In lesson , we talked about the fact that variables are names for a piece of memory that can be used to store information. To recap briefly, computers have random access memory (RAM) that is available for programs to use. When a variable is defined, a piece of that memory …
A is a type of instruction that causes the program to perform some action. Statements are often terminated by a semicolon. A is a collection of statements that execute sequentially. Every C++ program must include a special function named main. When you run your program, execution starts at the top …
When you compile your code, you might expect that the compiler compiles the code exactly as you’ve written it. This actually isn’t the case. Prior to compilation, the code file goes through a phase known as . Many things happen in the translation phase to get your code ready to …
As programs grow larger (and make use of more files), it becomes increasingly tedious to have to forward declare every function you want to use that is defined in a different file. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could put all your forward declarations in one place and then import …
As programs get larger, it is common to split them into multiple files for organizational or reusability purposes. One advantage of working with an IDE is that they make working with multiple files much easier. You already know how to create and compile single-file projects. Adding new files to existing …
Take a look at this seemingly innocent sample program: #include <iostream> int main() { std::cout << “The sum of 3 and 4 is: ” << add(3, 4) << ‘\n’; return 0; } int add(int x, int y) { return x + y; } You would expect this program to produce …
is a term that refers to characters that are used for formatting purposes. In C++, this refers primarily to spaces, tabs, and newlines. The C++ compiler generally ignores whitespace, with a few minor exceptions (when processing text literals). For this reason, we say that C++ is a whitespace-independent language. Consequently, …
In the last chapter, we defined a function as a collection of statements that execute sequentially. While that is certainly true, that definition doesn’t provide much insight into why functions are useful. Let’s update our definition: A is a reusable sequence of statements designed to do a particular job. You …
In lesson , you learned that the majority of instructions in a program are statements, and that statements are grouped into functions. These statements perform actions that (hopefully) generate whatever result the program was designed to produce. But how do programs actually produce results? They do so by manipulating (reading, …
A is a programmer-readable note that is inserted directly into the source code of the program. Comments are ignored by the compiler and are for the programmer’s use only. In C++ there are two different styles of comments, both of which serve the same purpose: to help programmers document the …
