t be used. Consider the above
example with some changes.
class Shape
{
public :
virtual void print() = 0; // Pure virtual function
};

class Triangle : public Shape

{
public :
void print()
{
cout << “ I am a Triangle “ << endl;
}
};

class Circle : public Shape

{
public :
void print()
{
cout << “ I am a Circle “ << endl;
}
};
void main()
 127

{
Shape S;
Triangle T;
Circle C;
Shape *ptr;
ptr = &T;
ptr -> print();
ptr = &C;
ptr -> print();
}

The output of the program is given below:

I am a Triangle
I am a Circle

It can be seen from the above example that , the print()

function from the base class is not invoked at all . even though the
function is not necessary, it cannot be avoided, because , the
pointer of the class Shape must point to its members. Object
oriented programming has altered the program design process.
Exciting OOP concepts like polymorphism have given a big boost to
all this. Inheritance has further enhanced the language. This
session has covered some of the finer aspects of inheritance. The
next session will resolve some finer aspects of the language.

EXAMPLE:-
// virtual members

#include <iostream.h>
class CPolygon
{
protected:
int width, height;
public:
void set_values (int a, int b)
{
width=a; height=b;
}
virtual int area (void)
{
return (0);
}
};
class CRectangle: public CPolygon
 128

{
public:
int area (void)
{
return (width * height);
}
};

class CTriangle: public CPolygon

{
public:
int area (void)
{
return (width * height / 2);
}
};

int main ()
{
CRectangle rect;
CTriangle trgl;
CPolygon poly;

CPolygon * ppoly1 = &rect;

CPolygon * ppoly2 = &trgl;
CPolygon * ppoly3 = &poly;

ppoly1->set_values (4,5);
ppoly2->set_values (4,5);
ppoly3->set_values (4,5);

cout << ppoly1->area() << endl;

cout << ppoly2->area() << endl;
cout << ppoly3->area() << endl;
return 0;
}
The output is :
20
10
0
 129

Now the three classes (CPolygon, CRectangle and

CTriangle) have the same members: width, height, set_values()
and area(). area() has been defined as virtual because it is later
redefined in derived classes. You can verify if you want that if you
remove this word (virtual) from the code and then you execute the
program the result will be 0 for the three polygons instead of
20,10,0. That is because instead of calling the corresponding area()
function for each object (CRectangle::area(), CTriangle::area() and
CPolygon::area(), respectively), CPolygon::area() will be called for
all of them since the calls are via a pointer to CPolygon.

Therefore what the word virtual does is to allow that a

member of a derived class with the same name as one in the base
class be suitably called when a pointer to it is used, as in the above
example. Note that in spite of its virtuality we have also been able
to declare an object of type CPolygon and to call its area() function,
that always returns 0 as the result.


 130

12
STREAMS AND FILES
Unit Structure
12.1 Input Output With Files
12.2 Methods of Input and Output Classes
12.3 Text mode files
12.4 State flags
12.5 get and put stream pointers
12.6 Binary files
12.8 I/O Manipulators

12.1 INPUT OUTPUT WITH FILES

The techniques for file input and output, i/o, in C++ are
virtually identical to those
introduced in earlier lessons for writing and reading to the standard
output devices, the screen and keyboard. To perform file input and
output the include file fstream must be used.

#include <fstream>

Fstream contains class definitions for classes used in file i/o.

Within a program needing file i/o, for each output file required, an
object of class ofstream is instantiated. For each input file required,
an object of class ifstream is instantiated. The ofstream object is
used exactly as the cout object for standard output is used. The
ifstream object is used exactly as the cin object for standard input is
used. This is best understood by studying an example.

C++ has support both for input and output with files through the
following classes:

ofstream: File class for writing operations (derived from ostream)

ifstream : File class for reading operations (derived from istream)
fstream : File class for both reading and writing operations (derived
from iostream)
 131

Open a file

The first operation generally done on an object of one of

these classes is to associate it to a real file, that is to say, to open a
file. The open file is represented within the program by a stream
object (an instantiation of one of these classes) and any input or
output performed on this stream object will be applied to the
physical file.

In order to open a file with a stream object we use its

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

where filename is a string of characters representing the

name of the file to be opened and mode is a combination of the
following flags:

ios::in Open file for reading

ios::out Open file for writing
ios::ate Initial position: end of file
ios::app Every output is appended at the end of file
ios::trunc If the file already existed it is erased
ios::binary Binary mode

These flags can be combined using bitwise operator OR: |.

For example, if we want to open the file "example.bin" in binary
mode to add data we could do it by the following call to function-
member open:

ofstream file;
file.open ("example.bin", ios::out | ios::app | ios::binary);

All of the member functions open of classes ofstream,

ifstream and fstream include a
default mode when opening files that varies from one to the other:

class default mode to parameter

ofstream ios::out | ios::trunc
ifstream ios::in
fstream ios::in | ios::out

The default value is only applied if the function is called

without specifying a mode parameter. If the function is called with
any value in that parameter the default mode is stepped on, not
combined.

Since the first task that is performed on an object of classes

ofstream, ifstream and fstream is frequently to open a file, these
three classes include a constructor that directly calls the open
 132

member function and has the same parameters as this. This way,
we could also have declared the previous object and conducted the
same opening operation just by writing:

ofstream file ("example.bin", ios::out | ios::app | ios::binary);

Both forms to open a file are valid.

You can check if a file has been correctly opened by calling

the member function is_open():
bool is_open();

that returns a bool type value indicating true in case that indeed
the object has been correctly associated with an open file or false
otherwise.

Closing a file

When reading, writing or consulting operations on a file are

complete we must close it so that it becomes available again. In
order to do that we shall call the member function close(), that is in
charge of flushing the buffers and closing the file. Its form is quite
simple:

void close ();

Once this member function is called, the stream object can

be used to open another file, and the file is available again to be
opened by other processes.

In case that an object is destructed while still associated with

an open file, the destructor automatically calls the member function
close.

12.2 METHODS OF INPUT AND OUTPUT CLASSES

The ifstream class has several useful methods for input.

These method are also in the class cin, which is used to read from
standard input. These methods are used to read from any input
stream. An input stream is a source of input such as the keyboard,
a file or a buffer.

1) Extraction Operator >>

This overloaded operator handles all built in C++ data types.
By default, any intervening white space is disregarded. That is,
blanks, tabs, new lines, formfeeds and carriage returns are skipped
over.
 133

2) get()
This form of get extracts a single character from the input
stream, that is, from the standard input, a file or a buffer. It does not
skip white space. It returns type int.

3) get(char &ch)
This form of get also extracts a single character from the
input stream, but it stores the value in the character variable
passed in as an argument.

4) get(char *buff, int buffsize, char delimiter='\n')

This form of get reads characters into the C-style buffer
passed as an argument buffsize characters are read, the delimiter
is encountered or an end of file is encountered. The '\n' is the new
line character. The delimiter is not read into the buffer but is instead
left in the input stream. It must be removed separately but using
either another get or an ignore. Because of this added step, this
form of get is a frequent source of errors and should be avoided.
Fortunately, another method shown below, getline, reads in the
delimiter as well and should be used in place of this form of get.

5) Getline
There are several useful forms of getline.

ignore(int count=1, int delim=traits_type::eof)

This method reads and discards "count" characters from the

input stream.

6) peek()
This method returns the next character from the input
stream, but does not remove it. It is useful to look ahead at what
the next character read will be.

7) putback(char &ch)
This method puts ch onto the input stream. The character in
ch will then be the next character read from the input stream.

8) unget()
This method puts the last read character back into the input
stream.

9) read(char *buff, int count)

This method is used to perform an unformatted read of count
bytes from the input stream into a character buffer.

The ofstream class has several useful methods for writing to

an output stream. An output stream is standard output (usually the
screen), a file or a buffer. These methods are also in the object
 134

cout, which is used for standard output. The simplest way to

understand how to use these methods is by looking at a few
examples. Since we have seen the extraction, >>, and insertion, <<
in several lessons, let's look at the other methods. Getline, which is
very useful to read entire lines of text into a string.

Suppose we need to read a file and determine the number of

alphanumeric characters, the number of blanks and the number of
sentences. To determine the number of sentences we will count the
number of periods (dots). We will disregard newlines and tabs.

Here is a program that solves the problem.

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int blank_count = 0;
int char_count = 0;
int sentence_count = 0;
char ch;
ifstream iFile("c:/lesson12.txt");
if (! iFile)
{
cout << "Error opening input file" << endl;
return -1;
}
while (iFile.get(ch))
{
switch (ch)
{
case ' ':
blank_count++;
break;

case '\n':
case '\t':
break;

case '.':
sentence_count++;
break;

default:
char_count++;
break;
}
 135

}
cout << "There are " << blank_count << " blanks" <<
endl;
cout << "There are " << char_count << " characters"
<< endl;
cout << "There are " << sentence_count << "
sentences" << endl;
return 0;
}

As a second example, let's implement a program that will

copy the contents of one file to another. The program will prompt
the user for the input and output file names, and then copy.

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
char ch;
string iFileName;
string oFileName;
cout << "Enter the source file name: ";
cin >> iFileName;
cout << "Enter the destination file name: ";
cin >> oFileName;
ofstream oFile(oFileName.c_str());
ifstream iFile(iFileName.c_str());
//Error checking on file opens omitted for brevity.
while (iFile.get(ch))
{
oFile.put(ch);
}
return 0;
}

12.3 TEXT MODE FILES

Classes ofstream, ifstream and fstream are derived from ostream,

istream and iostream respectively. That's why fstream objects can
use the members of these parent classes to access data.

Generally, when using text files we shall use the same

members of these classes that we used in communication with the
console (cin and cout).
 136

As in the following example, where we use the overloaded

insertion operator <<:

// writing on a text file

#include <fstream.h>
int main ()
{
ofstream examplefile ("example.txt");
if (examplefile.is_open())
{
examplefile << "This is a line.\n";
examplefile << "This is another line.\n";
examplefile.close();
}
return 0;
}

The output is : This is a line.

This is another line.

Data input from file can also be performed in the same way that we
did with cin:

// reading a text file

#include <iostream.h>
#include <fstream.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main ()
{
char buffer[256];
ifstream examplefile ("example.txt");
if (! examplefile.is_open())
{ cout << "Error opening file"; exit (1); }
while (! examplefile.eof() )
{
examplefile.getline (buffer,100);
cout << buffer << endl;
}
return 0;
}

The output is : This is a line.

This is another line.

This last example reads a text file and prints out its content on the
screen. Notice how
 137

we have used a new member function, called eof that ifstream

inherits from class ios and that returns true in case that the end of
the file has been reached.

12.4 STATE FLAGS

In addition to eof(), other member functions exist to verify the

state of the stream (all of them return a bool value):

1) bad() : Returns true if a failure occurs in a reading or writing

operation. For example in case we try to write to a file that is not
open for writing or if the device where we try to write has no
space left.

2) fail() : Returns true in the same cases as bad() plus in case that
a format error happens, as trying to read an integer number and
an alphabetical character is received.

3) eof() : Returns true if a file opened for reading has reached the
end.

4) good() : It is the most generic: returns false in the same cases

in which calling any of the previous functions would return true.

In order to reset the state flags checked by the previous

member functions you can use member function clear(), with no
parameters.

12.5 GET AND PUT STREAM POINTERS

All i/o streams objects have, at least, one stream pointer:

1) ifstream, like istream, has a pointer known as get pointer that

points to the next element to be read.
2) ofstream, like ostream, has a pointer put pointer that points to
the location where the next element has to be written.
3) fstream, like iostream, inherits both: get and put

These stream pointers that point to the reading or writing

locations within a stream can be read and/or manipulated using the
following member functions:

tellg() and tellp()

These two member functions admit no parameters and

return a value of type pos_type (according ANSI-C++ standard) that
 138

is an integer data type representing the current position of get

stream pointer (in case of tellg) or put stream pointer (in case of
tellp).

seekg() and seekp()

This pair of functions serve respectively to change the

position of stream pointers get and put. Both functions are
overloaded with two different prototypes:

seekg ( pos_type position );

seekp ( pos_type position );

Using this prototype the stream pointer is changed to an

absolute position from the beginning of the file. The type required is
the same as that returned by functions tellg and tellp.
seekg ( off_type offset, seekdir direction );
seekp ( off_type offset, seekdir direction );

Using this prototype, an offset from a concrete point

determined by parameter direction can be specified. It can be:

ios::beg Offset specified from the beginning of the stream

ios::cur Offset specified from the current position of the
stream pointer
ios::end Offset specified from the end of the stream

The values of both stream pointers get and put are counted
in different ways for text files than for binary files, since in text mode
files some modifications to the appearance of some special
characters can occur. For that reason it is advisable to use only the
first prototype of seekg and seekp with files opened in text mode
and always use nonmodified values returned by tellg or tellp. With
binary files, you can freely use all the implementations for these
functions. They should not have any unexpected behavior.

The following example uses the member functions just seen to

obtain the size of a binary file:

// obtaining file size

#include <iostream.h>
#include <fstream.h>
const char * filename = "example.txt";

int main ()
{
long l,m;
ifstream file (filename, ios::in|ios::binary);
l = file.tellg();
 139

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

m = file.tellg();
file.close();
cout << "size of " << filename;
cout << " is " << (m-l) << " bytes.\n";
return 0;
}

The output is : size of example.txt is 40 bytes.

12.6 BINARY FILES

In binary files inputting and outputting data with operators

like << and >> and functions like getline, does not make too much
sense, although they are perfectly valid. File streams include two
member functions specially designed for input and output of data
sequentially: write and read. The first one (write) is a member
function of ostream, also inherited by ofstream. And read is
member function of istream and it is inherited by ifstream. Objects
of class fstream have both. Their prototypes are:

write ( char * buffer, streamsize size );

read ( char * buffer, streamsize size );

Where buffer is the address of a memory block where the

read data are stored or from
where the data to be written are taken. The size parameter is an
integer value that specifies the number of characters to be
read/written from/to the buffer.

// reading binary file

#include <iostream.h>
#include <fstream.h>
const char * filename = "example.txt";

int main ()
{
char * buffer;
long size;
ifstream file (filename,
ios::in|ios::binary|ios::ate);
size = file.tellg();
file.seekg (0, ios::beg);
buffer = new char [size];
 140

file.read (buffer, size);

file.close();
cout << "the complete file is in a buffer";
delete[] buffer;
return 0;
}

The output is : the complete file is in a buffer

12.7 BUFFERS AND SYNCHRONIZATION

When we operate with file streams, these are associated to

a buffer of type streambuf.

This buffer is a memory block that acts as an intermediary

between the stream and the physical file. For example, with an out
stream, each time the member function put (write a single
character) is called, the character is not written directly to the
physical file with which the stream is associated. Instead of that, the
character is inserted in thebuffer for that stream.

When the buffer is flushed, all data that it contains is written

to the physic media (if it is an out stream) or simply erased (if it is
an in stream). This process is called synchronization and it takes
place under any of the following circumstances:

When the file is closed: before closing a file all buffers that have
not yet been completely written or read are synchronized.

When the buffer is full: Buffers have a certain size. When the
buffer is full it is automatically synchronized.

Explicitly with manipulators: When certain manipulators are used

on streams synchronization takes place. These manipulators are:
flush and endl.

Explicitly with function sync(): Calling member function sync()

(no parameters) causes an immediate syncronization. This function
returns an int value equal to -1 if the stream has no associated
buffer or in case of failure.

12.8 I/O MANIPULATORS

Up till now, we have accepted the default output formatting.

C++ defines a set of manipulators which are used to modify the
 141

state of iostream objects. These control how data is formatted.

They are defined in the include file, <ios>. It is not usually
necessary to explicitly include this file because it is included
indirectly via the use of other includes such as <iostream> or
<fstream>.

Let's see how some of these manipulators work in a simple

program.

Manipulator Use
Boolalpha Causes bool variables to be output as true or
false.
Noboolalhpa Causes bool variables to be displayed as 0 or 1
(default)
Dec (default) Specifies that integers are displayed in base 10.
Hex Specifies that integers are displayed in
hexadecimal.
Oct Specified that integers are displayed in octal.
Left Causes text to be left justified in the output field.
Right Causes text to be right justified in the output field.
Internal Causes the sign of a number to be left justified
and the value to be right justified.
Noshowbase Turns off displaying a prefix indicating the base of
(default) a number.
Showbase Turns on displaying a prefix indicating the base of
a number.
Noshowpoint Displays decimal point only if a fractional part
(default) exists.
Showpoint Displays decimal point always.
noshowpos No "+" prefixing a positive number.
(default)
Showpos Displays a "+" prefixing a positive number.
Skipws (default) Causes white space (blanks, tabs, newlines) to be
skipped by the input operator, >>.
Noskipws White space not skipped by the extraction
operator, >>.
Fixed (default) Causes floating point numbers to be displayed in
fixed notation.
 142

Scientific Causes floating point numbers to be displayed in

scientific notation.
Nouppercase 0x displayed for hexadecimal numbers, e for
(default) scientific notation
Uppercase 0X displayed for hexadecimal numbers, E for
scientific
notation

The manipulators in the above table modify the state of the

iostream object. This means that once used on an iostream object
they will effect all subsequent input or output done with the object.
There are several other manipulators that are used to format a
particular output but do no modify the state of the object.

Setting Output Width

setw(w) - sets output or input width to w; requires <iomanip>

to be included.
width(w) - a member function of the iostream classes.

Filling White Space

setfill(ch) - fills white space in output fields with ch; requires

<iomanip> to be included.
fill(ch) = a member function of the iostream classes.

Setting Precision
setprecision(n) - sets the display of floating point numbers at
precision n. This does not
effect the way floating point numbers are handled during
calculations in your program.

Here is a simple program illustrating the use of the i/o manipulators.

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int intValue = 15;
cout << "Integer Number" << endl;
cout << "Default: " << intValue << endl;
cout << "Octal: " << oct << intValue << endl;
 143

cout << "Hex: " << hex << intValue << endl;
cout << "Turning showbase on" << showbase <<
endl;
cout << "Dec: " << dec << intValue << endl;
cout << "Octal: " << oct << intValue << endl;
cout << "Hex: " << hex << intValue << endl;
cout << "Turning showbase off" << noshowbase <<
endl;
cout << endl;
double doubleVal = 12.345678;
cout << "Floating Point Number" << endl;
cout << "Default: " << doubleVal << endl;
cout << setprecision(10);
cout << "Precision of 10: " << doubleVal << endl;
cout << scientific << "Scientific Notation: " <<
doubleVal << endl;
cout << uppercase;
cout << "Uppercase: " << doubleVal << endl;
cout << endl;
bool theBool = true;
cout << "Boolean" << endl;
cout << "Default: " << theBool << endl;
cout << boolalpha << "BoolAlpha set: " << theBool <<
endl;
cout << endl;
string myName = "John";
cout << "Strings" << endl;
cout << "Default: " << myName << endl;
cout << setw(35) << right << "With setw(35) and right:
"<< myName << endl;
cout.width(20);
cout << "With width(20): " << myName << endl;
cout << endl;
return 0;
}


 144

13
TEMPLATES

Unit Structure :
13.1 Function templates
13.2 Class templates

13.1 FUNCTION TEMPLATES

Function templates are special functions that can operate

with generic types. This allows us to create a function template
whose functionality can be adapted to more than one type or class
without repeating the entire code for each type.

In C++ this can be achieved using template parameters. A

template parameter is a special kind of parameter that can be used
to pass a type as argument: just like regular function parameters
can be used to pass values to a function, template parameters
allow to pass also types to a function. These function templates can
use these parameters as if they were any other regular type.

The format for declaring function templates with type parameters is:
template <class identifier> function_declaration;
template <typename identifier> function_declaration;

The only difference between both prototypes is the use of

either the keyword class or the keyword typename. Its use is
indistinct, since both expressions have exactly the same meaning
and behave exactly the same way.

For example, to create a template function that returns the greater

one of two objects we could use:
template <class myType>
myType GetMax (myType a, myType b)
{
return (a>b?a:b);
}

Here we have created a template function with myType as

its template parameter. This template parameter represents a type
that has not yet been specified, but that can be used in the
template function as if it were a regular type. As you can see, the
 145

function template GetMax returns the greater of two parameters of

this still-undefined type.

To use this function template we use the following format for the
function call:
function_name <type> (parameters);

For example, to call GetMax to compare two integer values of type

int we can write:
int x,y;
GetMax <int> (x,y);

When the compiler encounters this call to a template

function, it uses the template to automatically generate a function
replacing each appearance of myType by the type passed as the
actual template parameter (int in this case) and then calls it. This
process is automatically performed by the compiler and is invisible
to the programmer.

Here is the entire example:

// function template
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

template <class T>

T GetMax (T a, T b)
{
T result;
result = (a>b)? a : b;
return (result);
}

int main ()
{
int i=5, j=6, k;
long l=10, m=5, n;
k=GetMax<int>(i,j);
n=GetMax<long>(l,m);
cout << k << endl;
cout << n << endl;
return 0;
}

The output is: 6

10
 146

In this case, we have used T as the template parameter

name instead of myType because it is shorter and in fact is a very
common template parameter name. But you can use any identifier
you like.

In the example above we used the function template

GetMax() twice. The first time with arguments of type int and the
second one with arguments of type long. The compiler has
instantiated and then called each time the appropriate version of
the function.

As you can see, the type T is used within the GetMax()

template function even to declare new objects of that type:

T result;

Therefore, result will be an object of the same type as the

parameters a and b when the function template is instantiated with
a specific type.

In this specific case where the generic type T is used as a

parameter for GetMax the compiler can find out automatically which
data type has to instantiate without having to explicitly specify it
within angle brackets (like we have done before specifying <int>
and <long>). So we could have written instead:
int i,j;
GetMax (i,j);

Since both i and j are of type int, and the compiler can
automatically find out that the template parameter can only be int.
This implicit method produces exactly the same result:

// function template II
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

template <class T>

T GetMax (T a, T b)
{
return (a>b?a:b);
}
int main ()
{
int i=5, j=6, k;
long l=10, m=5, n;
k=GetMax(i,j);
n=GetMax(l,m);
cout << k << endl;
 147

cout << n << endl;

return 0;
}

The output is :
6
10
Notice how in this case, we called our function template
GetMax() without explicitly specifying the type between angle-
brackets <>. The compiler automatically determines what type is
needed on each call.

Because our template function includes only one template

parameter (class T) and the function template itself accepts two
parameters, both of this T type, we cannot call our function
template with two objects of different types as arguments:

int i;
long l;
k = GetMax (i,l);

This would not be correct, since our GetMax function

template expects two arguments of the same type, and in this call
to it we use objects of two different types.

We can also define function templates that accept more than

one type parameter, simply by specifying more template
parameters between the angle brackets. For example:

template <class T, class U>

T GetMin (T a, U b)
{
return (a<b?a:b);
}

In this case, our function template GetMin() accepts two

parameters of different types and returns an object of the same
type as the first parameter (T) that is passed. For example, after
that declaration we could call GetMin() with:

int i,j;
long l;
i = GetMin<int,long> (j,l);

or simply:

i = GetMin (j,l);
 148

even though j and l have different types, since the compiler can
determine the appropriate instantiation anyway.

13.2 CLASS TEMPLATES

We also have the possibility to write class templates, so that

a class can have members that use template parameters as types.
For example:

template <class T>

class mypair
{
T values [2];
public:
mypair (T first, T second)
{
values[0]=first; values[1]=second;
}
};

The class that we have just defined serves to store two

elements of any valid type. For example, if we wanted to declare an
object of this class to store two integer values of type int with the
values 115 and 36 we would write:

mypair<int> myobject (115, 36);

this same class would also be used to create an object to store any
other type:

mypair<double> myfloats (3.0, 2.18);

The only member function in the previous class template has

been defined inline within the class declaration itself. In case that
we define a function member outside the declaration of the class
template, we must always precede that definition with the template
<...> prefix:

// class templates
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

template <class T>

class mypair
{
T a, b;
public:
mypair (T first, T second)
{
 149

a=first;
b=second;
}
T getmax ();
};

template <class T>

T mypair<T>::getmax ()
{
T retval;
retval = a>b? a : b;
return retval;
}

int main ()
{
mypair <int> myobject (100, 75);
cout << myobject.getmax();
return 0;
}

The output is:

100

Notice the syntax of the definition of member function getmax:

template <class T>

T mypair<T>::getmax ()

Confused by so many T's? There are three T's in this

declaration: The first one is the template parameter. The second T
refers to the type returned by the function. And the third T (the one
between angle brackets) is also a requirement: It specifies that this
function's template parameter is also the class template parameter.


 150

14
EXCEPTIONS

Unit Structure:

14.1 Exceptions
14.2 Exception specifications

14.1 EXCEPTIONS

Exceptions provide a way to react to exceptional

circumstances (like runtime errors) in our program by transferring
control to special functions called handlers.

To catch exceptions we must place a portion of code under

exception inspection. This is done by enclosing that portion of code
in a try block. When an exceptional circumstance arises within that
block, an exception is thrown that transfers the control to the
exception handler. If no exception is thrown, the code continues
normally and all handlers are ignored.

A exception is thrown by using the throw keyword from

inside the try block. Exception handlers are declared with the
keyword catch, which must be placed immediately after the try
block:
// exceptions
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
try
{
throw 20;
}
catch (int e)
{
cout << "An exception occurred. Exception Nr.
" << e << endl;
}
return 0;
}
 151

The output is :
An exception occurred. Exception Nr. 20

The code under exception handling is enclosed in a try block. In

this example this code simply throws an exception:

throw 20;

A throw expression accepts one parameter (in this case the

integer value 20), which is passed as an argument to the exception
handler.

The exception handler is declared with the catch keyword.

As you can see, it follows immediately the closing brace of the try
block. The catch format is similar to a regular function that always
has at least one parameter. The type of this parameter is very
important, since the type of the argument passed by the throw
expression is checked against it, and only in the case they match,
the exception is caught.

We can chain multiple handlers (catch expressions), each

one with a different parameter type. Only the handler that matches
its type with the argument specified in the throw statement is
executed.

If we use an ellipsis (...) as the parameter of catch, that

handler will catch any exception no matter what the type of the
throw exception is. This can be used as a default handler that
catches all exceptions not caught by other handlers if it is specified
at last:

try
{
// code here
}
catch (int param)
{
cout << "int exception";
}
catch (char param)
{
cout << "char exception";
}
catch (...)
{
cout << "default exception";
}
 152

In this case the last handler would catch any exception

thrown with any parameter that is neither an int nor a char.

After an exception has been handled the program execution

resumes after the try-catch block, not after the throw statement!.

It is also possible to nest try-catch blocks within more

external try blocks. In these cases, we have the possibility that an
internal catch block forwards the exception to its external level. This
is done with the expression throw; with no arguments. For example:
try
{
try
{
// code here
}
catch (int n)
{
throw;
}
}

catch (...)
{
cout << "Exception occurred";
}

14.2 EXCEPTION SPECIFICATIONS

When declaring a function we can limit the exception type it
might directly or indirectly throw by appending a throw suffix to the
function declaration:

float myfunction (char param) throw (int);

This declares a function called myfunction which takes one

agument of type char and returns an element of type float. The only
exception that this function might throw is an exception of type int. If
it throws an exception with a different type, either directly or
indirectly, it cannot be caught by a regular int-type handler.

If this throw specifier is left empty with no type, this means

the function is not allowed to throw exceptions. Functions with no
throw specifier (regular functions) are allowed to throw exceptions
with any type:

int myfunction (int param) throw(); // no exceptions allowed

int myfunction (int param); // all exceptions allowed
 153

14.3 STANDARD EXCEPTIONS

The C++ Standard library provides a base class specifically

designed to declare objects to be thrown as exceptions. It is called
exception and is defined in the <exception> header file under the
namespace std. This class has the usual default and copy
constructors, operators and destructors, plus an additional virtual
member function called what that returns a null-terminated
character sequence (char *) and that can be overwritten in derived
classes to contain some sort of description of the exception.

Example

// standard exceptions
#include <iostream>
#include <exception>
using namespace std;

class myexception: public exception

{
virtual const char* what() const throw()
{
return "My exception happened";
}
} myex;

int main ()
{
try
{
throw myex;
}

catch (exception& e)
{
cout << e.what() << endl;
}
return 0;
}

The output is :
My exception happened.

We have placed a handler that catches exception objects by

reference (notice the ampersand & after the type), therefore this
catches also classes derived from exception, like our myex object
of class myexception.
 154

All exceptions thrown by components of the C++ Standard

library throw exceptions derived from this std::exception class.
These are:

Exception Description

bad_alloc thrown by new on allocation failure

bad_cast thrown by dynamic_cast when fails with a

referenced type
bad_exception thrown when an exception type doesn't match
any catch

bad_typeid thrown by typeid

ios_base::failure thrown by functions in the iostream library

For example, if we use the operator new and the memory cannot
be allocated, an exception of type bad_alloc is thrown:
try
{
int * myarray= new int[1000];
}
catch (bad_alloc&)
{
cout << "Error allocating memory." << endl;
}

It is recommended to include all dynamic memory allocations

within a try block that catches this type of exception to perform a
clean action instead of an abnormal program termination, which is
what happens when this type of exception is thrown and not
caught. If you want to force a bad_alloc exception to see it in
action, you can try to allocate a huge array; On my system, trying to
allocate 1 billion ints threw a bad_alloc exception.

Because bad_alloc is derived from the standard base class

exception, we can handle that same exception by catching
references to the exception class:

// bad_alloc standard exception

#include <iostream>

#include <exception>
using namespace std;
 155

int main ()
{
try
{
int* myarray= new int[1000];
}
catch (exception& e)
{
cout << "Standard exception: " << e.what() <<
endl;
}
return 0;
}


 156

15

THE C++ STANDARD TEMPLATE

LIBRARY

Unit Structure :

15.1 Introduction
15.2 Standard Templates
15.3 Stacks
15.4 Older Stacks
15.5 Queues
15.6 Older Queues
15.7 Lists
15.8 Vectors
15.9 Iterators and Containers
15.10 Algorithms

15.1 INTRODUCTION

This is a short primer on the STL or "Standard Template

Library" for the programming language C++ as defined in the 1997
standard. The STL is a collection C++ libraries that allow you to use
several well known kinds of data structures with out having to
program them. They are designed so that the code runs efficiently.
The compiler does most of the work of generating the efficient
implementations. The libraries include a large number of
possibilities. we describe some of things you can do with the STL
versions of stacks, queues, vectors, and lists. I define some
important and useful ideas in the Glossary below. The is a table
summarizing the methods used with stacks, queues, vectors and
lists at Summary below.For each kind of data structure I give
working examples of how to declare, access and use objects of that
type.

15.2 STANDARD TEMPLATES

The international and American Standard for C++ requires

there to be special libraries that implement the following generic
data structures:
 157

Library Description
<vector> A dynamic array [ $Vectors ]
<list> A randomly changing sequence of items
A sequence of items with pop and push
<stack>
at one end only
A Sequence of items with pop and
<queue>
push at opposite ends
Double Ended Queue with pop and
<deque>
push at both ends
A subset of of a fixed and small set of
<bitset>
items
<set> An unordered collection of items
An collection of pairs of items indexed
<map>
by the first one

These are designed to be general, efficient, and powerful

rather than easy to use.
. . . . . . . . ( end of section Standard Templates) <<Contents |
End>>

15.3 STACKS

Stacks are only accessed at their top. To be able to use STL

stacks in a file of C++ source code or a header file add

#include <stack>

at the beginning of the file.

Suppose that T is any type or class - say an int, a float, a struct, or
a class, then
stack<T> s;

declares a new and empty stack called s. Given s you can:

1) test to see if it is empty:
s.empty()
2) find how many items are in it:
s.size()
3) push a t of type T onto the top:
s.push(t)
4) pop the top off s:
s.pop()
 158

5) get the top item of s

s.top()
6) change the top item:
s.top() = expression.

Example of an STL Stack

void reverse(string & x)
//Afterwards x will have the same elements in the opposite
order.
{
stack<char> s;
const int n = x.length();
//Put characters from x onto the stack
for(int i=0; i<n; ++i)
s.push(x[i]);
//take characters off of stack and put them back into x
for(int i=0; !s.empty(); ++i, s.pop())
x[i]=s.top();
}

15.4 OLDER STACKS

On some older C++ libraries you are forced to indicate how

the stack is implemented whenever you declare one. You write
either
stack< vector<T> > s;
or
stack< list<T> > s;

Example :

void reverse(string & x) //INOUT: x is a string of

characters
//Afterwards x will have the same elements in the
opposite order.
{
stack< vector<char> > s;
const int n = x.length();
for(int i=0; i<n; ++i)
s.push(x[i]);
for(int i=0; !s.empty(); ++i, s.pop())
x[i]=s.top();
}
. . . . . . . ( end of section Stacks) <<Contents | End>>
 159

15.5 QUEUES

Queues allow data to be added at one end and taken out of

the other end. To be able to use STL queues add this before you
start using them in your source code:

#include <queue>

Suppose that T is any type or class - say an int, a float, a struct, or

a class, then

1) declares a new and empty queue called q. Given an

object q:

queue<T> q;

2) test to see if q is empty:

q.empty()

3) find how many items are in q:

q.size()

4) push a t:T onto the end of q:

q.push(t)

5) pop the front of q off q:

q.pop()

6) get the front item of q:

q.front()
7) change the front item:
q.front() = expression.

8) get the back item of q:

q.back()

9) change the back item:

q.back() = expression.

Example of putting three items into a queue and then taking them
off the queue.

#include <iostream.h>
#include <list>
#include <queue>
int main()
{
 160

queue<char> q;
q.push('a');
q.push('b');
q.push('c');
cout << q.front();
q.pop();
cout << q.front();
q.pop();
cout << q.front();
q.pop();
}

15.6 OLDER QUEUES

On some older C++ libraries you are forced to indicate how

the queue is implemented whenever you declare one. You write
queue< list<T> > q;
in place of
queue< T > q;

Example on putting three items into a queue and then taking them
off the queue.

#include <iostream.h>
#include <list>
#include <queue>
int main()
{
queue< list <char> >q;
q.push('a');
q.push('b');
q.push('c');
cout << q.front();
q.pop();
cout << q.front();
q.pop();
cout << q.front();
q.pop();
}
. . . . . . . . . ( end of section Queues) <<Contents | End>>

15.7 LISTS

Lists are good when data needs to be reorganized a lot. To

be able to use STL lists add this before you start using them in your
source code:
 161

#include <list>
Suppose that T is any type or class - say an int, a float, a struct, or
a class, then

1) To declares a new and empty list called l. Given an object l:

list<T> l;

2) test to see if l is empty:

l.empty()

3) find how many items are in l:

l.size()

4) push a t:T onto the end of l:

l.push_back(t)

5) pop the last off l:

l.pop_back()

6) push a t:T onto the start of l:

l.push_front(t)

7) pop the front of l off l:

l.pop_front()

8) get the front item of l:

l.front()

9) change the front item:

l.front() = expression.

10) get the back item of l:

l.back()

11) change the back item:

l.back() = expression.

12) Sort the list:

l.sort()

13) Clear the list:

l.clear()

14) Merge in a sorted list into a sorted list:

l.merge(list_of_sorted_elements)
 162

15) Reverse the list:

l.reverse()

16) Assign a copy of q1 to q:

q = q1

[ Lists and Iterators ]

Example of List Processing

This uses a utility function 'print' that is implemented below [ An
Example of Iterating Through a List ]

Building and Sorting a List

//Using a list to sort a sequence of 9 numbers.
#include <iostream.h>
#include <list>
// #include <algorithm>

void print(list<int> a);//utility function print lists of ints

int main()
{
list<int> a;
//Put 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 onto the list
for(int i=0; i<9;++i)
a.push_back(9-i);// put new element after all the others
print(a); //here the list contains (9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1)
a.sort();//in the <list> library!
print(a); //here the list contains (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9)
}
. . . . . . . . . ( end of section Lists) <<Contents | End>>

15.8 VECTORS

Vectors are good when we have an unknown sequence of

items to store but we want to access the by their sequence
numbers. To be able to use STL vectors add this before you start
using them in your source code:

#include <vector>

Suppose that T is any type or class - say an int, a float, a struct, or

a class, then

1) to declares a new and empty vector called v. Given object v

declare like the above:
vector<T> v;
 163

2) test to see if v is empty:

v.empty()

3) find how many items are in v:

v.size()

4) push a t:T onto the end of v:

v.push_back(t)

5) pop the front of v off v:

v.pop_back()

6) get the front item of v:

v.front()

7) change the front item:

v.front() = expression.

8) get the back item of v:

v.back()

9) change the back item:

v.back() = expression.

10) Access the i'th item (0<=i<size()) without checking to see if it

exists:
v[i]

11) Access the i'th item safely:

v.at(i)

12) Assign a copy of v1 to v:

v = v1

Sorting and operating on all items efficiently, see Iterators below.

. . . . . . . . . ( end of section Vectors) <<Contents | End>>

15.9 ITERATORS AND CONTAINERS

Containers:

A Container is a data structure that holds a number of object of the

same type or class. The oldest example of a Container in C++ is an
array. Even in C you had arrays and you would typically write code
like this:
 164

const int MAX = 10;

float a[MAX];
...
for(int i=0; i<10; ++i)
process(a[i]);
...

Lists, Vectors, Stacks, Queues, etc are all Containers.

C arrays were designed so that they could be accessed by using a
variable that stores the address of an item. These variables are
called pointers. They are used like this with an array:
for(float *p=a; p!=p+MAX; ++p)
process(*p);
...

Iterators:
Items in Containers are referred to be special objects called:
iterators. They are generalization of C's pointers. With an iterator
class Iter you can process each item in a vector or a list by similar
code:

for( Iter p=c.begin(); p!=c.end(); ++p)

process(*p);

All Containers C in the STL have a number of iterator objects.

Container class C has an iterator called
C::iterator

For any type T, list<T> and vector<T> are Containers. So there

are iterator classes called list<T>::iterator and they are used like
this:

for( list<T>::iterator p=c.begin(); p!=c.end(); ++p)

process(*p);

Vector iterators have type

vector<T>::iterator
and used like this:

for( vector<T>::iterator p=c.begin(); p!=c.end(); ++p)

process(*p);

If you change your choice from a vector to a list then the code is
almost identical. This makes your code easier to modify.

For any container class C of objects type T and any object c of

type C:
 165

Declare an iterator for container of type C.

C::iterator p

Move iterator p onto the next object in c(if any!).

++p

The value selected by p.

*p

The iterator that refers to the first item in c

c.begin()

The iterator that refers to one beyond c.

c.end()

Declare an iterator for container of type C and set to the start of c.

C::iterator p = c.begin();

Test to see if iterator p has come to the end of object c:

p != c.end();

assign p1 to p -- afterwards both refer to same item

p = p1;

Lists and Iterators

Insertion and deletion of items at the start or inside a List of
elements is controlled by an iterator:

Insert item x into List l before iterator p

l.insert(p, x);

Erase the element pointed at by iterator q in List l

l.erase(q);
Example:

#include <iostream.h>

#include <list>
void print(list <char> );// elsewhere
main()
{
list <char> l;
list <char>::iterator p;
l.push_back('o');
l.push_back('a');
l.push_back('t');
p=l.begin();
 166

cout <<" "<< *p<<endl; // p refers to the 'o' in

('o', 'a', 't')
print(l);
l.insert(p, 'c');
// l is now ('c', 'o', 'a', 't') and p still refers to 'o'
cout <<" "<< *p<<endl;
print(l);
l.erase(p);
cout <<" "<< *p<<endl; // p refers to an 'o' but it
is not in l!
print(l);
l.erase(l.begin()); //removes front of l
print(l);
}

Ranges:
A pair of iterators describes a range of items in their container.
The items in the range start with the first iterator in the pair. The
range has all the following items up to just before the item referred
to by the last iterator of the pair.

Suppose that first and last form a range and it is an iterator then:
for( it=first; it != last; it++)

will refer to each element in the range [first..last) in turn. In the

body of the for loop the value of the element is *it.

Given a container c, then c.begin() and c.end() form a range.

An Example of Iterating Through a List
void print( list<int> a)
{
for(list<int>::iterator ai=a.begin(); ai!=a.end(); ++ai)
cout << *ai << " ";
cout << endl;
cout << "----------------"<<endl;
}

15.10 ALGORITHMS

Ranges and Iterators are used several useful functions and

algorithms in the STL. Suppose you have a type or class of data
called T and in a program are working with a vector v of type
vector<T> then
vector<T>::iterator

is the class of suitable iterators. Here are two useful values:

v.begin()
v.end()
 167

These always form a range of all the items in v from the front up to
and including the back. You can sort a vector v simply by writing:

sort(c.begin(), c.end());

Example : Sorting a vector with 9 integers

#include <iostream.h>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
void print( vector<int> ) ;//utility function outputs a $container
int main()
{
vector<int> a;
// Place 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 into the vector
for(int i=0; i<9;++i)
a.push_back(9-i);// put new element after all the others
print(a); // elements of a are (9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1)
sort( a.begin(), a.end() ); //in the STL <algorithm> library
print(a); // elements are nor in order.
}
void print( vector<int> a)
{
for(vector<int>::iterator ai=a.begin(); ai!=a.end(); ++ai)
cout << *ai << " ";
cout << endl;
cout << "----------------"<<endl;
}
. . . . . . . . . ( end of section Iterators) <<Contents | End>>

Summary

Templat Commo
push/pop items Extras
e n

empty(),
stack pop(),push(T) top() -
size()

empty(), front(),back(
queue pop(),push(T) -
size() )

push_back(T empty(), front(),

vector [int], at(int), =
), pop_back() size() back()
push_back(), sort(), clear(),
pop_back(), empty(), front(), reverse(),
list
push_front(T) size() back() merge(l),at(int
, pop_front() ), =
 168

Note:
You must always #include headers if you use the words: vector,
list,string,queue, or stack in your program or in a header file.

Their must be a space between the two ">" signs below:

stack< vector< T > > s;

If the standard <list> and <vector> is not found then you are using
an older C++ compiler.

On some older compilers and currant libraries when you need a

<string> as well as either <list> or <vector> you need to
#include <string>

before including the list or vector rather in the reverse order! Older
string library appear to define some special versions of vector and
list operators and the older compilers can not make up its mind
which to use.


 169

EXERCISE
Exercise : 1

1. It has been said that C++ sits at the center of the modern
programming universe. Explain this statement.

2. A C++ compiler produces object code that is directly executed by

the computer. True or false?

3. What are the three main principles of object-oriented

programming?

4. Where do C++ programs begin execution?

5. What is a header?

6. What is <iostream>? What does the following code do?

#include <iostream>

7. What is a namespace?

8. What is a variable?

9. Which of the following variable names is/are invalid?

a. count b. _count c. count27 d. 67count e. if

10. How do you create a single-line comment? How do you create

a multiline comment?

11. Show the general form of the if statement. Show the general
form of the for loop.

12. How do you create a block of code?

13. The moon’s gravity is about 17 percent that of Earth’s. Write a

program that displays a table that shows Earth pounds and their
equivalent moon weight. Have the table run from 1 to 100 pounds.
Output a newline every 25 pounds.

14. A year on Jupiter (the time it takes for Jupiter to make one full
circuit around the Sun) takes about 12 Earth years. Write a
program that converts Jovian years to Earth years. Have the user
specify the number of Jovian years. Allow fractional years.

15. When a function is called, what happens to program control?

 170

16. Write a program that averages the absolute value of five values
entered by the user. Display the result.

Exercise: 2

1. What type of integers are supported by C++?

2. By default, what type is 12.2?

3. What values can a bool variable have?

4. What is the long integer data type?

5. What escape sequence produces a tab? What escape sequence

rings the bell?

6. A string is surrounded by double quotes. True or false?

7. What are the hexadecimal digits?

8. Show the general form for initializing a variable when it is

declared.

9. What does the % do? Can it be used on floating-point values?

10. Explain the difference between the prefix and postfix forms of
the increment operator.

11. Which of the following are logical operators in C++?

a. && b. ## c. || d. $$ e. !

12. How can

x = x + 12; be rewritten?

13. What is a cast?

14. Write a program that finds all of the prime numbers between 1
and 100.

Exercise: 3
1. Write a program that reads characters from the keyboard until a
$ is typed. Have the program count the number of periods. Report
the total at the end of the program.

2. In the switch, can the code sequence from one case run into the
next? Explain.
 171

3. Show the general form of the if-else-if ladder.

4. Show the for statement for a loop that counts from 1000 to 0
by –2.

5. Explain what break does.

6. In the following fragment, after the break statement executes,

what is displayed?

7. The increment expression in a for loop need not always alter the
loop control variable by a fixed amount. Instead, the loop control
variable can change in any arbitrary way. Using this concept, write
a program that uses a for loop to generate and display the
progression 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and so on.

8. The ASCII lowercase letters are separated from the uppercase

letters by 32. Thus, to convert a lowercase letter to uppercase,
subtract 32 from it. Use this information to write a program that
reads characters from the keyboard. Have it convert all lowercase
letters to uppercase, and all uppercase letters to lowercase,
displaying the result. Make no changes to any other character.
Have the program stop when the user enters a period. At the end,
have the program display the number of case changes that have
taken place.

9. What is C++’s unconditional jump statement?

Exercise: 4

1. Show how to declare a short int array called hightemps that is 31

elements long.

2. In C++, all arrays begin indexing at ________.

3. Write a program that searches an array of ten integers for

duplicate values. Have the program
display each duplicate found.

4. What is a null-terminated string?

5. Write a program that prompts the user for two strings and then
compares the strings for
equality, but ignores case differences. Thus, “ok” and “OK” will
compare as equal.

6. When using strcat( ), how large must the recipient array be?

7. In a multidimensional array, how is each index specified?

 172

8. Show how to initialize an int array called nums with the values 5,
66, and 88.

9. What is the principal advantage of an unsized array declaration?

10. What is a pointer? What are the two pointer operators?

11. Can a pointer be indexed like an array? Can an array

beaccessed through a pointer?

12. Write a program that counts the uppercase letters in a string.

Have it display the result.

13. What is it called when one pointer points to another pointer?

14. Of what significance is a null pointer in C++?

Exercise : 5

1. Show the general form of a function.

2. Create a function called hypot( ) that computes the length of the

hypotenuse of a right triangle given the lengths of the two opposing
sides. Demonstrate its use in a program. For this problem, you will
need to use the sqrt( ) standard library function, which returns the
square root of its argument. It has this prototype:
double sqrt(double val); It uses the header <cmath>.

3. Can a function return a pointer? Can a function return an array?

4. Create your own version of the standard library function strlen( ).

Call your version mystrlen( ), and demonstrate its use in a program.

5. Does a local variable maintain its value between calls to the

function in which it is declared?

6. Give one benefit of global variables. Give one disadvantage.

7. Create a function called byThrees( ) that returns a series of

numbers, with each value 3 greater than the preceding one. Have
the series start at 0. Thus, the first five numbers returned by
byThrees( ) are 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12. Create another function called
reset( ) that causes byThrees( ) to start the series over again from
0. Demonstrate your functions in a program. Hint: You will need to
use a global variable.

8. Write a program that requires a password that is specified on the

command line. Your program doesn’t have to actually do anything
 173

except report whether the password was entered correctly or

incorrectly.

9. A prototype prevents a function from being called with the

improper number of arguments. True or false?

10. Write a recursive function that prints the numbers 1 through 10.
Demonstrate its use in a program.

Exercise : 6

1. What are the two ways that an argument can be passed to a

subroutine?

2. In C++, what is a reference? How is a reference parameter

created?

3. Given this fragment,

int f(char &c, int *i); // ... char ch = 'x'; int i = 10; show how to call f( )
with the ch and i.

4. Create a void function called round( ) that rounds the value of its
double argument to the nearest whole value. Have round( ) use a
reference parameter and return the rounded result in this
parameter. You can assume that all values to be rounded are
positive. Demonstrate round( ) in a program. To solve this problem,
you will need to use the modf( ) standard library function, which is
shown here:

double modf(double num, double *i);

The modf( ) function decomposes num into its integer and fractional
parts. It returns the fractional portion and places the integer part in
the variable pointed to by i. It requires the header <cmath>.

5. Modify the reference version of swap( ) so that in addition to

exchanging the values of its arguments, it returns a reference to the
smaller of its two arguments. Call this function min_swap( ).

6. Why can’t a function return a reference to a local variable?

7. How must the parameter lists of two overloaded functions differ?

8. In Project 6-1, you created a collection of print( ) and println( )

functions. To these functions, add a second parameter that
specifies an indentation level. For example, when print( ) is called
like this,
 174

print("test", 18); output will indent 18 spaces and then will display
the string “test”. Have the indentation parameter default to 0 so that
when it is not present, no indentation occurs.

9. Given this prototype,

bool myfunc(char ch, int a=10, int b=20); show the ways that
myfunc( ) can be called.

10. Briefly explain how function overloading can introduce

ambiguity.

Exercise : 7

1. Show how to declare an int variable called test that can’t be

changed by the program. Give it an initial value of 100.

2. The volatile specifier tells the compiler that a variable might be

changed by forces outside the program. True or false?

3. In a multifile project, what specifier do you use to tell one file

about a global variable declared in another file?

4. What is the most important attribute of a static local variable?

5. Write a program that contains a function called counter( ), which

simply counts how many times it is called. Have it return the current
count.

6. How does & differ from &&?

7. What does this statement do? x *= 10;

8. Using the rrotate( ) and lrotate( ) functions from Project 7-1, it is

possible to encode and decode a string. To code the string, left-
rotate each letter by some amount that is specified by a key. To
decode, right-rotate each character by the same amount. Use a key
that consists of a string of characters. There are many ways to
compute the number of rotations from the key. Be creative. The
solution shown in the online answers is only one of many.

9. On your own, expand show_binary( ) so that it shows all bits

within an unsigned int rather than just the first eight.

Exercise : 8

1. What is the difference between a class and an object?

2. What keyword is used to declare a class?

 175

3. What does each object have its own copy of?

4. Show how to declare a class called Test that contains two private
int variables called count and max.

5. What name does a constructor have? What name does a

destructor have?

6. Given this class declaration:

class sample
{int i;
public:
sample int x {i = x;}
//..
};

show how to declare a Sample object that initializes i to the value

10.

7. When a member function is declared within a class declaration,

what optimization automatically takes place?

8. Create a class called Triangle that stores the length of the base
and height of a right triangle in two private instance variables.
Include a constructor that sets these values. Define two functions.
The first is hypot( ), which returns the length of the hypotenuse. The
second is area( ), which returns the area of the triangle.

9. Expand the Help class so that it stores an integer ID number that

identifies each user of the class. Display the ID when a help object
is destroyed. Return the ID when the function getID( ) is called.

Exercise: 9

1. What is a copy constructor and when is it called? Show the

general form of a copy constructor.

2. Explain what happens when an object is returned by a function.

Specifically, when is its destructor called?

3. Given this class:

class T {
int i,j;
public:
int sum(){return i+j;}
};
show how to rewrite sum( ) so that it uses this.
 176

4. What is a structure? What is a union?

5. Inside a member function, to what does *this refer?

6. What is a friend function?

7. Show the general form used for overloading a binary member

operator function.

8. To allow operations involving a class type and a built-in type,

what must you do?

9. Can the ? be overloaded? Can you change the precedence of an

operator?

10. For the Set class developed in Project 9-1, define < and > so
that they determine if one set is a subset or a superset of another
set. Have < return true if the left set is a subset of the set on the
right, and false otherwise. Have > return true if the left set is a
superset of the set on the right, and false otherwise.

11. For the Set class, define the & so that it yields the intersection
of two sets.

12. On your own, try adding other Set operators. For example, try
defining | so that it yields the symmetric difference between two
sets. The symmetric difference consists of those elements that the
two sets do not have in common.

Exercise: 10

1. A class that is inherited is called a _______ class. The class that

does the inheriting is called a ________ class.

2. Does a base class have access to the members of a derived

class? Does a derived class have access to the members of a base
class?

3. Create a derived class of TwoDShape called Circle. Include an

area( ) function that computes the area of the circle.

4. How do you prevent a derived class from having access to a

member of a base class?

5. Show the general form of a constructor that calls a base class

constructor.
 177

6. Given the following hierarchy:

Class alpha{...
Class beta :public alpha{..
Class gamma : public beta{...
in what order are the constructors for these classes called when a
Gamma object is instantiated?

7. How can protected members be accessed?

8. A base class pointer can refer to a derived class object. Explain

why this is important as it relates to function overriding.

9. What is a pure virtual function? What is an abstract class?

10. Can an object of an abstract class be instantiated?

11. Explain how the pure virtual function helps implement the “one
interface, multiple methods” aspect of polymorphism.

Exercise : 11

1. What are the four predefined streams called?

2. Does C++ define both 8-bit and wide-character streams?

3. Show the general form for overloading an inserter.

4. What does ios::scientific do?

5. What does width( ) do?

6. An I/O manipulator is used within an I/O expression. True or

false?

7. Show how to open a file for reading text input.

8. Show how to open a file for writing text output.

9. What does ios::binary do?

10. When the end of the file is reached, the stream variable will
evaluate as false. True or false?

11. Assuming a file is associated with an input stream called strm,

show how to read to the end of the file.

12. Write a program that copies a file. Allow the user to specify the
name of the input and output file on the command line. Make sure
that your program can copy both text and binary files.
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13. Write a program that merges two text files. Have the user
specify the names of the two files on the command line in the order
they should appear in the output file. Also, have the user specify
the name of the output file. Thus, if the program is called merge,
then the following command line will merge the files MyFile1.txt and
MyFile2.txt into Target.txt: merge MyFile1.txt MyFile2.txt Target.txt

14. Show how the seekg( ) statement will seek to the 300th byte in
a stream called MyStrm.

Exercise : 12

1. Explain how try, catch, and throw work together to support

exception handling.

2. How must the catch list be organized when catching exceptions

of both base and derived classes?

3. Show how to specify that a MyExcpt exception can be thrown out

of a function called func( ) that returns void.

4. Define an exception for the generic Queue class shown in

Project 12-1. Have Queue throw this exception when an overflow or
underflow occurs. Demonstrate its use.

5. What is a generic function, and what keyword is used to create

one?

6. Create generic versions of the quicksort( ) and qs( ) functions

shown in Project 5-1. Demonstrate their use.

7. Using the Sample class shown here, create a queue of three

Sample objects using the generic Queue shown in Project 12-1:
class sample
{ int id;
public :
sample()
{ id =0; }
sample(int x){id=x;}
void show(){cout<<id<<endl;}
};

8. Rework your answer to question 7 so that the Sample objects

stored in the queue are dynamically allocated.

9. Show how to declare a namespace called RobotMotion.

10. What namespace contains the C++ standard library?

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11. Can a static member function access the non-static data of a

class?

12. What operator obtains the type of an object at runtime?

13. To determine the validity of a polymorphic cast at runtime, what

casting operator do you use?

14. What does const_cast do?

15. On your own, try putting the Queue class from Project 12-1 in
its own namespace called QueueCode, and into its own file called
Queue.cpp. Then rework the main( ) function so that it uses a using
statement to bring QueueCode into view.

16. Continue to learn about C++. It is the most powerful computer

language currently available. Mastering it puts you in an elite
league of programmers.

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