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

Resource Acquisition Is Initialization


Resource Acquisition Is Initialization, or just RAII, is a programming idiom that is used to manage the life cycle of a resource automatically by binding it to the lifetime of an object.

Through the smart use of the constructor and destructor of an object, you can achieve RAII. The former acquires the resource, while the latter takes care of realizing it. The constructor is allowed to throw an exception, when a resource cannot be acquired, while the destructor must never throw exceptions.

Typically, it is a good practice to operate on a resource via an instance of a RAII class when its usage involves open()/close(), lock()/unlock(), start()/stop(), init()/destroy(), or similar function calls.

The following is a way to open and close a file using an RAII-style mechanism.

Note

C++, like many languages, represents input/output operations as streams, where data can be written to or read from.

The constructor of the class opens the file into a provided stream...