Book Image

C++ Fundamentals

By : Antonio Mallia, Francesco Zoffoli
Book Image

C++ Fundamentals

By: Antonio Mallia, Francesco Zoffoli

Overview of this book

C++ Fundamentals begins by introducing you to the C++ compilation model and syntax. You will then study data types, variable declaration, scope, and control flow statements. With the help of this book, you'll be able to compile fully working C++ code and understand how variables, references, and pointers can be used to manipulate the state of the program. Next, you will explore functions and classes — the features that C++ offers to organize a program — and use them to solve more complex problems. You will also understand common pitfalls and modern best practices, especially the ones that diverge from the C++98 guidelines. As you advance through the chapters, you'll study the advantages of generic programming and write your own templates to make generic algorithms that work with any type. This C++ book will guide you in fully exploiting standard containers and algorithms, understanding how to pick the appropriate one for each problem. By the end of this book, you will not only be able to write efficient code but also be equipped to improve the readability, performance, and maintainability of your programs.
Table of Contents (9 chapters)
C++ Fundamentals
Preface

Working with const References or r-value References


A temporary object cannot be passed as an argument for a reference parameter. To accept temporary parameters, we need to use const references or r-value references. The r-value references are references that are identified by two ampersands, &&, and can only refer to temporary values. We will look at them in more detail in Lesson 4, Generic Programming and Templates.

We need to remember that a pointer is a value that represents the location of an object.

Being a value, it means that when we are accepting a parameter as a pointer, the pointer itself is passed as a value.

This means that the modification of the pointer inside the function is not going to be visible to the caller.

But if we are modifying the object the pointer points to, then the original object is going to be modified:

void modify_pointer(int* pointer) {
  *pointer = 1;
  pointer = 0;
}
int main() {
  int a = 0;
  int* ptr = &a;
  modify_pointer(ptr);
  std::cout ...