The C++ Tutorial

LearnCpp.com is a free website devoted to teaching you how to program in C++. Whether you’ve had any prior programming experience or not, the tutorials on this site will walk you through all the steps to write, compile, and debug your C++ programs, all with plenty of examples.

Becoming an expert won’t happen overnight, but with a little patience, you’ll get there. And LearnCpp.com will show you the way.

Chapter 0		Introduction / Getting Started
0.1	Updated	Introduction to these tutorials
0.2	Updated May 20	Introduction to programming languages
0.3	Updated May 21	Introduction to C/C++
0.4	Updated	Introduction to development
0.5	Updated	Installing an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
0.6	Updated	Compiling your first program
0.6a	New	Build configurations
0.7	Updated	A few common C++ problems

Chapter 1		C++ Basics
1.1	Updated	Structure of a program
1.2	Updated	Comments
1.3	Updated Sep 7	A first look at variables, initialization, and assignment
1.3a	Updated May 29	A first look at cout, cin, endl, the std namespace, and using statements
1.4	Updated	A first look at functions and return values
1.4a	Updated Jul 23	A first look at function parameters and arguments
1.4b	New Aug 3	Why functions are useful, and how to use them effectively
1.4c	New	A first look at local scope
1.4d	Moved	Keywords and naming identifiers
1.5	Updated	A first look at operators
1.6	Updated	Whitespace and basic formatting
1.7	Updated	Forward declarations and definitions
1.8	Updated	Programs with multiple files
1.9	Updated	Header files
1.10	Updated Oct 12	A first look at the preprocessor
1.10a	Updated Apr 5	Header guards
1.10b	Updated	How to design your first programs
1.11	Moved	Debugging your program (stepping and breakpoints)
1.11a	Moved	Debugging your program (watching variables and the call stack)
1.12	Updated	Chapter 1 comprehensive quiz

Chapter 2		Variables and Fundamental Data Types
2.1	Updated Sep 7	Fundamental variable definition, initialization, and assignment
2.2	New	Void
2.3	Updated	Variable sizes and the sizeof operator
2.4	Updated	Integers
2.4a	Moved	Fixed-width integers
2.5	Updated Jun 25	Floating point numbers
2.6	Updated	Boolean values and an introduction to if statements
2.7	Updated	Chars
2.8	Updated May 20	Literals
2.9	Updated Oct 8	Const, constexpr, and symbolic constants
2.10	Updated	Chapter 2 comprehensive quiz

Chapter 3		Operators
3.1	Updated	Operator precedence and associativity
3.2	Updated	Arithmetic operators
3.3	Updated	Increment/decrement operators, and side effects
3.4	Updated	Sizeof, comma, and conditional operators
3.5	Updated	Relational operators (comparisons)
3.6	Updated	Logical operators
3.7	Updated	Converting between binary and decimal
3.8	Updated Jun 24	Bitwise operators
3.8a	Moved Sep 8	Bit flags and bit masks
3.x	Updated	Chapter 3 comprehensive quiz

Chapter 4		Variable Scope and More Types
4.1	Updated	Blocks (compound statements)
4.1a	Updated	Local variables, scope, and duration
4.2	Updated	Global variables and linkage
4.2a	Updated	Why global variables are evil
4.3	Updated	Static duration variables
4.3a	Moved	Namespaces
4.4	Updated	Implicit type conversion (coercion)
4.4a	Updated	Explicit type conversion (casting)
4.4b	Updated Dec 11	An introduction to std::string
4.5	Updated	Enumerated types
4.5a	Moved	Enum classes
4.6	Updated	Typedefs
4.7	Updated Sep 7	Structs
4.8	New Jul 30	The auto keyword
4.x	New	Chapter 4 comprehensive quiz

Chapter 5		Control Flow
5.1	Updated May 22	Control flow introduction
5.2	Updated Dec 17	If statements
5.3	Updated Jun 17	Switch statements
5.4	Updated Jun 26	Goto statements
5.5	Updated Jun 30	While statements
5.6	Updated Jul 01	Do while statements
5.7	Updated Jul 07	For statements
5.8	Updated Jul 15	Break and continue
5.9	Updated Jul 15	Random number generation
5.x	New	Chapter 5 comprehensive quiz

Chapter 6		Arrays, Strings, Pointers, and References
6.1	Updated Jul 22	Arrays (Part I)
6.2	Updated Jul 27	Arrays (Part II)
6.3	Updated Jul 27	Arrays and loops
6.4	Updated Aug 3	Sorting an array using selection sort
6.5	Updated Aug 5	Multidimensional arrays
6.6	Updated Aug 9	C-style strings
6.7	Updated Oct 12	Introduction to pointers
6.7a	New Aug 12	Null pointers
6.8	Updated Aug 24	Pointers and arrays
6.8a	New Aug 15	Pointer arithmetic and array indexing
6.8b	New Aug 15	C-style string symbolic constants
6.9	Updated Aug 18	Dynamic memory allocation with new and delete
6.9a	New Aug 18	Dynamically allocating arrays
6.10	Updated Aug 20	Pointers and const
6.11	Updated Sep 7	Reference variables
6.12	Updated Aug 21	Member selection with pointers and references
6.12a	Updated Oct 30	For each loops
6.13	Updated Aug 25	Void pointers
6.14	New Sep 14	Pointers to pointers
6.15	New Sep 14	An introduction to std::array
6.16	New Sep 28	An introduction to std::vector
6.x	New Oct 5	Chapter 6 comprehensive quiz

Chapter 7		Functions
7.1	Updated Oct 12	Function parameters and arguments
7.2	Updated Oct 14	Passing arguments by value
7.3	Updated Oct 23	Passing arguments by reference
7.4	Updated Oct 25	Passing arguments by address
7.4a	Updated Oct 29	Returning values by value, reference, and address
7.5	Updated Oct 27	Inline functions
7.6	Updated Oct 29	Function overloading
7.7	Updated Nov 11	Default parameters
7.8	Updated Nov 13	Function Pointers
7.9	Updated Nov 15	The stack and the heap
7.10	New Nov 24	std::vector capacity and stack behavior
7.11	Updated Nov 20	Recursion
7.12	Updated Nov 28	Handling errors (assert, cerr, exit, and exceptions)
7.13	Updated Dec 2	Command line arguments
7.14	Updated Dec 3	Ellipsis (and why to avoid them)
7.x	New Dec 4	Chapter 7 comprehensive quiz

Chapter 8		Basic object-oriented programming
8.1	Updated Dec 8	Welcome to object-oriented programming
8.2	Updated Dec 9	Classes and class members
8.3	Updated Dec 10	Public vs private access specifiers
8.4	Updated Dec 18	Access functions and encapsulation
8.5	Updated Feb 12	Constructors
8.5a	Moved Dec 21	Constructor member initializer lists
8.5b	New Feb 12	Non-static member initialization
8.6	Moved Dec 22	Overlapping and delegating constructors
8.7	Updated Dec 24	Destructors
8.8	Updated Jan 5	The hidden “this” pointer
8.9	Updated Jan 7	Class code and header files
8.10	Updated Jan 13	Const class objects and member functions
8.11	Updated Jan 21	Static member variables
8.12	Updated Jan 23	Static member functions
8.13	Updated Feb 8	Friend functions and classes
8.14	Updated Mar 6	Anonymous variables and objects
8.15	New Mar 25	Chapter 8 comprehensive quiz

Chapter 9		Operator overloading
9.1	Updated Mar 29	Introduction to operator overloading
9.2	Updated Mar 30	Overloading the arithmetic operators using friend functions
9.3	Updated Apr 2	Overloading the I/O operators
9.4	Updated Apr 4	Overloading operators using member functions
9.5	Updated Apr 9	Overloading unary operators +, -, and !
9.6	Updated Apr 14	Overloading the comparison operators
9.7	Updated Apr 15	Overloading the increment and decrement operators
9.8		Overloading the subscript operator
9.9		Overloading the parenthesis operator
9.10		Overloading typecasts
9.11		The copy constructor and overloading the assignment operator
9.12		Shallow vs. deep copying

Chapter 10		Composition
10.1		Moved to lesson 8.5a
10.2		Composition
10.3		Aggregation
10.4		Container classes

Chapter 11		Inheritance
11.1		Introduction to inheritance
11.2		Basic inheritance in C++
11.3		Order of construction of derived classes
11.4		Constructors and initialization of derived classes
11.5		Inheritance and access specifiers
11.6		Adding, changing, and hiding members in a derived class
11.7		Multiple inheritance
11.8		Virtual base classes

Chapter 12		Virtual Functions
12.1		Pointers and references to the base class of derived objects
12.2		Virtual functions and polymorphism
12.3		Virtual destructors, virtual assignment, and overriding virtualization
12.4		Early binding and late binding
12.5		The virtual table
12.6		Pure virtual functions, abstract base classes, and interface classes

Chapter 13		Input and output (I/O)
13.1		Input and output (I/O) streams
13.2		Input with istream
13.3		Output with ostream and ios
13.4		Stream classes for strings
13.5		Stream states and input validation
13.6		Basic file I/O
13.7		Random file I/O

Chapter 14		Templates
14.1		Function templates
14.2		Function template instances
14.3		Template classes
14.4		Expression parameters and template specialization
14.5		Class template specialization
14.6		Partial template specialization

Chapter 15		Exceptions
15.1		The need for exceptions
15.2		Basic exception handling
15.3		Exceptions, functions, and stack unwinding
15.4		Uncaught exceptions, catch-all handlers, and exception specifiers
15.5		Exceptions, classes, and inheritance
15.6		Exception dangers and downsides

Chapter 16		The Standard Template Library
16.1		The Standard Template Library (STL)
16.2		STL containers overview
16.3		STL iterators overview
16.4		STL algorithms overview

Chapter 17		std::string
17.1		std::string and std::wstring
17.2		std::string construction and destruction
17.3		std::string length and capacity
17.4		std::string character access and conversion to C-style arrays
17.5		std::string assignment and swapping
17.6		std::string appending
17.7		std::string inserting

Appendix A		Miscellaneous Subjects
A.1		Static and dynamic libraries
A.2		Using libraries with Visual Studio Express 2005
A.3		Using libraries with Code::Blocks

Appendix B		C++11 (Formerly C++0x)
B.1		Introduction to C++11
B.2		Long long, auto, decltype, nullptr, and enum classes
B.3		Range-based for statements and static_assert
B.4		Initializer lists and uniform initialization
B.5		Delegating constructors
B.6		New virtual function controls (override, final, default, and delete)

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