C++ Programming Code Examples

The sizeof() is an operator that evaluates the size of data type, constants, variable. It is a compile-time operator as it returns the size of any variable or a constant at the compilation time. The size, which is calculated by the sizeof() operator, is the amount of RAM occupied in the computer. The sizeof is a keyword, but it is a compile-time operator that determines the size, in bytes, of a variable or data type. The sizeof operator can be used to get the size of classes, structures, unions and any other user defined data type. data type whose size is to be calculated The data_type can be the data type of the data, variables, constants, unions, structures, or any other user-defined data type. If the parameter of a sizeof() operator contains the data type of a variable, then the sizeof() operator will return the size of the data type. sizeof() may give different output according to machine, we have run our program on 32 bit gcc compiler.

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!

The if...else statement executes two different codes depending upon whether the test expression is true or false. Sometimes, a choice has to be made from more than 2 possibilities. The if...else ladder allows you to check between multiple test expressions and execute different statements. In C/C++ if-else-if ladder helps user decide from among multiple options. The C/C++ if statements are executed from the top down. As soon as one of the conditions controlling the if is true, the statement associated with that if is executed, and the rest of the C else-if ladder is bypassed. If none of the conditions is true, then the final else statement will be executed. In the above syntax of if-else-if, if the Condition1 is TRUE then the Statement1 will be executed and control goes to next statement in the program following if-else-if ladder. If Condition1 is FALSE then Condition2 will be checked, if Condition2 is TRUE then Statement2 will be executed and control goes to next statement in the program following if-else-if ladder. Similarly, if Condition2 is FALSE then next condition will be checked and the process continues. If all the conditions in the if-else-if ladder are evaluated to FALSE, then Default_Statement will be executed.

The pointer in C++ language is a variable, it is also known as locator or indicator that points to an address of a value. In C++, a pointer refers to a variable that holds the address of another variable. Like regular variables, pointers have a data type. For example, a pointer of type integer can hold the address of a variable of type integer. A pointer of character type can hold the address of a variable of character type. You should see a pointer as a symbolic representation of a memory address. With pointers, programs can simulate call-by-reference. They can also create and manipulate dynamic data structures. In C++, a pointer variable refers to a variable pointing to a specific address in a memory pointed by another variable. • Pointer reduces the code and improves the performance, it is used to retrieving strings, trees etc. and used with arrays, structures and functions. • We can return multiple values from function using pointer. • It makes you able to access any memory location in the computer's memory. Dynamic memory allocation: In c language, we can dynamically allocate memory using malloc() and calloc() functions where pointer is used. Arrays, Functions and Structures: Pointers in C language are widely used in arrays, functions and structures. It reduces the code and improves the performance. & (ampersand sign): Address operator - Determine the address of a variable. * (asterisk sign): Indirection operator - Access the value of an address. The pointer in C++ language can be declared using * (asterisk symbol).

Allocate memory block. Allocates a block of size bytes of memory, returning a pointer to the beginning of the block. The content of the newly allocated block of memory is not initialized, remaining with indeterminate values. If size is zero, the return value depends on the particular library implementation (it may or may not be a null pointer), but the returned pointer shall not be dereferenced. Malloc function in C++ is used to allocate a specified size of the block of memory dynamically uninitialized. It allocates the memory to the variable on the heap and returns the void pointer pointing to the beginning address of the memory block. The values in the memory block allocated remain uninitialized and indeterminate. In case the size specified in the function is zero then pointer returned must not be dereferenced as it can be a null pointer, and in this case, behavior depends on particular library implementation. When a memory block is allocated dynamically memory is allocated on the heap but the pointer is allocated to the stack. Size of the memory block, in bytes. size_t is an unsigned integral type. On success, a pointer to the memory block allocated by the function. The type of this pointer is always void*, which can be cast to the desired type of data pointer in order to be dereferenceable. If the function failed to allocate the requested block of memory, a null pointer is returned. There are a lot of advantages to using the malloc method in one's application: • Dynamic Memory allocation: Usually we create arrays at compile time in C++, the size of such arrays is fixed. In the case at run time we do not use all the space or extra space is required for more elements to be inserted in the array, then this leads to improper memory management or segmentation fault error. • Heap memory: Local arrays that are defined at compile time are allocated on the stack, which has lagged in memory management in case the number of data increases. Thus one needs to allocate memory out of the stack, thus malloc comes into the picture as it allocates the memory location on the heap and returns a pointer on the stack pointing to the starting address of the array type memory being allocated. • Variable-length array: This function helps to allocate memory for an array whose size can be defined at the runtime. Thus one can create the number of blocks as much as required at run time. • Better lifetime: Variable created using malloc method is proved to have a better life than the local arrays as a lifetime of local arrays depends on the scope they are being defined and cannot access out of their scope. But variables or arrays created using malloc exist till they are freed. This is of great importance for various data structures such as linked list, binary heap, etc. • The new operator constructs an object, i.e., it calls the constructor to initialize an object while malloc() function does not call the constructor. The new operator invokes the constructor, and the delete operator invokes the destructor to destroy the object. This is the biggest difference between the malloc() and new. • The new is an operator, while malloc() is a predefined function in the stdlib header file. • The operator new can be overloaded while the malloc() function cannot be overloaded. • If the sufficient memory is not available in a heap, then the new operator will throw an exception while the malloc() function returns a NULL pointer. • In the new operator, we need to specify the number of objects to be allocated while in malloc() function, we need to specify the number of bytes to be allocated. • In the case of a new operator, we have to use the delete operator to deallocate the memory. But in the case of malloc() function, we have to use the free() function to deallocate the memory. Only the storage referenced by the returned pointer is modified. No other storage locations are accessed by the call. If the function reuses the same unit of storage released by a deallocation function (such as free or realloc), the functions are synchronized in such a way that the deallocation happens entirely before the next allocation. No-throw guarantee: this function never throws exceptions.

In C++, classes and structs are blueprints that are used to create the instance of a class. Structs are used for lightweight objects such as Rectangle, color, Point, etc. Unlike class, structs in C++ are value type than reference type. It is useful if you have data that is not intended to be modified after creation of struct. C++ Structure is a collection of different data types. It is similar to the class that holds different types of data. A structure is declared by preceding the struct keyword followed by the identifier(structure name). Inside the curly braces, we can declare the member variables of different types. Consider the following situation: In the above case, Teacher is a structure contains three variables name, id, and age. When the structure is declared, no memory is allocated. When the variable of a structure is created, then the memory is allocated. Let's understand this scenario. Structures in C++ can contain two types of members: • Data Member: These members are normal C++ variables. We can create a structure with variables of different data types in C++. • Member Functions: These members are normal C++ functions. Along with variables, we can also include functions inside a structure declaration. Structure variable can be defined as: Teacher s; Here, s is a structure variable of type Teacher. When the structure variable is created, the memory will be allocated. Teacher structure contains one char variable and two integer variable. Therefore, the memory for one char variable is 1 byte and two ints will be 2*4 = 8. The total memory occupied by the s variable is 9 byte. The variable of the structure can be accessed by simply using the instance of the structure followed by the dot (.) operator and then the field of the structure. We are accessing the id field of the structure Teacher by using the dot(.) operator and assigns the value 4 to the id field. In C++, the struct keyword is optional before in declaration of a variable. In C, it is mandatory.

Flush stream. The fflush() function in C++ flushes any buffered data to the respective device. Buffered data is the temporary or application specific data stored in the physical memory of the computer until a certain time. If the given stream was open for writing (or if it was open for updating and the last i/o operation was an output operation) any unwritten data in its output buffer is written to the file. If stream is a null pointer, all such streams are flushed. In all other cases, the behavior depends on the specific library implementation. In some implementations, flushing a stream open for reading causes its input buffer to be cleared (but this is not portable expected behavior). The stream remains open after this call. When a file is closed, either because of a call to fclose or because the program terminates, all the buffers associated with it are automatically flushed. Pointer to a FILE object that specifies a buffered stream. Function returns a zero value indicates success. If an error occurs, EOF is returned and the error indicator is set (see ferror).

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.

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.

In computer programming, we use the if statement to run a block code only when a certain condition is met. An if statement can be followed by an optional else statement, which executes when the boolean expression is false. There are three forms of if...else statements in C++: • if statement, • if...else statement, • if...else if...else statement, The if statement evaluates the condition inside the parentheses ( ). If the condition evaluates to true, the code inside the body of if is executed. If the condition evaluates to false, the code inside the body of if is skipped. The if..else statement evaluates the condition inside the parenthesis. If the condition evaluates true, the code inside the body of if is executed, the code inside the body of else is skipped from execution. If the condition evaluates false, the code inside the body of else is executed, the code inside the body of if is skipped from execution. The if...else statement is used to execute a block of code among two alternatives. However, if we need to make a choice between more than two alternatives, we use the if...else if...else statement. • If condition1 evaluates to true, the code block 1 is executed. • If condition1 evaluates to false, then condition2 is evaluated. • If condition2 is true, the code block 2 is executed. • If condition2 is false, the code block 3 is executed. There can be more than one else if statement but only one if and else statements. In C/C++ if-else-if ladder helps user decide from among multiple options. The C/C++ if statements are executed from the top down. As soon as one of the conditions controlling the if is true, the statement associated with that if is executed, and the rest of the C else-if ladder is bypassed. If none of the conditions is true, then the final else statement will be executed. Working of the if-else-if ladder: 1. Control falls into the if block. 2. The flow jumps to Condition 1. 3. Condition is tested. If Condition yields true, goto Step 4. If Condition yields false, goto Step 5. 4. The present block is executed. Goto Step 7. 5. The flow jumps to Condition 2. If Condition yields true, goto step 4. If Condition yields false, goto Step 6. 6. The flow jumps to Condition 3. If Condition yields true, goto step 4. If Condition yields false, execute else block. Goto Step 7. 7. Exits the if-else-if ladder. • The if else ladder statement in C++ programming language is used to check set of conditions in sequence. • This is useful when we want to selectively executes one code block(out of many) based on certain conditions. • It allows us to check for multiple condition expressions and execute different code blocks for more than two conditions. • A condition expression is tested only when all previous if conditions in if-else ladder is false. • If any of the conditional expression evaluates to true, then it will execute the corresponding code block and exits whole if-else ladder.

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.

Check whether eofbit is set. Returns true if the eofbit error state flag is set for the stream. This flag is set by all standard input operations when the End-of-File is reached in the sequence associated with the stream. Note that the value returned by this function depends on the last operation performed on the stream (and not on the next). Operations that attempt to read at the End-of-File fail, and thus both the eofbit and the failbit end up set. This function can be used to check whether the failure is due to reaching the End-of-File or to some other reason. This function does not accept any parameter. Function returns true if the stream's eofbit error state flag is set (which signals that the End-of-File has been reached by the last input operation). false otherwise. Accesses the stream object. Concurrent access to the same stream object may cause data races. Strong guarantee: if an exception is thrown, there are no changes in the stream.

#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.