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

Dynamic Memory


In this chapter, we have come across the term dynamic memory. Now let's understand in more detail what dynamic memory is, what problems it solves, and when to use it.

Dynamic memory is the part of the memory that the program can use to store objects, for which the program is responsible for maintaining the correct lifetime.

It is usually also called the heap and is often the alternative to the stack, which instead is handled automatically by the program. Dynamic memory can usually store much larger objects than the stack, which usually has a limit.

A program can interact with the operating system to get pieces of dynamic memory that it can use to store objects, and later it must take care to return such memory to the operating system.

Historically, developers would make sure they called the appropriate functions to get and return memory, but modern C++ automates most of this, so it is much easier to write correct programs nowadays.

In this section, we are going to show how and...