The Basics: Procedural programming

This part will teach you the basics of programming and C++. Beware, some chapters might be a bit dry as only the material from later chapters makes it possible to put it to interesting usages.

Contents:

• From source code to executables
  • How To: Install a compiler
    • Windows
    • Debian/Ubuntu based Linux
  • How To: Compile your source code
    • Windows
      • The compiler command
    • Linux
      • The compiler command
    • A few command line tips
• The Hello World program analyzed
  • Linewise breakdown
    • Preprocessor #includes
    • Whitespace
    • Defining the main program
    • Writing to the console
  • Successive Statements
  • More output
  • Comments
  • Summary
• Types and Variables
  • Calculating with C++
    • The remainder operator %
  • Remembering values
  • Changing memories
    • Compound assignment
  • More on variables
  • Primitive number types
    • Floating point numbers
    • Integer numbers
    • Characters
  • Explicitly typed variables
  • Defining multiple variables at once
  • User input
  • Constants
  • Background information: Temporary variables
  • Summary
• Logic and more on operators
  • The bool type
  • “Calculating” with Booleans
  • Comparison operators
  • Mixed expressions and more on operators
    • Operator associativity and “multi-assignment”
    • Background: The input/output operators (>>/<<)
  • The ternary conditional operator ? :
  • Summary
• Control flow
  • Conditional execution: if and else
    • if
    • else
  • Block statements
    • Brace style
    • Swapping
    • Scope
  • Nested control flow and else if
    • The dangling else problem
    • else if
  • Multi-way branching: switch
    • The simple truth about switch
  • Loops
    • Repeat conditionally: while
    • do … while
    • Counter loops: for
      • Implementing for with while
      • The increment ++ and decrement -- operators
      • The for loop
      • Stripping for‘s head
    • break and continue
      • Ending a loop with break
      • Skipping part of a loop body with continue
  • Summary
  • Solutions for Tasks
    • Solved task: Sorting three numbers
    • Solved task: Mini calculator
    • Solved task: Pyramids with for
    • Solved task: break with if/else
    • Solved task: Average with break-less variant
    • Solved task: continue with if/else
• Functions
  • Basic usage
  • Parameters and arguments
    • Default arguments
    • Pass by value
  • Return values
    • main‘s return value
    • return as a control flow statement
  • Changing parameters and references
    • Pass by reference
    • Reference types
  • Why are functions useful?
  • Global variables and why you should not use them
  • Side effects and their order
    • Short circuit evaluation and ?:
  • Background Information: The stack
  • Recursion
    • A simple recursion: Factorials
    • A more complex recursion: Fibonacci numbers
      • Solved task: Sorting three numbers with a swap function
• Defining new types
  • Simple compound types: struct
    • struct initialization with {}
    • const and structs
    • Nested structs
    • Efficiently passing structs to functions
  • Encapsulation and member functions
    • Member functions
    • Encapsulation and access control
    • Constructors
  • A quick glance at templates
    • Class templates
    • Function templates
• Dealing with collections of data