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.

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.

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 getch() is a predefined non-standard function that is defined in conio.h header file. It is mostly used by the Dev C/C++, MS- DOS's compilers like Turbo C to hold the screen until the user passes a single value to exit from the console screen. It can also be used to read a single byte character or string from the keyboard and then print. It does not hold any parameters. It has no buffer area to store the input character in a program. The getch() function does not accept any parameter from the user. It returns the ASCII value of the key pressed by the user as an input. We use a getch() function in a C/ C++ program to hold the output screen for some time until the user passes a key from the keyboard to exit the console screen. Using getch() function, we can hide the input character provided by the users in the ATM PIN, password, etc. • getch() method pauses the Output Console until a key is pressed. • It does not use any buffer to store the input character. • The entered character is immediately returned without waiting for the enter key. • The entered character does not show up on the console. • The getch() method can be used to accept hidden inputs like password, ATM pin numbers, etc.

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.

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 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!

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.

Logical Operators are used to compare and connect two or more expressions or variables, such that the value of the expression is completely dependent on the original expression or value or variable. We use logical operators to check whether an expression is true or false. If the expression is true, it returns 1 whereas if the expression is false, it returns 0. Assume variable A holds 1 and variable B holds 0: Called Logical AND operator. If both the operands are non-zero, then condition becomes true. (A && B) is false. The logical AND operator && returns true - if and only if all the operands are true. false - if one or more operands are false. Called Logical OR Operator. If any of the two operands is non-zero, then condition becomes true. (A || B) is true. The logical OR operator || returns true - if one or more of the operands are true. false - if and only if all the operands are false. Called Logical NOT Operator. Use to reverses the logical state of its operand. If a condition is true, then Logical NOT operator will make false. !(A && B) is true. The logical NOT operator ! is a unary operator i.e. it takes only one operand. It returns true when the operand is false, and false when the operand is true.

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.

Allocate storage space. Default allocation functions (single-object form). A new operator is used to create the object while a delete operator is used to delete the object. When the object is created by using the new operator, then the object will exist until we explicitly use the delete operator to delete the object. Therefore, we can say that the lifetime of the object is not related to the block structure of the program. Size in bytes of the requested memory block. This is the size of the type specifier in the new-expression when called automatically by such an expression. If this argument is zero, the function still returns a distinct non-null pointer on success (although dereferencing this pointer leads to undefined behavior). size_t is an integral type. The constant nothrow. This parameter is only used to distinguish it from the first version with an overloaded version. When the nothrow constant is passed as second parameter to operator new, operator new returns a null-pointer on failure instead of throwing a bad_alloc exception. nothrow_t is the type of constant nothrow. A pointer to an already-allocated memory block of the proper size. If called by a new-expression, the object is initialized (or constructed) at this location. For the first and second versions, function returns a pointer to the newly allocated storage space. For the third version, ptr is returned. • (1) throwing allocation: Allocates size bytes of storage, suitably aligned to represent any object of that size, and returns a non-null pointer to the first byte of this block. On failure, it throws a bad_alloc exception. • (2) nothrow allocation: Same as above (1), except that on failure it returns a null pointer instead of throwing an exception. The default definition allocates memory by calling the the first version: ::operator new (size). If replaced, both the first and second versions shall return pointers with identical properties. • (3) placement: Simply returns ptr (no storage is allocated). Notice though that, if the function is called by a new-expression, the proper initialization will be performed (for class objects, this includes calling its default constructor). The default allocation and deallocation functions are special components of the standard library; They have the following unique properties: • Global: All three versions of operator new are declared in the global namespace, not within the std namespace. • Implicit: The allocating versions ((1) and (2)) are implicitly declared in every translation unit of a C++ program, no matter whether header <new> is included or not. • Replaceable: The allocating versions ((1) and (2)) are also replaceable: A program may provide its own definition that replaces the one provided by default to produce the result described above, or can overload it for specific types. If set_new_handler has been used to define a new_handler function, this new-handler function is called by the default definitions of the allocating versions ((1) and (2)) if they fail to allocate the requested storage. operator new can be called explicitly as a regular function, but in C++, new is an operator with a very specific behavior: An expression with the new operator, first calls function operator new (i.e., this function) with the size of its type specifier as first argument, and if this is successful, it then automatically initializes or constructs the object (if needed). Finally, the expression evaluates as a pointer to the appropriate type. Modifies the storage referenced by the returned value. Calls to allocation and deallocation functions that reuse the same unit of storage shall occur in a single total order where each deallocation happens entirely before the next allocation. This shall also apply to the observable behavior of custom replacements for this function. The first version (1) throws bad_alloc if it fails to allocate storage. Otherwise, it throws no exceptions (no-throw guarantee).