C++ Programming Code Examples

Return iterator to beginning. Returns an iterator pointing to the first element in the vector. Notice that, unlike member vector::front, which returns a reference to the first element, this function returns a random access iterator pointing to it. If the container is empty, the returned iterator value shall not be dereferenced. The C++ function std::vector::begin() returns a random access iterator pointing to the first element of the vector. This function does not accept any parameter. Function returns an iterator to the beginning of the sequence container. If the vector object is const-qualified, the function returns a const_iterator. Otherwise, it returns an iterator. Member types iterator and const_iterator are random access iterator types (pointing to an element and to a const element, respectively). Constant No changes The container is accessed (neither the const nor the non-const versions modify the container). No contained elements are accessed by the call, but the iterator returned can be used to access or modify elements. Concurrently accessing or modifying different elements is safe. No-throw guarantee: this member function never throws exceptions. The copy construction or assignment of the returned iterator is also guaranteed to never throw.

In while loop, condition is evaluated first and if it returns true then the statements inside while loop execute, this happens repeatedly until the condition returns false. When condition returns false, the control comes out of loop and jumps to the next statement in the program after while loop. The important point to note when using while loop is that we need to use increment or decrement statement inside while loop so that the loop variable gets changed on each iteration, and at some point condition returns false. This way we can end the execution of while loop otherwise the loop would execute indefinitely. A while loop that never stops is said to be the infinite while loop, when we give the condition in such a way so that it never returns false, then the loops becomes infinite and repeats itself indefinitely. • A while loop evaluates the condition • If the condition evaluates to true, the code inside the while loop is executed. • The condition is evaluated again. • This process continues until the condition is false. • When the condition evaluates to false, the loop terminates. Do not forget to increase the variable used in the condition, otherwise the loop will never end!

Return iterator to end. Returns an iterator referring to the past-the-end element in the vector container. The past-the-end element is the theoretical element that would follow the last element in the vector. It does not point to any element, and thus shall not be dereferenced. Because the ranges used by functions of the standard library do not include the element pointed by their closing iterator, this function is often used in combination with vector::begin to specify a range including all the elements in the container. If the container is empty, this function returns the same as vector::begin. This function does not accept any parameter. Function returns an iterator to the element past the end of the sequence. If the vector object is const-qualified, the function returns a const_iterator. Otherwise, it returns an iterator. Member types iterator and const_iterator are random access iterator types (pointing to an element and to a const element, respectively). To use vector, include <vector> header. It does not point to the last element, thus to get the last element we can use vector::end()-1. Constant No changes The container is accessed (neither the const nor the non-const versions modify the container). No contained elements are accessed by the call, but the iterator returned can be used to access or modify elements. Concurrently accessing or modifying different elements is safe. No-throw guarantee: this member function never throws exceptions. The copy construction or assignment of the returned iterator is also guaranteed to never throw.

Consider a situation, when we have two persons with the same name, jhon, in the same class. Whenever we need to differentiate them definitely we would have to use some additional information along with their name, like either the area, if they live in different area or their mother's or father's name, etc. Same situation can arise in your C++ applications. For example, you might be writing some code that has a function called xyz() and there is another library available which is also having same function xyz(). Now the compiler has no way of knowing which version of xyz() function you are referring to within your code. A namespace is designed to overcome this difficulty and is used as additional information to differentiate similar functions, classes, variables etc. with the same name available in different libraries. Using namespace, you can define the context in which names are defined. In essence, a namespace defines a scope. A namespace definition begins with the keyword namespace followed by the namespace name as follows: To call the namespace-enabled version of either function or variable, prepend (::) the namespace name as follows: You can also avoid prepending of namespaces with the using namespace directive. This directive tells the compiler that the subsequent code is making use of names in the specified namespace. A namespace can be defined in several parts and so a namespace is made up of the sum of its separately defined parts. The separate parts of a namespace can be spread over multiple files. So, if one part of the namespace requires a name defined in another file, that name must still be declared. Writing a following namespace definition either defines a new namespace or adds new elements to an existing one: Namespaces can be nested where you can define one namespace inside another name space as follows: • Namespace is a feature added in C++ and not present in C. • A namespace is a declarative region that provides a scope to the identifiers (names of the types, function, variables etc) inside it. • Multiple namespace blocks with the same name are allowed. All declarations within those blocks are declared in the named scope. • Namespace declarations appear only at global scope. • Namespace declarations can be nested within another namespace. • Namespace declarations don't have access specifiers. (Public or private) • No need to give semicolon after the closing brace of definition of namespace. • We can split the definition of namespace over several units.

The exit function terminates the program normally. Automatic objects are not destroyed, but static objects are. Then, all functions registered with atexit are called in the opposite order of registration. The code is returned to the operating system. An exit code of 0 or EXIT_SUCCESS means successful completion. If code is EXIT_FAILURE, an indication of program failure is returned to the operating system. Other values of code are implementation-defined. Status code. If this is 0 or EXIT_SUCCESS, it indicates success. If it is EXIT_FAILURE, it indicates failure. Calls all functions registered with the atexit() function, and destroys C++ objects with static storage duration, all in last-in-first-out (LIFO) order. C++ objects with static storage duration are destroyed in the reverse order of the completion of their constructor. (Automatic objects are not destroyed as a result of calling exit().) Functions registered with atexit() are called in the reverse order of their registration. A function registered with atexit(), before an object obj1 of static storage duration is initialized, will not be called until obj1's destruction has completed. A function registered with atexit(), after an object obj2 of static storage duration is initialized, will be called before obj2's destruction starts. Normal program termination performs the following (in the same order): • Objects associated with the current thread with thread storage duration are destroyed (C++11 only). • Objects with static storage duration are destroyed (C++) and functions registered with atexit are called. • All C streams (open with functions in <cstdio>) are closed (and flushed, if buffered), and all files created with tmpfile are removed. • Control is returned to the host environment. Note that objects with automatic storage are not destroyed by calling exit (C++). If status is zero or EXIT_SUCCESS, a successful termination status is returned to the host environment. If status is EXIT_FAILURE, an unsuccessful termination status is returned to the host environment. Otherwise, the status returned depends on the system and library implementation. Flushes all buffers, and closes all open files. All files opened with tmpfile() are deleted. Returns control to the host environment from the program. exit() returns no values.

#include is a way of including a standard or user-defined file in the program and is mostly written at the beginning of any C/C++ program. This directive is read by the preprocessor and orders it to insert the content of a user-defined or system header file into the following program. These files are mainly imported from an outside source into the current program. The process of importing such files that might be system-defined or user-defined is known as File Inclusion. This type of preprocessor directive tells the compiler to include a file in the source code program. Including using " ": When using the double quotes(" "), the preprocessor access the current directory in which the source "header_file" is located. This type is mainly used to access any header files of the user's program or user-defined files. Including using <>: While importing file using angular brackets(<>), the the preprocessor uses a predetermined directory path to access the file. It is mainly used to access system header files located in the standard system directories. Header File or Standard files: This is a file which contains C/C++ function declarations and macro definitions to be shared between several source files. Functions like the printf(), scanf(), cout, cin and various other input-output or other standard functions are contained within different header files. So to utilise those functions, the users need to import a few header files which define the required functions. User-defined files: These files resembles the header files, except for the fact that they are written and defined by the user itself. This saves the user from writing a particular function multiple times. Once a user-defined file is written, it can be imported anywhere in the program using the #include preprocessor. • In #include directive, comments are not recognized. So in case of #include <a//b>, a//b is treated as filename. • In #include directive, backslash is considered as normal text not escape sequence. So in case of #include <a\nb>, a\nb is treated as filename. • You can use only comment after filename otherwise it will give error.

The cin object is used to accept input from the standard input device i.e. keyboard. It is defined in the iostream header file. C++ cin statement is the instance of the class istream and is used to read input from the standard input device which is usually a keyboard. The extraction operator(>>) is used along with the object cin for reading inputs. The extraction operator extracts the data from the object cin which is entered using the keyboard. is the extraction operator. is usually a variable, but can also be an element of containers like arrays, vectors, lists, etc. The "c" in cin refers to "character" and "in" means "input". Hence cin means "character input". The cin object is used along with the extraction operator >> in order to receive a stream of characters. The >> operator can also be used more than once in the same statement to accept multiple inputs. The cin object can also be used with other member functions such as getline(), read(), etc. Some of the commonly used member functions are: • cin.get(char &ch): Reads an input character and stores it in ch. • cin.getline(char *buffer, int length): Reads a stream of characters into the string buffer, It stops when: it has read length-1 characters or when it finds an end-of-line character '\n' or the end of the file eof. • cin.read(char *buffer, int n): Reads n bytes (or until the end of the file) from the stream into the buffer. • cin.ignore(int n): Ignores the next n characters from the input stream. • cin.eof(): Returns a non-zero value if the end of file (eof) is reached. The prototype of cin as defined in the iostream header file is: extern istream cin; The cin object in C++ is an object of class istream. It is associated with the standard C input stream stdin. The cin object is ensured to be initialized during or before the first time an object of type ios_base::Init is constructed. After the cin object is constructed, cin.tie() returns &cout. This means that any formatted input operation on cin forces a call to cout.flush() if any characters are pending for output.

Switch statement in C tests the value of a variable and compares it with multiple cases. Once the case match is found, a block of statements associated with that particular case is executed. Each case in a block of a switch has a different name/number which is referred to as an identifier. The value provided by the user is compared with all the cases inside the switch block until the match is found. If a case match is NOT found, then the default statement is executed, and the control goes out of the switch block. • The expression can be integer expression or a character expression. • Value-1, 2, n are case labels which are used to identify each case individually. Remember that case labels should not be same as it may create a problem while executing a program. Suppose we have two cases with the same label as '1'. Then while executing the program, the case that appears first will be executed even though you want the program to execute a second case. This creates problems in the program and does not provide the desired output. • Case labels always end with a colon ( : ). Each of these cases is associated with a block. • A block is nothing but multiple statements which are grouped for a particular case. • Whenever the switch is executed, the value of test-expression is compared with all the cases which we have defined inside the switch. Suppose the test expression contains value 4. This value is compared with all the cases until case whose label four is found in the program. As soon as a case is found the block of statements associated with that particular case is executed and control goes out of the switch. • The break keyword in each case indicates the end of a particular case. If we do not put the break in each case then even though the specific case is executed, the switch in C will continue to execute all the cases until the end is reached. This should not happen; hence we always have to put break keyword in each case. Break will terminate the case once it is executed and the control will fall out of the switch. • The default case is an optional one. Whenever the value of test-expression is not matched with any of the cases inside the switch, then the default will be executed. Otherwise, it is not necessary to write default in the switch. • Once the switch is executed the control will go to the statement-x, and the execution of a program will continue.

Iterators are just like pointers used to access the container elements. Iterators are one of the four pillars of the Standard Template Library or STL in C++. An iterator is used to point to the memory address of the STL container classes. For better understanding, you can relate them with a pointer, to some extent. Iterators act as a bridge that connects algorithms to STL containers and allows the modifications of the data present inside the container. They allow you to iterate over the container, access and assign the values, and run different operators over them, to get the desired result. • Iterators are used to traverse from one element to another element, a process is known as iterating through the container. • The main advantage of an iterator is to provide a common interface for all the containers type. • Iterators make the algorithm independent of the type of the container used. • Iterators provide a generic approach to navigate through the elements of a container. Operator (*) : The '*' operator returns the element of the current position pointed by the iterator. Operator (++) : The '++' operator increments the iterator by one. Therefore, an iterator points to the next element of the container. Operator (==) and Operator (!=) : Both these operators determine whether the two iterators point to the same position or not. Operator (=) : The '=' operator assigns the iterator. Iterators can be smart pointers which allow to iterate over the complex data structures. A Container provides its iterator type. Therefore, we can say that the iterators have the common interface with different container type. The container classes provide two basic member functions that allow to iterate or move through the elements of a container: begin(): The begin() function returns an iterator pointing to the first element of the container. end(): The end() function returns an iterator pointing to the past-the-last element of the container. Input Iterator: An input iterator is an iterator used to access the elements from the container, but it does not modify the value of a container. Operators used for an input iterator are: Increment operator(++), Equal operator(==), Not equal operator(!=), Dereference operator(*). Output Iterator: An output iterator is an iterator used to modify the value of a container, but it does not read the value from a container. Therefore, we can say that an output iterator is a write-only iterator. Operators used for an output iterator are: Increment operator(++), Assignment operator(=). Forward Iterator: A forward iterator is an iterator used to read and write to a container. It is a multi-pass iterator. Operators used for a Forward iterator are: Increment operator(++), Assignment operator(=), Equal operator(=), Not equal operator(!=). Bidirectional iterator: A bidirectional iterator is an iterator supports all the features of a forward iterator plus it adds one more feature, i.e., decrement operator(--). We can move backward by decrementing an iterator. Operators used for a Bidirectional iterator are: Increment operator(++), Assignment operator(=), Equal operator(=), Not equal operator(!=), Decrement operator(--). Random Access Iterator: A Random Access iterator is an iterator provides random access of an element at an arbitrary location. It has all the features of a bidirectional iterator plus it adds one more feature, i.e., pointer addition and pointer subtraction to provide random access to an element. Following are the disadvantages of an iterator: • If we want to move from one data structure to another at the same time, iterators won't work. • If we want to update the structure which is being iterated, an iterator won?t allow us to do because of the way it stores the position. • If we want to backtrack while processing through a list, the iterator will not work in this case. Following are the advantages of an iterator: • Ease in programming: It is convenient to use iterators rather than using a subscript operator[] to access the elements of a container. If we use subscript operator[] to access the elements, then we need to keep the track of the number of elements added at the runtime, but this would not happen in the case of an iterator. • Code Reusability: A code can be reused if we use iterators. In the above example, if we replace vector with the list, and then the subscript operator[] would not work to access the elements as the list does not support the random access. However, we use iterators to access the elements, then we can also access the list elements. • Dynamic Processing: C++ iterators provide the facility to add or delete the data dynamically.

Access element. Returns a reference to the element at position n in the vector container. A similar member function, vector::at, has the same behavior as this operator function, except that vector::at is bound-checked and signals if the requested position is out of range by throwing an out_of_range exception. Portable programs should never call this function with an argument n that is out of range, since this causes undefined behavior. Position of an element in the container. Notice that the first element has a position of 0 (not 1). Member type size_type is an unsigned integral type. Function returns the element at the specified position in the vector. If the vector object is const-qualified, the function returns a const_reference. Otherwise, it returns a reference. Member types reference and const_reference are the reference types to the elements of the container (see vector member types). Constant No changes The container is accessed (neither the const nor the non-const versions modify the container). The reference returned can be used to access or modify elements. Concurrently accessing or modifying different elements is safe. If the container size is greater than n, the function never throws exceptions (no-throw guarantee). Otherwise, the behavior is undefined.

Add element at the end. Adds a new element at the end of the vector, after its current last element. The content of val is copied (or moved) to the new element. This effectively increases the container size by one, which causes an automatic reallocation of the allocated storage space if -and only if- the new vector size surpasses the current vector capacity. push_back() function is used to push elements into a vector from the back. The new value is inserted into the vector at the end, after the current last element and the container size is increased by 1. Value to be copied (or moved) to the new element. Member type value_type is the type of the elements in the container, defined in vector as an alias of its first template parameter (T). This function does not return any value. If a reallocation happens, the storage is allocated using the container's allocator, which may throw exceptions on failure (for the default allocator, bad_alloc is thrown if the allocation request does not succeed). Constant (amortized time, reallocation may happen). If a reallocation happens, the reallocation is itself up to linear in the entire size. If a reallocation happens, all iterators, pointers and references related to the container are invalidated. Otherwise, only the end iterator is invalidated, and all iterators, pointers and references to elements are guaranteed to keep referring to the same elements they were referring to before the call. The container is modified. If a reallocation happens, all contained elements are modified. Otherwise, no existing element is accessed, and concurrently accessing or modifying them is safe. If no reallocations happen, there are no changes in the container in case of exception (strong guarantee). If a reallocation happens, the strong guarantee is also given if the type of the elements is either copyable or no-throw moveable. Otherwise, the container is guaranteed to end in a valid state (basic guarantee). If allocator_traits::construct is not supported with val as argument, it causes undefined behavior.

A program shall contain a global function named main, which is the designated start of the program in hosted environment. main() function is the entry point of any C++ program. It is the point at which execution of program is started. When a C++ program is executed, the execution control goes directly to the main() function. Every C++ program have a main() function. void is a keyword in C++ language, void means nothing, whenever we use void as a function return type then that function nothing return. here main() function no return any value. main is a name of function which is predefined function in C++ library. In place of void we can also use int return type of main() function, at that time main() return integer type value. 1) It cannot be used anywhere in the program a) in particular, it cannot be called recursively b) its address cannot be taken 2) It cannot be predefined and cannot be overloaded: effectively, the name main in the global namespace is reserved for functions (although it can be used to name classes, namespaces, enumerations, and any entity in a non-global namespace, except that a function called "main" cannot be declared with C language linkage in any namespace). 3) It cannot be defined as deleted or (since C++11) declared with C language linkage, constexpr (since C++11), consteval (since C++20), inline, or static. 4) The body of the main function does not need to contain the return statement: if control reaches the end of main without encountering a return statement, the effect is that of executing return 0;. 5) Execution of the return (or the implicit return upon reaching the end of main) is equivalent to first leaving the function normally (which destroys the objects with automatic storage duration) and then calling std::exit with the same argument as the argument of the return. (std::exit then destroys static objects and terminates the program). 6) (since C++14) The return type of the main function cannot be deduced (auto main() {... is not allowed). 7) (since C++20) The main function cannot be a coroutine.

The cout is a predefined object of ostream class. It is connected with the standard output device, which is usually a display screen. The cout is used in conjunction with stream insertion operator (<<) to display the output on a console. On most program environments, the standard output by default is the screen, and the C++ stream object defined to access it is cout. The syntax of the cout object in C++: cout << var_name; Or cout << "Some String"; is the insertion operator is usually a variable, but can also be an array element or elements of containers like vectors, lists, maps, etc. The "c" in cout refers to "character" and "out" means "output". Hence cout means "character output". The cout object is used along with the insertion operator << in order to display a stream of characters. The << operator can be used more than once with a combination of variables, strings, and manipulators. cout is used for displaying data on the screen. The operator << called as insertion operator or put to operator. The Insertion operator can be overloaded. Insertion operator is similar to the printf() operation in C. cout is the object of ostream class. Data flow direction is from variable to output device. Multiple outputs can be displayed using cout.

The C++ vector has many member functions. Two of them are clear() and erase(). clear() "removes" all the elements of the vector. erase() "removes" a single element or a range of elements. vector::clear() is a library function of "vector" header, it is used to remove/clear all elements of the vector, it makes the 0 sized vector after removing all elements. The C++ vector::clear function is used to clear all elements of the vector. This function makes the vector empty with a size of zero. The function does not accept any parameter. The function does not return any type. Erases all elements from the container. To use vector, include <vector> header. Linear in size (destructions). This may be optimized to constant complexity for trivially-destructible types (such as scalar or PODs), where elements need not be destroyed. All iterators, pointers and references related to this container are invalidated. The container is modified. All contained elements are modified. No-throw guarantee: this member function never throws exceptions.

In computer programming, loops are used to repeat a block of code. For example, when you are displaying number from 1 to 100 you may want set the value of a variable to 1 and display it 100 times, increasing its value by 1 on each loop iteration. When you know exactly how many times you want to loop through a block of code, use the for loop instead of a while loop. A for loop is a repetition control structure that allows you to efficiently write a loop that needs to execute a specific number of times. initializes variables and is executed only once. if true, the body of for loop is executed, if false, the for loop is terminated. updates the value of initialized variables and again checks the condition. A new range-based for loop was introduced to work with collections such as arrays and vectors.

Break statement in C++ is a loop control statement defined using the break keyword. It is used to stop the current execution and proceed with the next one. When a compiler calls the break statement, it immediately stops the execution of the loop and transfers the control outside the loop and executes the other statements. In the case of a nested loop, break the statement stops the execution of the inner loop and proceeds with the outer loop. The statement itself says it breaks the loop. When the break statement is called in the program, it immediately terminates the loop and transfers the flow control to the statement mentioned outside the loop. The break statement is used in the following scenario: • When a user is not sure about the number of iterations in the program. • When a user wants to stop the program based on some condition. The break statement terminates the loop where it is defined and execute the other. If the condition is mentioned in the program, based on the condition, it executes the loop. If the condition is true, it executes the conditional statement, and if the break statement is mentioned, it will immediately break the program. otherwise, the loop will iterate until the given condition fails. if the condition is false, it stops the program.

A predefined object of the class called iostream class is used to insert the new line characters while flushing the stream is called endl in C++. This endl is similar to \n which performs the functionality of inserting new line characters but it does not flush the stream whereas endl does the job of inserting the new line characters while flushing the stream. Hence the statement cout<<endl; will be equal to the statement cout<< '\n' << flush; meaning the new line character used along with flush explicitly becomes equivalent to the endl statement in C++. Whenever the program is writing the output data to the stream, all the data will not be written to the terminal at once. Instead, it will be written to the buffer until enough data is collected in the buffer to output to the terminal. But if are using flush in our program, the entire output data will be flushed to the terminal directly without storing anything in the buffer. Whenever there is a need to insert the new line character to display the output in the next line while flushing the stream, we can make use of endl in C++. Whenever there is a need to insert the new line character to display the output in the next line, we can make use of endl in '\n' character but it does not do the job of flushing the stream. So if we want to insert a new line character along with flushing the stream, we make use of endl in C++. Whenever the program is writing the output data to the stream, all the data will not be written to the terminal at once. Instead, it will be written to the buffer until enough data is collected in the buffer to output to the terminal. • It is a manipulator. • It doesn't occupy any memory. • It is a keyword and would not specify any meaning when stored in a string. • We cannot write 'endl' in between double quotations. • It is only supported by C++. • It keeps flushing the queue in the output buffer throughout the process.

Return size. Returns the number of elements in the vector. This is the number of actual objects held in the vector, which is not necessarily equal to its storage capacity. vector::size() is a library function of "vector" header, it is used to get the size of a vector, it returns the total number of elements in the vector. The dynamic array can be created by using a vector in C++. One or more elements can be inserted into or removed from the vector at the run time that increases or decreases the size of the vector. The size or length of the vector can be counted using any loop or the built-in function named size(). This function does not accept any parameter. Function returns the number of elements in the container. Member type size_type is an unsigned integral type. Constant No changes The container is accessed. No contained elements are accessed: concurrently accessing or modifying them is safe. No-throw guarantee: this member function never throws exceptions.

Delete last element. Removes the last element in the vector, effectively reducing the container size by one. The C++ vector::pop_back function is used to delete the last element of the vector. Every deletion of element results into reducing the container size by one unless the vector is empty. This destroys the removed element. This function does not accept any parameter. This function does not return any value. Constant The end iterator and any iterator, pointer and reference referring to the removed element are invalidated. Iterators, pointers and references referring to other elements that have not been removed are guaranteed to keep referring to the same elements they were referring to before the call. The container is modified. The last element is modified. Concurrently accessing or modifying other elements is safe, although iterating ranges that include the removed element is not. If the container is not empty, the function never throws exceptions (no-throw guarantee). Otherwise, it causes undefined behavior.

In C++, vectors are used to store elements of similar data types. However, unlike arrays, the size of a vector can grow dynamically. That is, we can change the size of the vector during the execution of a program as per our requirements. Vectors are part of the C++ Standard Template Library. To use vectors, we need to include the vector header file in our program. The type parameter <T> specifies the type of the vector. It can be any primitive data type such as int, char, float, etc. We are initializing the vector by providing values directly to the vector. vector1 is initialized with values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Here, 5 is the size of the vector and 8 is the value. This code creates an int vector with size 5 and initializes the vector with the value of 8. So, the vector is equivalent to The vector class provides various methods to perform different operations on vectors. Add Elements to a Vector: To add a single element into a vector, we use the push_back() function. It inserts an element into the end of the vector. Access Elements of a Vector: In C++, we use the index number to access the vector elements. Here, we use the at() function to access the element from the specified index. Change Vector Element: We can change an element of the vector using the same at() function. Delete Elements from C++ Vectors: To delete a single element from a vector, we use the pop_back() function. In C++, the vector header file provides various functions that can be used to perform different operations on a vector. • size(): returns the number of elements present in the vector. • clear(): removes all the elements of the vector. • front(): returns the first element of the vector. • back(): returns the last element of the vector. • empty(): returns 1 (true) if the vector is empty. • capacity(): check the overall size of a vector. Vector iterators are used to point to the memory address of a vector element. In some ways, they act like pointers. We can initialize vector iterators using the begin() and end() functions. The begin() function returns an iterator that points to the first element of the vector. The end() function points to the theoretical element that comes after the final element of the vector.