C++ Without Fear: A Beginner's Guide That Makes You Feel Smart

Learning C++ Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult!   Have you ever wanted to learn programming? Have you ever wanted to learn the C++ language behind many of today’s hottest games, business programs, and even advanced spacecraft? C++ Without Fear, Third Edition, is the ideal way to get started. Now updated for the newest C++14 standard and the free Microsoft Visual C++ Community Edition, it will quickly make you productive with C++ even if you’ve never written a line of code!   Brian Overland has earned rave reviews for this book’s approach to teaching C++. He starts with short, simple examples you can easily enter and run. Within a couple of chapters, you’ll be creating useful utilities, playing games, and solving puzzles. Everything’s simplified to its essentials, patiently explained, and clearly illustrated with practical examples and exercises that help you make progress quickly.   Overland reveals the “whys” and “tricks” behind each C++ language feature. And you’ll never get bogged down in complex or pointless examples: He keeps you 100% focused on learning what works and what matters—while having fun!   This new and improved edition Covers installing and using the free Microsoft Visual C++ Community Edition— but you can use any version of C++ Explains valuable improvements in the new C++14 standard Modularizes C++14 coverage so it’s easy to write code that works with older versions Teaches with even more puzzles, games, and relevant exercises Offers more “why” and “how-to” coverage of object orientation, today’s #1 approach to programming Presents more ways to use Standard Template Library (STL) code to save time and get more done Contains an expanded reference section for all your day-to-day programming Whether you want to learn C++ programming for pleasure or you’re considering a career in programming, this book is an outstanding choice.

Table of Contents:
Preface xxiii Acknowledgments xxix About the Author xxxi   Chapter 1: Start Using C++ 1 Install Microsoft Visual Studio 1 Create a Project with Microsoft 2 Writing a Program in Microsoft Visual Studio 5 Running a Program in Visual Studio 5 Compatibility Issue #1: stdafx.h 6 Compatibility Issue #2: Pausing the Screen 8 If You’re Not Using Microsoft 8 Advancing to the Next Print Line 12 Storing Data: C++ Variables 16 Introduction to Data Types 17 A Word about Variable Names and Keywords 26 Chapter 1 Summary 27   Chapter 2: Decisions, Decisions 29 But First, a Few Words about Data Types 29 Decision Making in Programs 31 Introducing Loops 39 True and False in C++ 46 The Increment Operator (++) 48 Statements versus Expressions 49 Introducing Boolean (Short-Circuit) Logic 51 Introducing the Math Library 55 Chapter 2 Summary 62   Chapter 3: And Even More Decisions! 65 The do-while Loop 65 Introducing Random Numbers 69 The switch-case Statement 77 Chapter 3 Summary 83   Chapter 4: The Handy, All-Purpose “for” Statement 85 Loops Used for Counting 85 Introducing the “for” Loop 86 A Wealth of Examples 88 Declaring Loop Variables “On the Fly” 92 Comparative Languages 101: The Basic “For” Statement 96 Chapter 4 Summary 97   Chapter 5: Functions: Many Are Called 99 The Concept of Function 99 The Basics of Using Functions 101 Local and Global Variables 109 Recursive Functions 112 Games and More Games 129 Chapter 5 Summary 131   Chapter 6: Arrays: All in a Row... 133 A First Look at C++ Arrays 133 Initializing Arrays 135 Zero-Based Indexing 135 Strings and Arrays of Strings 144 2-D Arrays: Into the Matrix 152 Chapter 6 Summary 153   Chapter 7: Pointers: Data by Location 155 What the Heck Is a Pointer, Anyway? 155 The Concept of Pointer 156 Declaring and Using Pointers 158 Data Flow in Functions 165 Swap: Another Function Using Pointers 165 Reference Arguments (&) 172 Pointer Arithmetic 173 Pointers and Array Processing 175 Chapter 7 Summary 180   Chapter 8: Strings: Analyzing the Text 181 Text Storage on the Computer 181 It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got that String 183 String-Manipulation Functions 184 Reading String Input 190 Individual Characters versus Strings 197 The C++ String Class 201 Other Operations on the string Type 209 Chapter 8 Summary 210   Chapter 9: Files: Electronic Storage 213 Introducing File—Stream Objects 213 Text Files versus “Binary” Files 222 Introducing Binary Operations 225 Chapter 9 Summary 233   Chapter 10: Classes and Objects 237 OOP, My Code Is Showing 237 What’s an Object, Anyway? 238 Point: A Simple Class 241 Private: Members Only (Protecting the Data) 243 Introducing the Fraction Class 248 Inline Functions 251 Find the Greatest Common Factor 253 Find the Lowest Common Denominator 254 Chapter 10 Summary 267   Chapter 11: Constructors: If You Build It… 269 Introducing Constructors 269 Multiple Constructors (Overloading) 270 C++11/C++14 Only: Initializing Members 271 The Default Constructor—and a Warning 272 C++11/C++14 Only: Delegating Constructors 274 Reference Variables and Arguments (&) 281 The Copy Constructor 282 A Constructor from String to Fract 285 Chapter 11 Summary 286   Chapter 12: Two Complete OOP Examples 289 Dynamic Object Creation 289 Other Uses of new and delete 290 Blowin’ in the Wind: A Binary Tree App 291 The Bnode Class 294 The Btree Class 296 Tower of Hanoi, Animated 302 Chapter 12 Summary 311   Chapter 13: Easy Programming with STL 313 Introducing the List Template 313 Designing an RPN Calculator 323 Correct Interpretation of Angle Brackets 333 Chapter 13 Summary 333   Chapter 14: Object-Oriented Monty Hall 335 What’s the Deal? 335 TV Programming: “Good Deal, Bad Deal” 337 The Monty Hall Paradox, or What’s Behind the Door? 351 Improving the Prize Manager 353 Chapter 14 Summary 356   Chapter 15: Object-Oriented Poker 359 Winning in Vegas 359 How to Draw Cards 361 The Card Class 363 The Deck Class 364 Doing the Job with Algorithms 366 The Vector Template 371 Getting Nums from the Player 372 How to Evaluate Poker Hands 378 Chapter 15 Summary 387   Chapter 16: Polymorphic Poker 389 Multiple Decks 389 Switching Decks at Runtime 391 Polymorphism Is the Answer 392 “Pure Virtual” and Other Abstract Matters 401 Abstract Classes and Interfaces 402 Object Orientation and I/O 403 A Final Word (or Two) 410 An (Even More) Final Word 411 Chapter 16 Summary 412   Chapter 17: New Features of C++14 415 The Newest C++14 Features 415 Features Introduced in C++11 422 The long long Type 422 Range-Based “for” (For Each) 433 The auto and decltype Keywords 438 The nullptr Keyword 439 Strongly Typed Enumerations 440 Raw-String Literals 443 Chapter 17 Summary 444   Chapter 18: Operator Functions: Doing It with Class 447 Introducing Operator Functions 447 Operator Functions as Global Functions 450 Improve Efficiency with References 452 Working with Other Types 463 The Class Assignment Function (=) 463 The Test-for-Equality Function (==) 465 A Class “Print” Function 466 A Really Final Word (about Ops) 471 Chapter 18 Summary 472   Appendix A: Operators 475 The Scope (::) Operator 478 The sizeof Operator 478 Old- and New-Style Type Casts 479 Integer versus Floating-Point Division 480 Bitwise Operators (&, |, ^, ~, <<, and >>) 480 Conditional Operator 481 Assignment Operators 482 Join (,) Operator 482   Appendix B: Data Types 483 Precision of Data Types 484 Data Types of Numeric Literals 485 String Literals and Escape Sequences 486 Two’s-Complement Format for Signed Integers 487   Appendix C: Syntax Summary 491 Basic Expression Syntax 491 Basic Statement Syntax 492 Control Structures and Branch Statements 493 Variable Declarations 498 Function Declarations 500 Class Declarations 502 Enum Declarations 503   Appendix D: Preprocessor Directives 505 The #define Directive 505 The ## Operator (Concatenation) 507 The defined Function 507 The #elif Directive 507 The #endif Directive 508 The #error Directive 508 The #if Directive 508 The #ifdef Directive 509 The #ifndef Directive 510 The #include Directive 510 The #line Directive 511 The #undef Directive 511 Predefined Constants 512   Appendix E: ASCII Codes 513   Appendix F: Standard Library Functions 517 String (C-String) Functions 517 Data-Conversion Functions 518 Single-Character Functions 519 Math Functions 520 Randomization Functions 521 Time Functions 521 Formats for the strftime Function 523   Appendix G: I/O Stream Objects and Classes 525 Console Stream Objects 525 I/O Stream Manipulators 526 Input Stream Functions 528 Output Stream Functions 528 File I/O Functions 529   Appendix H: STL Classes and Objects 531 The STL String Class 531 The Template 533 The Template 534 The Template 536 The Template 538   Appendix I: Glossary of Terms 541   Index 559

About the Author :
Brian Overland published his first article in a professional math journal at age 14.   After graduating from Yale, he began working on large commercial projects in C and Basic, including an irrigation-control system used all over the world. He also tutored students in math, computer programming, and writing, as well as lecturing to classes at Microsoft and at the community-college level. On the side, he found an outlet for his lifelong love of writing by publishing film and drama reviews in local newspapers. His qualifications as an author of technical books are nearly unique because they involve so much real programming and teaching experience, as well as writing.   In his 10 years at Microsoft, he was a tester, author, programmer, and manager. As a technical writer, he became an expert on advanced utilities, such as the linker and assembler, and was the “go-to” guy for writing about new technology. His biggest achievement was probably organizing the entire documentation set for Visual Basic 1.0 and having a leading role in teaching the “object-based” way of programming that was so new at the time. He was also a member of the Visual C++ 1.0 team.   Since then, he has been involved with the formation of new start-up companies (sometimes as CEO). He is currently working on a novel.