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

Passing Arguments and Returning Values


In the Introduction section, we mentioned that the caller can provide some data to the function. This is done by passing arguments to the parameters of the function.

The parameters that a function accept are part of its signature, so we need to specify them in every declaration.

The list of parameters a function can accept is contained in the parentheses after the function name. The parameters in the function parentheses are comma-separated, composed by a type, and optionally an identifier.

For example, a function taking two integer numbers would be declared as follows:

void two_ints(int, int);

If we wanted to give a name to these parameters, a and b respectively, we would write the following:

void two_ints(int a, int b);

Inside its body, the function can access the identifiers defined in the function signature as if they were declared variables. The values of the function parameters are decided when the function is called.

To call a function that takes a parameter...