C++ Programming Code Examples

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.

#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.

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.

n C++, we can change the way operators work for user-defined types like objects and structures. This is known as operator overloading. Suppose we have created three objects c1, c2 and result from a class named Complex that represents complex numbers. Since operator overloading allows us to change how operators work, we can redefine how the + operator works and use it to add the complex numbers of c1 and c2 by writing the following code: instead of something like This makes our code intuitive and easy to understand. We cannot use operator overloading for fundamental data types like int, float, char and so on. To overload an operator, we use a special operator function. We define the function inside the class or structure whose objects/variables we want the overloaded operator to work with. is the return type of the function. is a keyword. is the operator we want to overload. Like: +, <, -, ++, etc. is the arguments passed to the function. Unary operators operate on only one operand. The increment operator ++ and decrement operator -- are examples of unary operators.

In C++, constructor is a special method which is invoked automatically at the time of object creation. It is used to initialize the data members of new object generally. The constructor in C++ has the same name as class or structure. Constructors are special class functions which performs initialization of every object. The Compiler calls the Constructor whenever an object is created. Constructors initialize values to object members after storage is allocated to the object. Whereas, Destructor on the other hand is used to destroy the class object. • Default Constructor: A constructor which has no argument is known as default constructor. It is invoked at the time of creating object. • Parameterized Constructor: In C++, a constructor with parameters is known as a parameterized constructor. This is the preferred method to initialize member data. These are the constructors with parameter. Using this Constructor you can provide different values to data members of different objects, by passing the appropriate values as argument. • Copy Constructors: These are special type of Constructors which takes an object as argument, and is used to copy values of data members of one object into other object. The copy constructor is a constructor which creates an object by initializing it with an object of the same class, which has been created previously. The copy constructor is used to - • Initialize one object from another of the same type. • Copy an object to pass it as an argument to a function. • Copy an object to return it from a function. If a copy constructor is not defined in a class, the compiler itself defines one.If the class has pointer variables and has some dynamic memory allocations, then it is a must to have a copy constructor. The most common form of copy constructor is shown here.

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.

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.

The main purpose of C++ programming is to add object orientation to the C programming language and classes are the central feature of C++ that supports object-oriented programming and are often called user-defined types. A class is used to specify the form of an object and it combines data representation and methods for manipulating that data into one neat package. The data and functions within a class are called members of the class. When you define a class, you define a blueprint for a data type. This doesn't actually define any data, but it does define what the class name means, that is, what an object of the class will consist of and what operations can be performed on such an object. A class definition starts with the keyword class followed by the class name; and the class body, enclosed by a pair of curly braces. A class definition must be followed either by a semicolon or a list of declarations. For example, we defined the Box data type using the keyword class as follows: The keyword public determines the access attributes of the members of the class that follows it. A public member can be accessed from outside the class anywhere within the scope of the class object. You can also specify the members of a class as private or protected which we will discuss in a sub-section. A class provides the blueprints for objects, so basically an object is created from a class. We declare objects of a class with exactly the same sort of declaration that we declare variables of basic types. Following statements declare two objects of class Box: Both of the objects Box1 and Box2 will have their own copy of data members. The public data members of objects of a class can be accessed using the direct member access operator (.). It is important to note that private and protected members can not be accessed directly using direct member access operator (.). There are further interesting concepts related to C++ Classes and Objects which we will discuss in various sub-sections listed below: • Class Member Functions: A member function of a class is a function that has its definition or its prototype within the class definition like any other variable. • Class Access Modifiers: A class member can be defined as public, private or protected. By default members would be assumed as private. • Constructor & Destructor: A class constructor is a special function in a class that is called when a new object of the class is created. A destructor is also a special function which is called when created object is deleted. • Copy Constructor: The copy constructor is a constructor which creates an object by initializing it with an object of the same class, which has been created previously. • Friend Functions: A friend function is permitted full access to private and protected members of a class. • Inline Functions: With an inline function, the compiler tries to expand the code in the body of the function in place of a call to the function. • this Pointer: Every object has a special pointer this which points to the object itself. • Pointer to C++ Classes: A pointer to a class is done exactly the same way a pointer to a structure is. In fact a class is really just a structure with functions in it. • Static Members of a Class: Both data members and function members of a class can be declared as static.

A return statement ends the processing of the current function and returns control to the caller of the function. A value-returning function should include a return statement, containing an expression. If an expression is not given on a return statement in a function declared with a non-void return type, the compiler issues an error message. If the data type of the expression is different from the function return type, conversion of the return value takes place as if the value of the expression were assigned to an object with the same function return type. For a function of return type void, a return statement is not strictly necessary. If the end of such a function is reached without encountering a return statement, control is passed to the caller as if a return statement without an expression were encountered. In other words, an implicit return takes place upon completion of the final statement, and control automatically returns to the calling function. If a return statement is used, it must not contain an expression. The following are examples of return statements:

Arithmetic Operator is used to performing mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, modulus, etc., on the given operands. For example: 6 + 3 = 9, 5 - 3 = 2, 3 * 4 = 12, etc. are the examples of arithmetic operators. Let's discuss the different types of Arithmetic Operators in the C programming. Plus Operator is a simple Plus (+) Operator used to add two given operands. We can use Plus Operator with different data types such as integer, float, long, double, enumerated and string type data to add the given operand. The minus operator is denoted by the minus (-) symbol. It is used to return the subtraction of the first number from the second number. The data type of the given number can be different types, such as int, float, double, long double, etc., in the programing language. The multiplication operator is represented as an asterisk (*) symbol, and it is used to return the product of n1 and n2 numbers. The data type of the given number can be different types such as int, float, and double in the C programing language. The division operator is an arithmetic operator that divides the first (n1) by the second (n2) number. Using division operator (/), we can divide the int, float, double and long data types variables. The modulus operator is represented by the percentage sign (%), and it is used to return the remainder by dividing the first number by the second number. Increment Operator is the type of Arithmetic operator, which is denoted by double plus (++) operator. It is used to increase the integer value by 1. Decrement Operator is denoted by the double minus (--) symbol, which decreases the operand value by 1.