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)

Constructors and Destructors

Constructors are class functions used to initialize an object. Whenever an object is created, a constructor is called. Conversely, a destructor is called whenever an object is destroyed. Constructors differ from normal member functions in that they have the same name as the class they belong to. They do not have a return type and, as mentioned previously, they are called automatically whenever an instance of the class they belong to is created.

Constructors

This section will cover three different types of constructors:

  • Default constructors
  • Parameterized constructors
  • Copy constructors

These types of constructors will be covered in order by creating a simple song track listing class that holds various information about a particular track.

Default Constructors

A default constructor is a constructor that takes no parameters, or a constructor where all parameters have default values. Let's look at a very simple class...