Exploring C++ 11, 2nd Edition

Exploring C++ divides C++ up into bite-sized chunks that will help you learn the language one step at a time. Assuming no familiarity with C++, or any other C-based language, you’ll be taught everything you need to know in a logical progression of small lessons that you can work through as quickly or as slowly as you need.

C++ can be a complicated language. Writing even the most straight-forward of programs requires you to understand many disparate aspects of the language and how they interact with one another. C++ doesn’t lend itself to neat compartmentalization the way other languages do. Rather than baffle you with complex chapters explaining functions, classes and statements in isolation we’ll focus on teaching you how to achieve results.  By learning a little bit of this and a little of that you’ll soon have amassed enough knowledge to be writing non-trivial programs and will have built a solid foundation of experience that puts those previously baffling concepts into context.

In this fully-revised second edition of Exploring C++, you’ll learn how to use the standard library early in the book. Next, you’ll learn to work with operators, objects and data-sources in increasingly realistic situations. Finally, you’ll start putting the pieces together to create sophisticated programs of your own design confident that you’ve built a firm base of experience from which to grow.

What you’ll learn

• Learn how to use C++ from first principles in a practical hands-on way.
• Understand how to use Custom types, virtual functions and objects to structure your code
• Build your own function templates, namespaces and containers from the ground up.
• Put everything together to create sophisticated programs that work with pointers, dynamic memory and overloaded functions to achieve the results you want.

Who this book is for

Read this book if you want to learn C++ and have a basic understanding of how computer programs work. You don’t need to know a C-based language before you start, but a basic understanding of how programs are structured is helpful.

Table of Contents

Exploration 1: Honing Your Tools
Exploration 2: Reading C++ Code
Exploration 3: Integer Expressions
Exploration 4: Strings
Exploration 5: Simple Input
Exploration 6: Error Messages
Exploration 7: For Loops
Exploration 8: Formatted Output
Exploration 9: Arrays And Vectors
Exploration 10: Algorithms And Iterators
Exploration 11: Increment And Decrement
Exploration 12: Conditions And Logic
Exploration 13: Compound Statements
Exploration 14: Introduction To File I/O
Exploration 15: The Map Data Structure
Exploration 16: Type Synonyms
Exploration 17: Characters
Exploration 18: Character Categories
Exploration 19: Case-Folding
Exploration 20: Writing Functions
Exploration 21: Function Arguments
Exploration 22: Using Algorithms
Exploration 23: Unnamed Functions
Exploration 24: Overloading Function Names
Exploration 25: Big And Little Numbers
Exploration 26: Very Big And Very Little Numbers
Exploration 27: Documentation
Exploration 28: Project 1: Body-Mass Index
Exploration 29: Custom Types
Exploration 30: Overloading Operators
Exploration 31: Custom I/O Operators
Exploration 32: Assignment And Initialization
Exploration 33: Writing Classes
Exploration 34: More About Member Functions
Exploration 35: Access Levels
Exploration 36: Introduction To Object-Oriented Programming
Exploration 37: Inheritance
Exploration 38: Virtual Functions
Exploration 39: Classes And Types
Exploration 40: Declarations And Definitions
Exploration 41: Using Multiple Source Files
Exploration 42: Function Objects
Exploration 43: Useful Algorithms
Exploration 44: Iterators
Exploration 45: Exceptions
Exploration 46: More Operators
Exploration 47: Project 2: Fixed-Point Numbers
Exploration 48: Function Templates
Exploration 49: Class Templates
Exploration 50: Template Specialization
Exploration 51: Partial Template Specialization
Exploration 52: Names And Namespaces
Exploration 53: Containers
Exploration 54: Locales And Facets
Exploration 55: International Characters
Exploration 56: Text I/O
Exploration 57: Project 3: Currency Type
Exploration 58: Pointers
Exploration 59: Dynamic Memory
Exploration 60: Moving Data With Rvalue References
Exploration 61: Exception-Safety
Exploration 62: Old-Fashioned Arrays
Exploration 63: Smart Pointers
Exploration 64: Working With Bits
Exploration 65: Enumerations
Exploration 66: Multiple Inheritance
Exploration 67: Traits And Policies
Exploration 68: Names, Namespaces, And Templates
Exploration 69: Overloaded Functions And Operators
Exploration 70: Metaprogramming
Exploration 71: Project 4: Calculator