Introduction

C++ is a general-purpose hybrid language, which supports both OOPs and procedural language designed and developed by Bjarne Stroustrup. It began in 1979 as “C with Classes” at Bell Labs and first appeared in the year 1985 as C++. It is the superset of C programming language, because it uses most of the C code syntax. Due to its hybrid functionality, it used to develop embedded systems, operating systems, web browser, GUI and video games.  

Birth, Build and Design of C++ 

A Danish Computer scientist named Bjarne Stroustrup who is working in AT&T Bell Labs faced issues while analyzing Unix kernel in distributed computing. So, he started enhancing the C programming language with features like SIMULA, he chose the C programming because it is fast, portable and widely used. On the other hand, SIMULA is too slow for practical use and used primarily for simulation. In 1979, he started and working on enhancing the C programming language it is called as “C with Classes” and in 1982 he succeeds it with C++ introducing new feature BCPL style single line comments (//), function overloading, function name, virtual functions and operator overloading, references. Further he developed a new standalone compiler for C++ called Cfront. C++ was designed to develop software infrastructure for embedded system and resource constrained applications which includes desktop applications, video games and performance-critical applications. 

Why to learn or use C++? 

If anyone is interested in developing games or want to explore space? Here is good news for those people, most game engines were built and developed using C++. An embedded system which is present in-flight controllers uses a combination of C/C++ to program them, and widely used in modern day databases such as MySQL and MongoDB. Windows, Android and Unix Operating systems are also developed using a combination of C and C++. And also, it consists of vast libraries and has a huge community to support and help and recommend tutorials that are required for beginners to learn C and C++. 

IDE and Compiler 

Integrated Development Environment which is used when programming large projects not only C++ also other programming languages helps with error checking and managing the resource files. Some of the most used Integrated Development Environment are VS code, Atom and NetBeans etc. Unlike python which execute code step-by-step C++ use compiler to compile the code there is open-sourced compiler like GCC which is used with Integrated Development Environment or command line argument to execute the program if you don’t want to use Integrated Development Environment you can use online compiler for coding C++ program, and use C++ compiler not the online C compiler which does not support C++. 

Object oriented programming (OOPs) and C++

In the C language there is no concept of OOPs, which was one major drawback that was present in C programming. OOPs is used to create complex programs by grouping them together with related data and functions. There are four main principles to OOPs they are  

Encapsulation: It refers to bundling data with methods which can operate on data within the class. It is hiding the data inside the class to prevent anything from outside the class accessing it directly.

Abstraction: It refers to only showing essential details which are required and keep everything else hidden. It allows the program to be worked incrementally to prevent it from getting complex. 

Inheritance: It is a principle which allows in creating a class by deriving from other classes. It has a hierarchy where the subclass is derived from the superclass. It uses access modifiers which enables what and which can be accessed from one class to another. 

Polymorphism: It is a method that is able to take many forms and there are two types which are static and dynamic. Dynamic polymorphism which takes place during runtime of the program and static polymorphism takes place during the compile-time. 

Object and Classes 

An object is a class and a class is a template for an object. Objects contain values instead of variables and class can inherit some or all the characteristics that present in another class and a class method can be described as a function that belongs to the class and they can be defined in two ways - outside class definition and inside class definition. While defining a function inside the class you can access them like you access the attribute by creating an object for the class using the dot(.), to define a function outside the class first need to be declared inside the class and define it outside the class.  

Structure of C++ 

A simple C++ program consists of header-files, class definition, member function and main function these are required body structure 

Header: This is the place to define the built-in functions and import the libraries required to run the C++ program. It should be specified through the preprocessor directive “#include”. Example: “#include<iostream> “, which enables the program to run and execute the standard input and output and display the errors in case if it presents in the program.  

Class definition: In C++ everything will be associated with classes and objects. To create a class, you should define the class name after the keyword “class”. A class has an access specifier which can be declared as private, public and protected each has its own perk while defining the member function. 

Member function: These are operators and functions that can be declared as members of class. The different types of member function are inline member, constant and volatile member, Virtual member and special member. 

Main function: After finishing writing the code, it will be compiled before execution. At the time of compilation, the compiler will look for the main function. Because it is one that contains the execution control. 

Variables and Data Types in C++ 

Variable is a vessel that is used to store the data value which can be an integer, decimal, String or a Boolean. Each variable has to be defined with their respective keywords which is similar to C programming such as “int” for integer “float” for decimal “bool” for Boolean and “string” for string not like C string. 

User Input and Output in C++  

Using predefined streams also called standard I/O objects in C++ using the keyword “cin” for taking input and for getting output from the program display by using “cout” along their proper syntax. 

Operator in C++ 

Operators are used to perform operations with the variable in the programming. C++ has operators such as Arithmetic, Assignment, Comparison, Logical, and Bitwise. 

Conditional statement in C++ 

Conditional statements are used by most of the programming language and they mostly used to define whether it is true or false to the given condition by using like “if-else” and “switch” statements.

Loops in C++ 

Loops are used to do a repetitive task instead of typing many lines of code. C++ uses loops like “for” loop, “while” loop and “do while” loop. 

Array in C++ 

An Array is a linear data structure where it can only store data types which are similar. There are two types of arrays; which is denoted as single and multi-dimensional. C++ array is similar to C Array in syntax. 

Pointer in C++ 

Pointers are used to store the memory address of the variable, any they primarily used for dynamic memory allocation which is the same as C pointers. 

Conclusion

In the history of computer programming C++ and C programming language played a very crucial role which influenced and paved the way for many modern programming languages like Java, Kotlin and objective-c. If anyone knows C programming basics, they tend to understand other languages with ease because learning a new program is not hard for one who can understand the basics of programming language like C++ and C programming which used to interact with low-level machine code or assembly language and which is considered as a middle-level programming language. Being a programmer in this age the most valued skill helps to land job.   

Context and applications  

This topic is significant in the professional exams for both undergraduate and graduate courses, especially for

B.Tech / B.Sc. in Computer Science

M.Tech/ M.Sc. in Computer Science