Book Image

The C++ Workshop

By : Dale Green, Kurt Guntheroth, Shaun Ross Mitchell
Book Image

The C++ Workshop

By: Dale Green, Kurt Guntheroth, Shaun Ross Mitchell

Overview of this book

C++ is the backbone of many games, GUI-based applications, and operating systems. Learning C++ effectively is more than a matter of simply reading through theory, as the real challenge is understanding the fundamentals in depth and being able to use them in the real world. If you're looking to learn C++ programming efficiently, this Workshop is a comprehensive guide that covers all the core features of C++ and how to apply them. It will help you take the next big step toward writing efficient, reliable C++ programs. The C++ Workshop begins by explaining the basic structure of a C++ application, showing you how to write and run your first program to understand data types, operators, variables and the flow of control structures. You'll also see how to make smarter decisions when it comes to using storage space by declaring dynamic variables during program runtime. Moving ahead, you'll use object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques such as inheritance, polymorphism, and class hierarchies to make your code structure organized and efficient. Finally, you'll use the C++ standard library?s built-in functions and templates to speed up different programming tasks. By the end of this C++ book, you will have the knowledge and skills to confidently tackle your own ambitious projects and advance your career as a C++ developer.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)

Classes/Structs

The basic types provided by C++ are a great starting point, but it's rare that these are the only variable types you'll need within an application. When we're representing real-world information, such as user records or the various properties of an object, we often need more complex data types to store our information. C++ allows us to create such types in classes and structs. Classes are going to be covered in greater detail in a later chapter, but for now, we're going to simply introduce a number of key concepts.

Classes

A class is a collection of variables and functionality, encapsulated neatly within a single object. When we define a class, we're creating a blueprint for that object. This means that every time we want to create an object of that type, we use that blueprint to construct our object. Classes are a core part of C++; after all, C++ was originally named C with Classes.

Members (variables and functions) declared in a C...