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

Polymorphism


In the previous section, we mentioned that inheritance is a solution that allows you to change the behavior of code while a program is running. This is because inheritance enables polymorphism in C++.

Polymorphism means many forms and represents the ability of objects to behave in different ways.

We mentioned earlier that templates are a way to write code that works with many different types at compilation time and, depending on the types used to instantiate the template, the behavior will change.

This kind of pattern is called static polymorphism – static because it is known during compilation time. C++ also supports dynamic polymorphism – having the behavior of methods change while the program is running. This is powerful because we can react to information we obtain only after we have compiled our program, such as user input, values in configurations, or the kind of hardware the code is running on. This is possible thanks to two features – dynamic binding and dynamic dispatch...