1

FUNDAMENTALS OF

1
PROGRAMMING IN C++
INTRODUCTION
C++ and It’s Features 2
• C++ was built on the older language C, and there's a lot of
C code still around.
• C++ embraces the strong quality of C like efficiency and
portability.
• Beside that C++ includes more strong qualities like OOP
features, exception handling and templates.
• Templates are a relatively new addition to C++.
• They allow us to write generic classes and functions that
work for several different data types.
• E.g. demonstrate templates using max function design to
support different data types.
C++ and It’s Features 3
• C had one major problem, it was a procedural-oriented programming language.
• Procedural-oriented programming
• the operations are separated from the data they use.
• lacks reusability, makes debugging complicated and inconsistency are major problems of this paradigm.
• C++ is mainly meant to resolve C’s problem, C++ supports object-oriented programming.
• data abstraction, that is, the creation of classes to describe objects
• data encapsulation for controlled access to object data
• inheritance by creating derived classes (including multiple derived classes)
• polymorphism (Greek for multiform), that is, the implementation of instructions that can have varying
effects during program execution.
Programs from conception to execution 4
• C++ is a high-level programming language that allows a software engineer to efficiently code a
program.
• A program is a set of instruction, written using a programming language, to solve a specific
problem.
• Programming language can be high-level, assembly or low-level.
• Programs starts out as an idea in the programmers mind.
• He writes down his idea in paper, it becomes algorithm.
• Then code the algorithm using a programming language it becomes a program.

•
� Discuss program Vs Algorithms
�
Programs from conception to execution 5
• C++ programs are written in a high-level language using letters, numbers, and the other symbols
you find on a computer keyboard.
• The writing is done using stand alone editors or IDE(integrated development environment).
• Computers actually execute a very low-level language called machine code (a series of numbers).
• Therefore, how letters, numbers and symbols are understood?

• 💡 a program can be used, it must undergo several transformations called compilation and
So, before
execution.
• Compilation is a process of translating a program written in high-level programming language into its
equivalent machine(or object) code.
• Execution is a process of assigning computational resources to the executable machine code and
perform the operations specified on the data provided.
Compilation and executions 6
1. Editors: we use this to create and save the source code to
source file. Modern compilers have integrated editors.
2. Loaders: prior to compilation header files are loaded to
the source file using loader.
3. Compilers: are software, designed to translate a source
file to object file containing machine code.
4. Linkers: finally, the linker combines the object file with
other modules to create the executable file.
Note: compilation starts from the very first line in the source
code, while execution starts from the main function.
Anatomy of C++ programs 7
• The first line, #include <iostream>, is called preprocessor
#include <iostream> directive. It directs the preprocessor to include all the
functionalities from iostream library.
using namespace std;
• E.g. cin and cout functions
int main() • The second line, using namespace std, is a using directive
{ used to allow direct access to the names(key-words)
reserved by C++ from std dictionary.
cout<< “Hello C++!" << endl;
• E.g. if, else, int, for…
return 0; • The third line, int main(), indicates where program
} execution starts from.
• Note: C++ is case-sensitive.
Elements of programming 8
1. Comment: provides the programmer with a clear, easy-to-read description of how and what the
program does.
 Comments are not going to be compiled and executed.
 Mostly comments contain:
 Headings: tells what the program does and how.
 Author: Credits for the programmer.
 File formats, References, Error handling techniques and etc.
 C++ supports two types of comments
i. Single line comment started using double slash (//) and spans a single line
ii. Multiple line comment started using (/*) and spans several lines and terminated with (*/)

// This is single line comment /* This is multiple line

comment style */
Cont… 9
2. Identifiers: are names used in program to designate variables and functions.
 We can not arbitrarily give names to variables and functions in C++, instead there are rules to follow
while naming:
i. C++ key-words can not be used as an identifiers.
ii. The first character of an identifier must be a letter or underscore.
iii. Identifiers can contain a series of letters, numbers, or underscore characters ( _ ).
iv. German umlauts and accented letters are invalid.
v. C++ is case sensitive; that is, upper and lowercase letters are different.
vi. There are no restrictions on the length of a name

Valid identifiers Invalid identifiers

1. Num1 1. $num
2. num1 2. 12num
3. _num1 3. #num
4. NUM 4. -12num
Cont… 10
3. Data types: A program can use several data to solve a given problem, for example, characters,
integers, or floating-point numbers.
 Since a computer uses different methods for processing and saving data, the data type
must be known.
 Data types define:
i. the internal representation of the data, and
ii. the amount of memory to allocate.
 Data types can be:
i. Built-in like int, float, char, bool…
ii. User defined like string, pointers, structure and etc.
Cont… 11
 Summary of built-in (fundamental) data types
Built-in data types Size Range
char 1 byte ASCII
Characters
wchar_t 2 byte Unicode
Short -32,768 to +32,767
2 byte
unsigned short 0 to 65,535
-32,768 to +32,767
Int 2 or 4 byte -2,147,483,648 to +2,147,483,647
Integers
unsigned int 2 or 4 byte 0 to 65,535
0 to 4,294,967,295
long -2,147,483,648 to +2,147,483,647
4 byte
unsigned long 0 to 4,294,967,295

 For 16 bit computers int is equivalent with short and for 32 bit computers int is
equivalent to long.
Cont… 12
 Summary of built-in (fundamental) data types
Data type Size Range Precision

float 4 bytes ±1.18 x 10-38 to ±3.4 x 1038 9 digits

Floating points double 8 bytes ±2.23 x 10-308 to ±1.80 x 10308 18 digits

Long
16 bytes ±3.36 x 10-4932 to ±1.18 x 104932 36 digits
double

 Floating points used for storing numbers with fractions.

Cont… 13
4. Variables: C++ allows you to store values in variables at global or local scope.
 Each variable is identified by
 Identifiers- names of a variable
 Data types- tells C++ what data is going to be stored in it.
 Variables must be declared or initialized before use.
 Declaring a variable means introducing it to the compiler.
 The process of declaring or introducing a variable to the compiler is called variable declaration.
 Syntax of variable declaration:
Type Name;
int age; char gender; Int, float, string, bool, char…
float c_gpa;
string name;
int pin; string ID; Identifier or name you give …
Cont… 14
 Initialization is a process of assigning value to a variable while declaring it.
 Values are assigned left to right using assignment operator.
 Syntax of variable initialization:
Type Name = value;
Value can be any constant…

Initialization
Or other variable…
int age=28; char gender=‘M’;
float c_gpa=3.81;
string name=“Shewangizaw Melaku”;
int pin=age; string ID=1888;
Cont… 15
5. Constants: are also called literals.
 Constants can not be declared and assigned values later.
 Constants must be initialized.
 Constants are created using “const” key-word and can not be modified.
 Syntax:
 Major categories of constants:
const Type Name = value;
 Boolean constant: are initialized with true or false as a value.
 Integral constant: are initialized with integers as a value.
 Decimal, Octal or Hexadecimal constants.
 Floating point constants: are initialized with numbers with fractions as a value.
 Character constants: are initialized with characters enclosed by ‘’ as a value.
 String constants: are initialized with sequence of characters enclosed by “” as a value.
Cont… 16
6. Operators: Operators are symbols that perform operations on variables and values. There are 6-
types of operators
1. Arithmetic Operators: used to perform arithmetic operations on variables and data.
Operator Operation
+ Addition

- Subtraction

* Multiplication

/ Division

Modulo Operation (Remainder

%
after division)
Cont… 17
2. Assignment Operators: used to assign values to variables.

Operator Example Equivalent to

= a = b; a = b;

+= a += b; a = a + b;

-= a -= b; a = a - b;

*= a *= b; a = a * b;

/= a /= b; a = a / b;

%= a %= b; a = a % b;
Cont… 18
3. Relational Operators: used to check the relationship between two operands.

Operator Meaning Example

== Is Equal To 3 == 5 gives us false

!= Not Equal To 3 != 5 gives us true

> Greater Than 3 > 5 gives us false

< Less Than 3 < 5 gives us true

>= Greater Than or Equal To 3 >= 5 give us false

<= Less Than or Equal To 3 <= 5 gives us true

Cont… 19
4. Logical Operators: used in decision making

Operator Example Meaning

Logical AND.
&& expression1 && expression2
True only if all the operands are true.

Logical OR.
|| expression1 || expression2
True if at least one of the operands is true.

Logical NOT.
! !expression
True only if the operand is false.
Cont… 20
5. Bitwise Operators: used to perform operations on individual bits. They can only be used alongside char and int
data types.

Operator Description

& Binary AND

| Binary OR

^ Binary XOR

~ Binary One's Complement

<< Binary Shift Left

>> Binary Shift Right

Cont… 21
6. Other Operators
Operator Description Example
sizeof returns the size of data type sizeof(int); // 4
string result = (5 > 0) ? "even" :
?: returns value based on the condition
"odd"; // "even"

& represents memory address of the operand &num; // address of num

. accesses members of struct variables or class objects s1.marks = 92;

-> used with pointers to access the class or struct variables ptr->marks = 92;

<< prints the output value cout << 5;

>> gets the input value cin >> num;
Expressions 22
 C++ expression consists of operators, constants, and variables which are arranged according to
the rules of the language.
 It can also contain function calls which return values.
 An expression can consist of one or more operands, zero or more operators to compute a value.
 Every expression produces some value which is assigned to the variable with the help of an
assignment operator.
 Constant expressions
 Integral expressions
 Float expressions
 Pointer expressions
 Relational expressions
 Logical expressions
 Bitwise expressions
Control Statements 23
 Statements are individual instructions of a program terminated with semi-colon.
 Control statements used to change the control flow of a program with branching statements and
looping statements.
1. Branching statements cause one section of code to be executed or not, depending on a conditional clause.
1. If statements
2. If-else statements
3. Nested if-else statements
4. Switch statement
5. Conditional operators (cond? true : false)
2. Looping statements are used to repeat a section of code a number of times or until some condition occurs.
1. For-loop
2. While-loop
3. Do-while loop
4. Continue and break
Arrays and Strings 24
 An array is a data structure ( a runtime memory management technique) used to process a collection
of data all of which are of the same type.
 Properties of arrays:
 Static
 Contiguous
 Zero-bound
 Index oriented access
 homogenous
 Declaring arrays:
 Syntax: datatype arrayName [size of the array] ;
 Initializing arrays:
 Syntax: datatype arrayName [ ] = {data1, data2, data3, …};
 Types of arrays:
 One dimensional, two dimensional and multi dimensional arrays
… 25
 Strings are data structures designed to store words or texts.
 In C++ strings can be defined using:
 C-string variable- array of characters
 String class
 Declaring arrays:
 Syntax: datatype arrayName [size of the array] ;
 Initializing arrays:
 Syntax: datatype arrayName [ ] = {data1, data2, data3, …};
C-strings 26
 C-strings are old fashioned C ways of handling strings as array of characters.
 Example:
char name[20];
 Note:
 This maximum size of 20 characters is not required to be always fully used.
 It may be lesser, therefore a convention to indicate end of string called null character (‘\0’) is
applied.
 Example: we could store “Hello” or “Studying C++” in the following ways.
Initializing C-strings 27
 Two ways of initializing C-strings are:
char mystring [] = { 'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0' };
char mystring [] = "Hello";
 On the first, ‘\0’ must be added explicitly by the programmer just like ordinary array initialization,
 On the second, ‘\0’ will be implicitly added by the compiler.
 Note: the above two techniques are legal only during initialization of a C-string.
mystring[] = “this is an error”;
mystring[] = {‘E’, ‘r’, ‘r’, ‘o’,
’r’, ’\0’}
Assigning C-strings 28
 One way of assigning to C-strings is:
mystring[0] = 'H';
mystring[1] = 'e';
mystring[2] = 'l';
mystring[3] = 'l';
mystring[4] = 'o';
mystring[5] = '\0’;
 But this way is too impractical,
 therefore predefined functions from cstring library will be more helpful in manipulating C-strings
… 29
 String copy (strcpy) function:
strcpy ( string1 , string2 );
 This copies the content of string2 into string1.
 String2 can be either an array, a pointer, or a constant string.
 Hence, assigning the constant string "Hello" to mystring will be:
strcpy (mystring, "Hello");
 C-strings can also directly assigned from the user via the input stream ( cin ) during program
execution.
 Syntax:
cin.getline ( char mystring [], int length , char delimiter = ' \n');
 Where:
 Length is size of the string and delimiter is a character to mark end of inputting.
Other functions… 30

Function Purpose
strcpy(s1, s2); Copies string s2 into string s1.

strcat(s1, s2); Concatenates string s2 onto the end of string s1.

strlen(s1); Returns the length of string s1 without the null character.

strcmp(s1, s2); Returns 0 if s1 and s2 are the same; -1 if s1<s2; 1 if s1>s2.

strchr(s1, ch); Returns a pointer to the first occurrence of character ch in string s1.

strstr(s1, s2); Returns a pointer to the first occurrence of string s2 in string s1

String class 31
 The library called string, which is part of the "Standard Template Library" in C++, contains a
class called string
 Strings are declared as regular variables (not as arrays), and they support:
 the assignment and comparison operators (=, ==, !=, >= and etc)
 the + operator for concatenation
 a variety of other member functions.
 Declaration:
Syntax: string stringName;
 Initialization:
string fName = “Menelik”;
 Assignment: assume we have a declaration, string fName;
fName = “Taytu”; or fName(“Taytu”);
Manipulating string objects 32
 Standard comparison operators can be applied:
if (s1 == s2)
cout << "The strings are the same";
if (s1 < s2)
cout << "s1 comes first lexicographically";
 The ordering on strings is a lexicographical ordering, which goes by ASCII values of the
characters.
… 33
 The + operator is overloaded in this library to perform string concatenation.
 It takes two strings,
 concatenates them,
 and returns the result.
 Example:
string s1 = “Atse";
string s2 = “Menelik";
string s3;
s3 = s1 + “ “ + s2; // s3 is now “Atse Menelik"
Input and output 34
 The string library also includes versions of the insertion and extraction operators, for use with
string objects.
 The insertion operator is used as with any other variable, and it will print the contents of the
string:
string s1 = "Hello, world";
string s2 = "Goodbye, ";
cout << s1; // prints "Hello, world"
cout << s2 + " now";// prints "Goodbye, now"
 The extraction operator, like the one for c-strings, will skip leading white space, then read up to
the next white space (i.e. one word only):
string s3;
cin >> s3; // will read one word
… 35
 To read more than one word, use getline similar with c-strings,
 but the syntax is a little different.
string addr; // string object
getline(cin, addr);
// reads up to newline, for string object
getline(cin, addr, `,');
// reads up to comma, for string object
 For the string object version of getline,
 the first parameter is the input stream (like cin),
 the second is the string object,
 and the third optional parameter is the delimiter.
 Note: you don't need a size parameter.
Reading… 36

Read and practice other

string class member
functions!