This document is intended for knowledgeable users of C who would
like to make the transition to C++. It is a guide for Frank's C++
programming courses, which are given yearly at the University of Groningen. As
such, this document is not a complete C++ handbook. Rather, it serves as
an addition to other documentation sources.
If you want a hard-copy version of the C++ annotations: that's available
in postscript, and other formats in our
ftp-site, in several files starting with
cplusplus.
Chapter 1: Overview of the chapters
Chapter 2: Introduction
2.0.1: History of the C++ Annotations
2.1: What's new in the C++ Annotations
2.2: The history of C++
2.2.1: Compiling a C program by a C++ compiler
2.2.2: Compiling a C++ program
2.2.2.1: C++ under MS-Windows
2.2.2.2: Compiling a C++ source text
2.3: Advantages and pretensions of C++
2.4: What is Object-Oriented Programming?
2.5: Differences between C and C++
2.5.1: End-of-line comment
2.5.2: NULL-pointers vs. 0-pointers
2.5.3: Strict type checking
2.5.4: A new syntax for casts
2.5.5: The 'static_cast'-operator
2.5.6: The 'const_cast'-operator
2.5.7: The 'reinterpret_cast'-operator
2.5.8: The void argument list
2.5.9: The #define __cplusplus
2.5.10: The usage of standard C functions
2.5.11: Header files for both C and C++
2.5.12: The definition of local variables
2.5.13: Function Overloading
2.5.14: Default function arguments
2.5.15: The keyword typedef
2.5.16: Functions as part of a struct
Chapter 3: A first impression of C++
3.1: More extensions of C in C++
3.1.1: The scope resolution operator ::
3.1.2: cout, cin and cerr
3.1.3: The keyword const
3.1.4: References
3.2: Functions as part of structs
3.3: Several new data types
3.3.1: The `bool' data type
3.3.2: The `wchar_t' data type
3.4: Data hiding: public, private and class
3.5: Structs in C vs. structs in C++
3.6: Namespaces
3.6.1: Defining namespaces
3.6.1.1: Declaring entities in namespaces
3.6.2: Referring to entities
3.6.2.1: The using directive
3.6.3: The standard namespace
3.6.4: Nesting namespaces and namespace aliasing
3.6.4.1: Defining entities outside of their namespaces
Chapter 4: The `string' data type
4.1: Operations on strings
4.2: Overview of operations on strings
4.2.1: The string-initializers
4.2.2: The
string-iterators4.2.3: The
string-operators4.2.4: The string member functions
Chapter 5: Classes
5.1: Constructors and destructors
5.1.1: The constructor
5.1.2: The destructor
5.1.3: A first application
5.1.4: Constructors with arguments
5.1.4.1: The order of construction
5.2: Const member functions and const objects
5.3: The operators new and delete
5.3.1: Allocating and deallocating arrays
5.3.2: New and delete and object pointers
5.3.3: The function set_new_handler()
5.4: The keyword inline
5.4.1: Inline functions within class declarations
5.4.2: Inline functions outside of class declarations
5.4.3: When to use inline functions
5.5: Objects in objects: composition
5.5.1: Composition and const objects: const member initializers
5.5.2: Composition and reference objects: reference memberinitializers
5.6: Friend functions and friend classes
5.7: Header file organization with classes
5.8: Nesting Classes
5.8.1: Defining nested class members
5.8.2: Declaring nested classes
5.8.3: Access to private members in nested classes
5.8.4: Nesting enumerations
Chapter 6: Classes and memory allocation
6.1: Classes with pointer data members
6.2: The assignment operator
6.2.1: Overloading the assignment operator
6.2.1.1: The function 'operator=()'
6.3: The this pointer
6.3.1: Preventing self-destruction with this
6.3.2: Associativity of operators and this
6.4: The copy constructor: Initialization vs. Assignment
6.4.1: Similarities between the copy constructor and operator=()
6.5: Conclusion
Chapter 7: More About Operator Overloading
7.1: Overloading operator[]()
7.2: Overloading operator new(size_t)
7.3: Overloading operator delete(void *)
7.4: Cin, cout, cerr and their operators
7.5: Conversion operators
7.6: The `explicit' keyword
7.7: Overloading the increment and decrement operators
7.8: Function Objects
7.8.1: Categories of Function objects
7.8.1.1: Arithmetic Function Objects
7.8.1.2: Relational Function Objects
7.8.1.3: Logical Function Objects
7.8.2: Function Adaptors
7.9: Overloadable Operators
Chapter 8: Abstract Containers
8.1: The `pair' container
8.2: Sequential Containers
8.2.1: The `vector' container
8.2.2: The `list' container
8.2.3: The `queue' container
8.2.4: The `priority_queue' container
8.2.5: The `deque' container
8.2.6: The `map' container
8.2.7: The `multimap' container
8.2.8: The `set' container
8.2.9: The `multiset' container
8.2.10: The `stack' container
8.2.11: The `hash_map' and other hashing-based containers
8.3: The `complex' container
Chapter 9: Static data and functions
9.1: Static data
9.1.1: Private static data
9.1.2: Public static data
9.2: Static member functions
Chapter 10: Classes having pointers to members
10.1: Pointers to members: an example
10.2: Initializing pointers to members
10.3: Pointers to static members
10.4: Using pointers to members for real
10.4.1: Pointers to members: an implementation
Chapter 11: The Standard Template Library, generic algorithms
11.1: Iterators
11.1.1: Insert iterators
11.1.2: istream iterators
11.1.3: ostream iterators
11.2: The 'auto_ptr' class
11.2.1: Defining auto_ptr variables
11.2.2: Pointing to a newly allocated object
11.2.3: Pointing to another auto_ptr
11.2.4: Creating an plain auto_ptr
11.2.5: The get() member function
11.2.6: The reset() member function
11.2.7: The release() member function
11.3: The Generic Algorithms
11.3.1: accumulate()
11.3.2: adjacent_difference()
11.3.3: adjacent_find()
11.3.4: binary_search()
11.3.5: copy()
11.3.6: copy_backward()
11.3.7: count()
11.3.8: count_if()
11.3.9: equal()
11.3.10: equal_range()
11.3.11: fill()
11.3.12: fill_n()
11.3.13: find()
11.3.14: find_if()
11.3.15: find_end()
11.3.16: find_first_of()
11.3.17: for_each()
11.3.18: generate()
11.3.19: generate_n()
11.3.20: includes()
11.3.21: inner_product()
11.3.22: inplace_merge()
11.3.23: iter_swap()
11.3.24: lexicographical_compare()
11.3.25: lower_bound()
11.3.26: max()
11.3.27: max_element()
11.3.28: merge()
11.3.29: min()
11.3.30: min_element()
11.3.31: mismatch()
11.3.32: next_permutation()
11.3.33: nth_element()
11.3.34: partial_sort()
11.3.35: partial_sort_copy()
11.3.36: partial_sum()
11.3.37: partition()
11.3.38: prev_permutation()
11.3.39: random_shuffle()
11.3.40: remove()
11.3.41: remove_copy()
11.3.42: remove_if()
11.3.43: remove_copy_if()
11.3.44: replace()
11.3.45: replace_copy()
11.3.46: replace_if()
11.3.47: replace_copy_if()
11.3.48: reverse()
11.3.49: reverse_copy()
11.3.50: rotate()
11.3.51: rotate_copy()
11.3.52: search()
11.3.53: search_n()
11.3.54: set_difference()
11.3.55: set_intersection()
11.3.56: set_symmetric_difference()
11.3.57: set_union()
11.3.58: sort()
11.3.59: stable_partition()
11.3.60: stable_sort()
11.3.61: swap()
11.3.62: swap_ranges()
11.3.63: transform()
11.3.64: unique()
11.3.65: unique_copy()
11.3.66: upper_bound()
11.3.67: Heap algorithms
11.3.67.1: make_heap()
11.3.67.5: A small example using the heap algorithms
Chapter 12: The IO-stream Library
12.1: Streams: insertion (<<) and extraction (>>)
12.1.1: The insertion operator <<
12.1.2: The extraction operator >>
12.2: Four standard iostreams
12.3: Files and Strings in general
12.3.1: String stream objects: a summary
12.3.2: Writing streams
12.3.3: Reading streams
12.3.4: Reading and writing streams
12.3.5: Special functions
12.3.6: Good, bad, and ...: IOStream Condition States
12.3.7: Formating
12.3.7.1: The (v)form() and (v)scan() members
12.3.7.2: Manipulators: dec, hex, oct and other manipulators
12.3.7.3: Setting the precision: the member precision()
12.3.7.4: (Un)Setting display flags: the member (un)setf()
12.3.8: Constructing manipulators
Chapter 13: Exceptions
13.1: Using exceptions: an outline
13.2: An example using exceptions
13.2.1: No exceptions: the setjmp() and longjmp() approach
13.2.2: Exceptions: the preferred alternative
13.3: Throwing exceptions
13.3.1: The empty throw statement
13.4: The try block
13.5: Catching exceptions
13.5.1: The default catcher
13.6: Declaring exception throwers
Chapter 14: More about friends
14.1: Inserting String objects into streams
14.2: An initial solution
14.3: Friend-functions
14.3.1: Preventing the friend-keyword
14.4: Friend classes
Chapter 15: Inheritance
15.1: Related types
15.2: The constructor of a derived class
15.3: The destructor of a derived class
15.4: Redefining member functions
15.5: Multiple inheritance
15.6: Conversions between base classes and derived classes
15.6.1: Conversions in object assignments
15.6.2: Conversions in pointer assignments
15.7: Storing base class pointers
Chapter 16: Polymorphism, late binding and virtual functions
16.1: Virtual functions
16.1.1: Polymorphism in program development
16.1.2: How polymorphism is implemented
16.2: Pure virtual functions
16.3: Comparing only Persons
16.4: Virtual destructors
16.5: Virtual functions in multiple inheritance
16.5.1: Ambiguity in multiple inheritance
16.5.2: Virtual base classes
16.5.3: When virtual derivation is not appropriate
16.6: Run-Time Type identification
16.6.1: The dynamic_cast operator
16.6.2: The typeid operator
Chapter 17: Templates
17.1: Template functions
17.1.1: Template function definitions
17.1.1.1: The keyword 'typename'
17.1.2: Instantiations of template functions
17.1.3: Argument deduction
17.1.3.1: Lvalue transformations
17.1.3.2: Qualification conversions
17.1.3.3: Conversion to a base class
17.1.3.4: Summary: the template argument deduction algorithm
17.1.4: Explicit arguments
17.1.4.1: Template explicit instantiation declarations
17.1.5: Template explicit specialization
17.1.6: Overloading template functions
17.1.7: Selecting an overloaded (template) function
17.1.8: Name resolution within template functions
17.2: Template classes
17.2.1: Template class definitions
17.2.2: Template class instantiations
17.2.3: Nontype parameters
17.2.4: Template class member functions
17.2.5: Template classes and friend declarations
17.2.5.1: Nontemplate friends
17.2.6: Template classes and static data
17.2.7: Derived Template Classes
17.2.8: Nesting and template classes
17.2.9: Template members
17.2.10: Template class specializations
17.2.11: Template class partial specializations
17.2.12: Name resolution within template classes
17.3: An example: the implementation of the bvector template
17.3.1: The reverse_iter template class
17.3.2: The final implementation
Chapter 18: Concrete examples of C++
18.1: Storing objects: Storable and Storage
18.1.1: The global setup
18.1.1.1: Interface functions of the class Storage
18.1.1.2: To copy or not to copy?
18.1.2: The class Storable
18.1.2.1: Converting an existing class to a Storable
18.1.3: The class Storage
18.2: A binary tree
18.2.1: The Node class
18.2.2: The Tree class
18.2.2.1: Constructing a tree
18.2.2.2: The `standard' functions
18.2.2.3: Adding an object to the tree
18.2.2.5: The primitive operations copy() and destroy()
18.2.3: Using Tree and Node
18.3: Classes to process program options
18.3.1: Functionality of the class Configuration
18.3.1.1: The interface of the class Configuration
18.3.1.2: An example of a program using the class Configuration
18.3.2: Implementation of the class Configuration
18.3.2.1: The constructor
18.3.2.3: loadCommandLineOptions()
18.3.3: The class Option
18.3.3.1: The interface of the class Option
18.3.3.2: The static member nextOptionDefinition
18.3.4: Derived from Option: The class TextOption
18.3.4.1: The interface of the class TextOption
18.3.4.2: The implementation of the assign() function
18.3.5: The class Object
18.3.6: The class Hashtable
18.3.6.1: The Hashtable constructor
18.3.6.2: The function mayInsert()
18.3.6.3: The function expanded()
18.3.7: Auxiliary classes
18.3.7.1: The class Mem
18.3.7.3: The class StringTokenizer
18.4: Using Bison and Flex
18.4.1: Using Flex++ to create a scanner
18.4.1.1: The flex++ specification file
18.4.1.2: The derived class: Scanner
18.4.1.4: Building the scanner-program
18.4.2: Using both bison++ and flex++
18.4.2.1: The bison++ specification file
18.4.2.2: The bison++ token section
18.4.2.3: The bison++ grammar rules
18.4.2.4: The flex++ specification file
18.4.2.5: The generation of the code