Data Structures In C++

Data Structures

We have already learned how groups of sequential data can be used in C++. But this is somewhat restrictive, since in many occasions what we want to store are not mere sequences of elements all of the same data type, but sets of different elements with different data types.

Data structures
A data structure is a group of data elements grouped together under one name. These data elements, known as members, can have different types and different lengths. Data structures are declared in C++ using the following syntax:

struct structure_name {
member_type1 member_name1;
member_type2 member_name2;
member_type3 member_name3;
.
.
} object_names;

where structure_name is a name for the structure type, object_name can be a set of valid identifiers for objects that have the type of this structure. Within braces { } there is a list with the data members, each one is specified with a type and a valid identifier as its name.

The first thing we have to know is that a data structure creates a new type: Once a data structure is declared, a new type with the identifier specified as structure_name is created and can be used in the rest of the program as if it was any other type. For example:

struct product {
  int weight;
  float price;
} ;

product apple;
product banana, melon;

We have first declared a structure type called product with two members: weight and price, each of a different fundamental type. We have then used this name of the structure type (product) to declare three objects of that type: apple, banana and melon as we would have done with any fundamental data type.

Once declared, product has become a new valid type name like the fundamental ones int, char or short and from that point on we are able to declare objects (variables) of this compound new type, like we have done with apple, banana and melon.

Right at the end of the struct declaration, and before the ending semicolon, we can use the optional field object_name to directly declare objects of the structure type. For example, we can also declare the structure objects apple, banana and melon at the moment we define the data structure type this way:

struct product {
  int weight;
  float price;
} apple, banana, melon;

It is important to clearly differentiate between what is the structure type name, and what is an object (variable) that has this structure type. We can instantiate many objects (i.e. variables, like apple, banana and melon) from a single structure type (product).

Once we have declared our three objects of a determined structure type (apple, banana and melon) we can operate directly with their members. To do that we use a dot (.) inserted between the object name and the member name. For example, we could operate with any of these elements as if they were standard variables of their respective types:

apple.weight
apple.price
banana.weight
banana.price
melon.weight
melon.price

Each one of these has the data type corresponding to the member they refer to: apple.weight, banana.weight and melon.weight are of type int, while apple.price, banana.price and melon.price are of type float.

Let’s see a real example where you can see how a structure type can be used in the same way as fundamental types:

// example about structures
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
using namespace std;

struct movies_t {
  string title;
  int year;
} mine, yours;

void printmovie (movies_t movie);

int main ()
{
  string mystr;

  mine.title = "2001 A Space Odyssey";
  mine.year = 1968;

  cout << "Enter title: ";
  getline (cin,yours.title);
  cout << "Enter year: ";
  getline (cin,mystr);
  stringstream(mystr) >> yours.year;

  cout << "My favorite movie is:\n ";
  printmovie (mine);
  cout << "And yours is:\n ";
  printmovie (yours);
  return 0;
}

void printmovie (movies_t movie)
{
  cout << movie.title;
  cout << " (" << movie.year << ")\n";
}

	

Enter title: Alien
Enter year: 1979

My favorite movie is:
2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)
And yours is:
Alien (1979)

The example shows how we can use the members of an object as regular variables. For example, the member yours.year is a valid variable of type int, and mine.title is a valid variable of type string.

The objects mine and yours can also be treated as valid variables of type movies_t, for example we have passed them to the function printmovie as we would have done with regular variables. Therefore, one of the most important advantages of data structures is that we can either refer to their members individually or to the entire structure as a block with only one identifier.

Data structures are a feature that can be used to represent databases, especially if we consider the possibility of building arrays of them:

// array of structures
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
using namespace std;

#define N_MOVIES 3

struct movies_t {
  string title;
  int year;
} films [N_MOVIES];

void printmovie (movies_t movie);

int main ()
{
  string mystr;
  int n;

  for (n=0; n<N_MOVIES; n++)
  {
    cout << "Enter title: ";
    getline (cin,films[n].title);
    cout << "Enter year: ";
    getline (cin,mystr);
    stringstream(mystr) >> films[n].year;
  }

  cout << "\nYou have entered these movies:\n";
  for (n=0; n<N_MOVIES; n++)
    printmovie (films[n]);
  return 0;
}

void printmovie (movies_t movie)
{
  cout << movie.title;
  cout << " (" << movie.year << ")\n";
}

	

Enter title: Blade Runner
Enter year: 1982
Enter title: Matrix
Enter year: 1999
Enter title: Taxi Driver
Enter year: 1976

You have entered these movies:
Blade Runner (1982)
Matrix (1999)
Taxi Driver (1976)

Pointers to structures
Like any other type, structures can be pointed by its own type of pointers:

struct movies_t {
string title;
int year;
};

movies_t amovie;
movies_t * pmovie;

Here amovie is an object of structure type movies_t, and pmovie is a pointer to point to objects of structure type movies_t. So, the following code would also be valid:

pmovie = &amovie;

The value of the pointer pmovie would be assigned to a reference to the object amovie (its memory address).

We will now go with another example that includes pointers, which will serve to introduce a new operator: the arrow operator (->):

// pointers to structures
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
using namespace std;

struct movies_t {
  string title;
  int year;
};

int main ()
{
  string mystr;

  movies_t amovie;
  movies_t * pmovie;
  pmovie = &amovie;

  cout << "Enter title: ";
  getline (cin, pmovie->title);
  cout << "Enter year: ";
  getline (cin, mystr);
  (stringstream) mystr >> pmovie->year;

  cout << "\nYou have entered:\n";
  cout << pmovie->title;
  cout << " (" << pmovie->year << ")\n";

  return 0;
}

	

Enter title: Invasion of the body snatchers
Enter year: 1978

You have entered:
Invasion of the body snatchers (1978)

The previous code includes an important introduction: the arrow operator (->). This is a dereference operator that is used exclusively with pointers to objects with members. This operator serves to access a member of an object to which we have a reference. In the example we used:

pmovie->title

Which is for all purposes equivalent to:

(*pmovie).title

Both expressions pmovie->title and (*pmovie).title are valid and both mean that we are evaluating the member title of the data structure pointed by a pointer called pmovie. It must be clearly differentiated from:

*pmovie.title

which is equivalent to:

*(pmovie.title)

And that would access the value pointed by a hypothetical pointer member called title of the structure object pmovie (which in this case would not be a pointer). The following panel summarizes possible combinations of pointers and structure members:

Expression	What is evaluated	Equivalent
a.b	Member b of object a
a->b	Member b of object pointed by a	(*a).b
*a.b	Value pointed by member b of object a	*(a.b)

Nesting structures

Structures can also be nested so that a valid element of a structure can also be in its turn another structure.

struct movies_t {
  string title;
  int year;
};

struct friends_t {
  string name;
  string email;
  movies_t favorite_movie;
  } charlie, maria;

friends_t * pfriends = &charlie;

After the previous declaration we could use any of the following expressions:

charlie.name
maria.favorite_movie.title
charlie.favorite_movie.year
pfriends->favorite_movie.year

(where, by the way, the last two expressions refer to the same member).

More Data Structure Concepts
Data Structures Overview
Characteristics of Data Structures
Abstract Data Types
Stack Clear Idea
Simple Stack Program In C
Queue Clear Idea
Simple Queue Program In C
Binary Search C Program
Bubble Sort C Program
Insertion Sort C Program
Merge Sort C Program
Merge Sort C Program
Quick Sort C Program
Selection Sort C Program
Data Structure List
Data Structure List Solutions
Data Structure Trees
Data Structure Tree Solution

Control Structures in C++

Control Structures

A program is usually not limited to a linear sequence of instructions. During its process it may bifurcate, repeat code or take decisions. For that purpose, C++ provides control structures that serve to specify what has to be done by our program, when and under which circumstances.

With the introduction of control structures we are going to have to introduce a new concept: the compound-statement or block. A block is a group of statements which are separated by semicolons (;) like all C++ statements, but grouped together in a block enclosed in braces: { }:

{ statement1; statement2; statement3; }

Most of the control structures that we will see in this section require a generic statement as part of its syntax. A statement can be either a simple statement (a simple instruction ending with a semicolon) or a compound statement (several instructions grouped in a block), like the one just described. In the case that we want the statement to be a simple statement, we do not need to enclose it in braces ({}). But in the case that we want the statement to be a compound statement it must be enclosed between braces ({}), forming a block.

Conditional structure: if and else
The if keyword is used to execute a statement or block only if a condition is fulfilled. Its form is:

if (condition) statement

Where condition is the expression that is being evaluated. If this condition is true, statement is executed. If it is false, statement is ignored (not executed) and the program continues right after this conditional structure.
For example, the following code fragment prints x is 100 only if the value stored in the x variable is indeed 100:

if (x == 100)
  cout << "x is 100";

If we want more than a single statement to be executed in case that the condition is true we can specify a block using braces { }:


if (x == 100)
{
   cout << "x is ";
   cout << x;
}

We can additionally specify what we want to happen if the condition is not fulfilled by using the keyword else. Its form used in conjunction with if is:

if (condition) statement1 else statement2

For example:

if (x == 100)
  cout << "x is 100";
else
  cout << "x is not 100";

prints on the screen x is 100 if indeed x has a value of 100, but if it has not -and only if not- it prints out x is not 100.

The if + else structures can be concatenated with the intention of verifying a range of values. The following example shows its use telling if the value currently stored in x is positive, negative or none of them (i.e. zero):

if (x > 0)
  cout << "x is positive";
else if (x < 0)
  cout << "x is negative";
else
  cout << "x is 0";

Remember that in case that we want more than a single statement to be executed, we must group them in a block by enclosing them in braces { }.

Iteration structures (loops)

Loops have as purpose to repeat a statement a certain number of times or while a condition is fulfilled.

The while loop
Its format is:

while (expression) statement

and its functionality is simply to repeat statement while the condition set in expression is true.
For example, we are going to make a program to countdown using a while-loop:

// custom countdown using while

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  int n;
  cout << "Enter the starting number > ";
  cin >> n;

  while (n>0) {
    cout << n << ", ";
    --n;
  }

  cout << "FIRE!\n";
  return 0;
}

Enter the starting number > 8
8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, FIRE!

When the program starts the user is prompted to insert a starting number for the countdown. Then the while loop begins, if the value entered by the user fulfills the condition n>0 (that n is greater than zero) the block that follows the condition will be executed and repeated while the condition (n>0) remains being true.

The whole process of the previous program can be interpreted according to the following script (beginning in main):

User assigns a value to n
The while condition is checked (n>0). At this point there are two posibilities:
* condition is true: statement is executed (to step 3)
* condition is false: ignore statement and continue after it (to step 5)
Execute statement:
cout << n <0) to become false after a certain number of loop iterations: to be more specific, when n becomes 0, that is where our while-loop and our countdown end.

Of course this is such a simple action for our computer that the whole countdown is performed instantly without any practical delay between numbers.

The do-while loop

Its format is:

do statement while (condition);

Its functionality is exactly the same as the while loop, except that condition in the do-while loop is evaluated after the execution of statement instead of before, granting at least one execution of statement even if condition is never fulfilled. For example, the following example program echoes any number you enter until you enter 0.

// number echoer

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  unsigned long n;
  do {
    cout << "Enter number (0 to end): ";
    cin >> n;
    cout << "You entered: " << n << "\n";
  } while (n != 0);
  return 0;
}

Enter number (0 to end): 12345
You entered: 12345
Enter number (0 to end): 160277
You entered: 160277
Enter number (0 to end): 0
You entered: 0

The do-while loop is usually used when the condition that has to determine the end of the loop is determined within the loop statement itself, like in the previous case, where the user input within the block is what is used to determine if the loop has to end. In fact if you never enter the value 0 in the previous example you can be prompted for more numbers forever.

The for loop

Its format is:

for (initialization; condition; increase) statement;

and its main function is to repeat statement while condition remains true, like the while loop. But in addition, the for loop provides specific locations to contain an initialization statement and an increase statement. So this loop is specially designed to perform a repetitive action with a counter which is initialized and increased on each iteration.

It works in the following way:

• initialization is executed. Generally it is an initial value setting for a counter variable. This is executed only once.
• condition is checked. If it is true the loop continues, otherwise the loop ends and statement is skipped (not executed).
• statement is executed. As usual, it can be either a single statement or a block enclosed in braces { }.
• finally, whatever is specified in the increase field is executed and the loop gets back to step 2.

Here is an example of countdown using a for loop:

// countdown using a for loop
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main ()
{
  for (int n=10; n>0; n--) {
    cout << n << ", ";
  }
  cout << "FIRE!\n";
  return 0;
}

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, FIRE!

The initialization and increase fields are optional. They can remain empty, but in all cases the semicolon signs between them must be written. For example we could write: for (;n<10;) if we wanted to specify no initialization and no increase; or for (;n<10;n++) if we wanted to include an increase field but no initialization (maybe because the variable was already initialized before).

Optionally, using the comma operator (,) we can specify more than one expression in any of the fields included in a for loop, like in initialization, for example. The comma operator (,) is an expression separator, it serves to separate more than one expression where only one is generally expected. For example, suppose that we wanted to initialize more than one variable in our loop:

for ( n=0, i=100 ; n!=i ; n++, i-- )
{
   // whatever here...
}

This loop will execute for 50 times if neither n or i are modified within the loop:

n starts with a value of 0, and i with 100, the condition is n!=i (that n is not equal to i). Because n is increased by one and i decreased by one, the loop's condition will become false after the 50th loop, when both n and i will be equal to 50.

Jump statements.

The break statement

Using break we can leave a loop even if the condition for its end is not fulfilled. It can be used to end an infinite loop, or to force it to end before its natural end. For example, we are going to stop the count down before its natural end (maybe because of an engine check failure?):

// break loop example

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  int n;
  for (n=10; n>0; n--)
  {
    cout << n << ", ";
    if (n==3)
    {
      cout << "countdown aborted!";
      break;
    }
  }
  return 0;
}

	

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, countdown aborted!

The continue statement

The continue statement causes the program to skip the rest of the loop in the current iteration as if the end of the statement block had been reached, causing it to jump to the start of the following iteration. For example, we are going to skip the number 5 in our countdown:

// continue loop example
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  for (int n=10; n>0; n--) {
    if (n==5) continue;
    cout << n << ", ";
  }
  cout << "FIRE!\n";
  return 0;
}

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, FIRE!

The goto statement
goto allows to make an absolute jump to another point in the program. You should use this feature with caution since its execution causes an unconditional jump ignoring any type of nesting limitations.
The destination point is identified by a label, which is then used as an argument for the goto statement. A label is made of a valid identifier followed by a colon (:).

Generally speaking, this instruction has no concrete use in structured or object oriented programming aside from those that low-level programming fans may find for it. For example, here is our countdown loop using goto:

// goto loop example

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  int n=10;
  loop:
  cout << n << ", ";
  n--;
  if (n>0) goto loop;
  cout << "FIRE!\n";
  return 0;
}

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, FIRE!

The exit function

exit is a function defined in the cstdlib library.

The purpose of exit is to terminate the current program with a specific exit code. Its prototype is:

void exit (int exitcode);

The exitcode is used by some operating systems and may be used by calling programs. By convention, an exit code of 0 means that the program finished normally and any other value means that some error or unexpected results happened.

The selective structure: switch.
The syntax of the switch statement is a bit peculiar. Its objective is to check several possible constant values for an expression. Something similar to what we did at the beginning of this section with the concatenation of several if and else if instructions. Its form is the following:

switch (expression)
{
  case constant1:
     group of statements 1;
     break;
  case constant2:
     group of statements 2;
     break;
  .
  .
  .
  default:
     default group of statements
}

It works in the following way: switch evaluates expression and checks if it is equivalent to constant1, if it is, it executes group of statements 1 until it finds the break statement. When it finds this break statement the program jumps to the end of the switch selective structure.

If expression was not equal to constant1 it will be checked against constant2. If it is equal to this, it will execute group of statements 2switch selective structure. until a break keyword is found, and then will jump to the end of the

Finally, if the value of expression did not match any of the previously specified constants (you can include as many case labels as values you want to check), the program will execute the statements included after the default: label, if it exists (since it is optional).

Both of the following code fragments have the same behavior:
switch example if-else equivalent

switch example	if-else equivalent
switch (x) { case 1: cout << "x is 1"; break;	if (x == 1) { cout << "x is 1"; }
case 2: cout << "x is 2"; break; default: cout << "value of x unknown"; }	else if (x == 2) { cout << "x is 2"; } else { cout << "value of x unknown"; }

switch (x) {
  case 1:
    cout << "x is 1";
    break;
  case 2:
    cout << "x is 2";
    break;
  default:
    cout << "value of x unknown";
  }

	

if (x == 1) {
  cout << "x is 1";
  }
else if (x == 2) {
  cout << "x is 2";
  }
else {
  cout << "value of x unknown";
  }

The switch statement is a bit peculiar within the C++ language because it uses labels instead of blocks. This forces us to put breakswitch selective block or a break statement is reached. statements after the group of statements that we want to be executed for a specific condition. Otherwise the remainder statements -including those corresponding to other labels- will also be executed until the end of the

For example, if we did not include a break statement after the first group for case one, the program will not automatically jump to the end of the switch selective block and it would continue executing the rest of statements until it reaches either a break instruction or the end of the switch selective block. This makes unnecessary to include braces { } surrounding the statements for each of the cases, and it can also be useful to execute the same block of instructions for different possible values for the expression being evaluated. For example:

switch (x) {
  case 1:
  case 2:
  case 3:
    cout << "x is 1, 2 or 3";
    break;
  default:
    cout << "x is not 1, 2 nor 3";
  }

Notice that switch can only be used to compare an expression against constants. Therefore we cannot put variables as labels (for example case n: where n is a variable) or ranges (case (1..3):) because they are not valid C++ constants.
If you need to check ranges or values that are not constants, use a concatenation of if and else if statements.

Functions ( II )

Functions ( II )
Functions In Depth

Arguments passed by value and by reference.

Until now, in all the functions we have seen, the arguments passed to the functions have been passed by value. This means that when calling a function with parameters, what we have passed to the function were copies of their values but never the variables themselves. For example, suppose that we called our first function addition using the following code:

int x=5, y=3, z;
z = addition ( x , y ); 

What we did in this case was to call to function addition passing the values of x and y, i.e. 5 and 3 respectively, but not the variables xy themselves. and

This way, when the function addition is called, the value of its local variables a and b become 5 and 3 respectively, but any modification to either a or b within the function addition will not have any effect in the values of x and y outside it, because variables x and y were not themselves passed to the function, but only copies of their values at the moment the function was called.

But there might be some cases where you need to manipulate from inside a function the value of an external variable. For that purpose we can use arguments passed by reference, as in the function duplicate of the following example:

// passing parameters by reference
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

void duplicate (int& a, int& b, int& c)
{
  a*=2;
  b*=2;
  c*=2;
}

int main ()
{
  int x=1, y=3, z=7;
  duplicate (x, y, z);
  cout << "x=" << x << ", y=" << y << ", z=" << z;
  return 0;
}

	

x=2, y=6, z=14

The first thing that should call your attention is that in the declaration of duplicate the type of each parameter was followed by an ampersand sign (&). This ampersand is what specifies that their corresponding arguments are to be passed by reference instead of by value.

When a variable is passed by reference we are not passing a copy of its value, but we are somehow passing the variable itself to the function and any modification that we do to the local variables will have an effect in their counterpart variables passed as arguments in the call to the function.

To explain it in another way, we associate a, b and c with the arguments passed on the function call (x, y and z) and any change that we do on a within the function will affect the value of x outside it. Any change that we do on b will affect y, and the same with c and z.

That is why our program’s output, that shows the values stored in x, y and z after the call to duplicate, shows the values of all the three variables of main doubled.

If when declaring the following function:

void duplicate (int& a, int& b, int& c)

we had declared it this way:

void duplicate (int a, int b, int c)

i.e., without the ampersand signs (&), we would have not passed the variables by reference, but a copy of their values instead, and therefore, the output on screen of our program would have been the values of x, y and z without having been modified.

Passing by reference is also an effective way to allow a function to return more than one value. For example, here is a function that returns the previous and next numbers of the first parameter passed.

// more than one returning value
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

void prevnext (int x, int& prev, int& next)
{
  prev = x-1;
  next = x+1;
}

int main ()
{
  int x=100, y, z;
  prevnext (x, y, z);
  cout << "Previous=" << y << ", Next=" << z;
  return 0;
}

Previous=99, Next=101

Default values in parameters.
When declaring a function we can specify a default value for each of the last parameters. This value will be used if the corresponding argument is left blank when calling to the function. To do that, we simply have to use the assignment operator and a value for the arguments in the function declaration. If a value for that parameter is not passed when the function is called, the default value is used, but if a value is specified this default value is ignored and the passed value is used instead. For example:

// default values in functions
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int divide (int a, int b=2)
{
  int r;
  r=a/b;
  return (r);
}

int main ()
{
  cout << divide (12);
  cout << endl;
  cout << divide (20,4);
  return 0;
}

6
5

As we can see in the body of the program there are two calls to function divide. In the first one:

divide (12)

we have only specified one argument, but the function divide allows up to two. So the function divide has assumed that the second parameter is 2 since that is what we have specified to happen if this parameter was not passed (notice the function declaration, which finishes with int b=2, not just int b). Therefore the result of this function call is 6 (12/2).

In the second call:

divide (20,4)

there are two parameters, so the default value for b (int b=2) is ignored and b takes the value passed as argument, that is 4, making the result returned equal to 5 (20/4).

Overloaded functions.
In C++ two different functions can have the same name if their parameter types or number are different. That means that you can give the same name to more than one function if they have either a different number of parameters or different types in their parameters. For example:

// overloaded function
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int operate (int a, int b)
{
  return (a*b);
}

float operate (float a, float b)
{
  return (a/b);
}

int main ()
{
  int x=5,y=2;
  float n=5.0,m=2.0;
  cout << operate (x,y);
  cout << "\n";
  cout << operate (n,m);
  cout << "\n";
  return 0;
}

10
2.5

In this case we have defined two functions with the same name, operate, but one of them accepts two parameters of type int and the other one accepts them of type float. The compiler knows which one to call in each case by examining the types passed as arguments when the function is called. If it is called with two ints as its arguments it calls to the function that has two int parameters in its prototype and if it is called with two floats it will call to the one which has two float parameters in its prototype.

In the first call to operate the two arguments passed are of type int, therefore, the function with the first prototype is called; This function returns the result of multiplying both parameters. While the second call passes two arguments of type float, so the function with the second prototype is called. This one has a different behavior: it divides one parameter by the other. So the behavior of a call to operate depends on the type of the arguments passed because the function has been overloaded.

Notice that a function cannot be overloaded only by its return type. At least one of its parameters must have a different type.

inline functions.
The inline specifier indicates the compiler that inline substitution is preferred to the usual function call mechanism for a specific function. This does not change the behavior of a function itself, but is used to suggest to the compiler that the code generated by the function body is inserted at each point the function is called, instead of being inserted only once and perform a regular call to it, which generally involves some additional overhead in running time.

The format for its declaration is:

inline type name ( arguments … ) { instructions … }

and the call is just like the call to any other function. You do not have to include the inline keyword when calling the function, only in its declaration.

Most compilers already optimize code to generate inline functions when it is more convenient. This specifier only indicates the compiler that inline is preferred for this function.

Recursivity.
Recursivity is the property that functions have to be called by themselves. It is useful for many tasks, like sorting or calculate the factorial of numbers. For example, to obtain the factorial of a number (n!) the mathematical formula would be:

n! = n * (n-1) * (n-2) * (n-3) … * 1

more concretely, 5! (factorial of 5) would be:

5! = 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120

and a recursive function to calculate this in C++ could be:

// factorial calculator
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

long factorial (long a)
{
  if (a > 1)
   return (a * factorial (a-1));
  else
   return (1);
}

int main ()
{
  long number;
  cout << "Please type a number: ";
  cin >> number;
  cout << number << "! = " << factorial (number);
  return 0;
}

Please type a number: 9
9! = 362880

Notice how in function factorial we included a call to itself, but only if the argument passed was greater than 1, since otherwise the function would perform an infinite recursive loop in which once it arrived to 0 it would continue multiplying by all the negative numbers (probably provoking a stack overflow error on runtime).

This function has a limitation because of the data type we used in its design (long) for more simplicity. The results given will not be valid for values much greater than 10! or 15!, depending on the system you compile it.

Declaring functions.
Until now, we have defined all of the functions before the first appearance of calls to them in the source code. These calls were generally in function main which we have always left at the end of the source code. If you try to repeat some of the examples of functions described so far, but placing the function main before any of the other functions that were called from within it, you will most likely obtain compiling errors. The reason is that to be able to call a function it must have been declared in some earlier point of the code, like we have done in all our examples.

But there is an alternative way to avoid writing the whole code of a function before it can be used in main or in some other function. This can be achieved by declaring just a prototype of the function before it is used, instead of the entire definition. This declaration is shorter than the entire definition, but significant enough for the compiler to determine its return type and the types of its parameters.

Its form is:

type name ( argument_type1, argument_type2, …);

It is identical to a function definition, except that it does not include the body of the function itself (i.e., the function statements that in normal definitions are enclosed in braces { }) and instead of that we end the prototype declaration with a mandatory semicolon (;).

The parameter enumeration does not need to include the identifiers, but only the type specifiers. The inclusion of a name for each parameter as in the function definition is optional in the prototype declaration. For example, we can declare a function called protofunction with two int parameters with any of the following declarations:

int protofunction (int first, int second);
int protofunction (int, int);

Anyway, including a name for each variable makes the prototype more legible.

// declaring functions prototypes
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

void odd (int a);
void even (int a);

int main ()
{
  int i;
  do {
    cout << "Type a number (0 to exit): ";
    cin >> i;
    odd (i);
  } while (i!=0);
  return 0;
}

void odd (int a)
{
  if ((a%2)!=0) cout << "Number is odd.\n";
  else even (a);
}

void even (int a)
{
  if ((a%2)==0) cout << "Number is even.\n";
  else odd (a);
}

	

Type a number (0 to exit): 9
Number is odd.
Type a number (0 to exit): 6
Number is even.
Type a number (0 to exit): 1030
Number is even.
Type a number (0 to exit): 0
Number is even.

This example is indeed not an example of efficiency. I am sure that at this point you can already make a program with the same result, but using only half of the code lines that have been used in this example. Anyway this example illustrates how prototyping works. Moreover, in this concrete example the prototyping of at least one of the two functions is necessary in order to compile the code without errors.

The first things that we see are the declaration of functions odd and even:

void odd (int a);
void even (int a);

This allows these functions to be used before they are defined, for example, in main, which now is located where some people find it to be a more logical place for the start of a program: the beginning of the source code.

Anyway, the reason why this program needs at least one of the functions to be declared before it is defined is because in odd there is a call to even and in even there is a call to odd. If none of the two functions had been previously declared, a compilation error would happen, since either odd would not not be visible from even (because it has still not been declared), or even would not be visible from odd (for the same reason).
Having the prototype of all functions together in the same place within the source code is found practical by some programmers, and this can be easily achieved by declaring all functions prototypes at the beginning of a program.

Functions ( I )

Functions ( I )

Using functions we can structure our programs in a more modular way, accessing all the potential that structured programming can offer to us in C++.

A function is a group of statements that is executed when it is called from some point of the program. The following is its format:

type name ( parameter1, parameter2, …) { statements }

where:

type is the data type specifier of the data returned by the function.
name is the identifier by which it will be possible to call the function.
parameters (as many as needed): Each parameter consists of a data type specifier followed by an identifier, like any regular variable declaration (for example: int x) and which acts within the function as a regular local variable. They allow to pass arguments to the function when it is called. The different parameters are separated by commas.
statements is the function’s body. It is a block of statements surrounded by braces { }.

Here you have the first function example:

// function example
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int addition (int a, int b)
{
  int r;
  r=a+b;
  return (r);
}

int main ()
{
  int z;
  z = addition (5,3);
  cout << "The result is " << z;
  return 0;
}

	

The result is 8

In order to examine this code, first of all remember something said at the beginning of this tutorial: a C++ program always begins its execution by the main function. So we will begin there.

We can see how the main function begins by declaring the variable z of type int. Right after that, we see a call to a function called addition. Paying attention we will be able to see the similarity between the structure of the call to the function and the declaration of the function itself some code lines above:

The parameters and arguments have a clear correspondence. Within the main function we called to addition passing two values: 5 and 3, that correspond to the int a and int b parameters declared for function addition.

At the point at which the function is called from within main, the control is lost by main and passed to function addition. The value of both arguments passed in the call (5 and 3) are copied to the local variables int a and int b within the function.

Function addition declares another local variable (int r), and by means of the expression r=a+b, it assigns to r the result of a plus b. Because the actual parameters passed for a and b are 5 and 3 respectively, the result is 8.

The following line of code:

return (r);

finalizes function addition, and returns the control back to the function that called it in the first place (in this case, main). At this moment the program follows it regular course from the same point at which it was interrupted by the call to addition. But additionally, because the return statement in function addition specified a value: the content of variable r (return (r);), which at that moment had a value of 8. This value becomes the value of evaluating the function call.

So being the value returned by a function the value given to the function call itself when it is evaluated, the variable z will be set to the value returned by addition (5, 3), that is 8. To explain it another way, you can imagine that the call to a function (addition (5,3)) is literally replaced by the value it returns (8).

The following line of code in main is:

cout << "The result is " << z;

That, as you may already expect, produces the printing of the result on the screen.
Scope of variables

The scope of variables declared within a function or any other inner block is only their own function or their own block and cannot be used outside of them. For example, in the previous example it would have been impossible to use the variables a, b or r directly in function main since they were variables local to function addition. Also, it would have been impossible to use the variable z directly within function addition, since this was a variable local to the function main.

Therefore, the scope of local variables is limited to the same block level in which they are declared. Nevertheless, we also have the possibility to declare global variables; These are visible from any point of the code, inside and outside all functions. In order to declare global variables you simply have to declare the variable outside any function or block; that means, directly in the body of the program.

And here is another example about functions:

// function example
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int subtraction (int a, int b)
{
  int r;
  r=a-b;
  return (r);
}

int main ()
{
  int x=5, y=3, z;
  z = subtraction (7,2);
  cout << "The first result is " << z << '\n';
  cout << "The second result is " << subtraction (7,2) << '\n';
  cout << "The third result is " << subtraction (x,y) << '\n';
  z= 4 + subtraction (x,y);
  cout << "The fourth result is " << z << '\n';
  return 0;
}

The first result is 5
The second result is 5
The third result is 2
The fourth result is 6

In this case we have created a function called subtraction. The only thing that this function does is to subtract both passed parameters and to return the result.

Nevertheless, if we examine function main we will see that we have made several calls to function subtraction. We have used some different calling methods so that you see other ways or moments when a function can be called.

In order to fully understand these examples you must consider once again that a call to a function could be replaced by the value that the function call itself is going to return. For example, the first case (that you should already know because it is the same pattern that we have used in previous examples):

z = subtraction (7,2);
cout << "The first result is " << z;

If we replace the function call by the value it returns (i.e., 5), we would have:

z = 5;
cout << "The first result is " << z;

As well as

cout << "The second result is " << subtraction (7,2);

has the same result as the previous call, but in this case we made the call to subtraction directly as an insertion parameter for cout. Simply consider that the result is the same as if we had written:

cout << "The second result is " << 5;

since 5 is the value returned by subtraction (7,2).

In the case of:

cout << "The third result is " << subtraction (x,y);

The only new thing that we introduced is that the parameters of subtraction are variables instead of constants. That is perfectly valid. In this case the values passed to function subtraction are the values of x and y, that are 5 and 3 respectively, giving 2 as result.

The fourth case is more of the same. Simply note that instead of:

z = 4 + subtraction (x,y);

we could have written:

z = subtraction (x,y) + 4;

with exactly the same result. I have switched places so you can see that the semicolon sign (;) goes at the end of the whole statement. It does not necessarily have to go right after the function call. The explanation might be once again that you imagine that a function can be replaced by its returned value:

z = 4 + 2;
z = 2 + 4;

Functions with no type. The use of void.

If you remember the syntax of a function declaration:

type name ( argument1, argument2 …) statement

you will see that the declaration begins with a type, that is the type of the function itself (i.e., the type of the datum that will be returned by the function with the return statement). But what if we want to return no value?

Imagine that we want to make a function just to show a message on the screen. We do not need it to return any value. In this case we should use the void type specifier for the function. This is a special specifier that indicates absence of type.

// void function example
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

void printmessage ()
{
  cout << "I'm a function!";
}

int main ()
{
  printmessage ();
  return 0;
}

I'm a function!

void can also be used in the function's parameter list to explicitly specify that we want the function to take no actual parameters when it is called. For example, function printmessage could have been declared as:

void printmessage (void)
{
  cout << "I'm a function!";
}

Although it is optional to specify void in the parameter list. In C++, a parameter list can simply be left blank if we want a function with no parameters.

What you must always remember is that the format for calling a function includes specifying its name and enclosing its parameters between parentheses. The non-existence of parameters does not exempt us from the obligation to write the parentheses. For that reason the call to printmessage is:

printmessage ();

The parentheses clearly indicate that this is a call to a function and not the name of a variable or some other C++ statement. The following call would have been incorrect:

printmessage;

C++ Pointers

Pointers

We have already seen how variables are seen as memory cells that can be accessed using their identifiers. This way we did not have to care about the physical location of our data within memory, we simply used its identifier whenever we wanted to refer to our variable.

The memory of your computer can be imagined as a succession of memory cells, each one of the minimal size that computers manage (one byte). These single-byte memory cells are numbered in a consecutive way, so as, within any block of memory, every cell has the same number as the previous one plus one.

This way, each cell can be easily located in the memory because it has a unique address and all the memory cells follow a successive pattern. For example, if we are looking for cell 1776 we know that it is going to be right between cells 1775 and 1777, exactly one thousand cells after 776 and exactly one thousand cells before cell 2776.

Reference operator (&)
As soon as we declare a variable, the amount of memory needed is assigned for it at a specific location in memory (its memory address). We generally do not actively decide the exact location of the variable within the panel of cells that we have imagined the memory to be – Fortunately, that is a task automatically performed by the operating system during runtime. However, in some cases we may be interested in knowing the address where our variable is being stored during runtime in order to operate with relative positions to it.

The address that locates a variable within memory is what we call a reference to that variable. This reference to a variable can be obtained by preceding the identifier of a variable with an ampersand sign (&), known as reference operator, and which can be literally translated as “address of”. For example:

ted = &andy;

This would assign to ted the address of variable andy, since when preceding the name of the variable andy with the reference operator (&) we are no longer talking about the content of the variable itself, but about its reference (i.e., its address in memory).

From now on we are going to assume that andy is placed during runtime in the memory address 1776. This number (1776) is just an arbitrary assumption we are inventing right now in order to help clarify some concepts in this tutorial, but in reality, we cannot know before runtime the real value the address of a variable will have in memory.

Consider the following code fragment:

andy = 25;
fred = andy;
ted = &andy; 

The values contained in each variable after the execution of this, are shown in the following diagram:

First, we have assigned the value 25 to andy (a variable whose address in memory we have assumed to be 1776).

The second statement copied to fred the content of variable andy (which is 25). This is a standard assignment operation, as we have done so many times before.

Finally, the third statement copies to ted not the value contained in andy but a reference to it (i.e., its address, which we have assumed to be 1776). The reason is that in this third assignment operation we have preceded the identifier andy with the reference operator (&), so we were no longer referring to the value of andy but to its reference (its address in memory).

The variable that stores the reference to another variable (like ted in the previous example) is what we call a pointer. Pointers are a very powerful feature of the C++ language that has many uses in advanced programming. Farther ahead, we will see how this type of variable is used and declared.

Dereference operator (*)

We have just seen that a variable which stores a reference to another variable is called a pointer. Pointers are said to “point to” the variable whose reference they store.

Using a pointer we can directly access the value stored in the variable which it points to. To do this, we simply have to precede the pointer’s identifier with an asterisk (*), which acts as dereference operator and that can be literally translated to “value pointed by”.

Therefore, following with the values of the previous example, if we write:

beth = *ted;

(that we could read as: “beth equal to value pointed by ted”) beth would take the value 25, since ted is 1776, and the value pointed by 1776 is 25.

You must clearly differentiate that the expression ted refers to the value 1776, while *ted (with an asterisk * preceding the identifier) refers to the value stored at address 1776, which in this case is 25. Notice the difference of including or not including the dereference operator (I have included an explanatory commentary of how each of these two expressions could be read):

beth = ted; // beth equal to ted ( 1776 )
beth = *ted; // beth equal to value pointed by ted ( 25 )

Notice the difference between the reference and dereference operators:

& is the reference operator and can be read as “address of”
* is the dereference operator and can be read as “value pointed by”

Thus, they have complementary (or opposite) meanings. A variable referenced with & can be dereferenced with *.

Earlier we performed the following two assignment operations:

andy = 25;
ted = &andy;

Right after these two statements, all of the following expressions would give true as result:

andy == 25
&andy == 1776
ted == 1776
*ted == 25

The first expression is quite clear considering that the assignment operation performed on andy was andy=25. The second one uses the reference operator (&), which returns the address of variable andy, which we assumed it to have a value of 1776. The third one is somewhat obvious since the second expression was true and the assignment operation performed on ted was ted=&andy. The fourth expression uses the dereference operator (*) that, as we have just seen, can be read as “value pointed by”, and the value pointed by ted is indeed 25.

So, after all that, you may also infer that for as long as the address pointed by ted remains unchanged the following expression will also be true:

*ted == andy

Declaring variables of pointer types
Due to the ability of a pointer to directly refer to the value that it points to, it becomes necessary to specify in its declaration which data type a pointer is going point to. It is not the same thing to point to a char than to point to an int or a float.

The declaration of pointers follows this format:

type * name;

where type is the data type of the value that the pointer is intended to point to. This type is not the type of the pointer itself! but the type of the data the pointer points to. For example:

int * number;
char * character;
float * greatnumber;

These are three declarations of pointers. Each one is intended to point to a different data type, but in fact all of them are pointers and all of them will occupy the same amount of space in memory (the size in memory of a pointer depends on the platform where the code is going to run). Nevertheless, the data to which they point to do not occupy the same amount of space nor are of the same type: the first one points to an int, the second one to a char and the last one to a float. Therefore, although these three example variables are all of them pointers which occupy the same size in memory, they are said to have different types: int*, char* and float* respectively, depending on the type they point to.

I want to emphasize that the asterisk sign (*) that we use when declaring a pointer only means that it is a pointer (it is part of its type compound specifier), and should not be confused with the dereference operator that we have seen a bit earlier, but which is also written with an asterisk (*). They are simply two different things represented with the same sign.

Now have a look at this code:

// my first pointer
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  int firstvalue, secondvalue;
  int * mypointer;

  mypointer = &firstvalue;
  *mypointer = 10;
  mypointer = &secondvalue;
  *mypointer = 20;
  cout << "firstvalue is " << firstvalue << endl;
  cout << "secondvalue is " << secondvalue << endl;
  return 0;
}

	

firstvalue is 10
secondvalue is 20

Notice that even though we have never directly set a value to either firstvalue or secondvalue, both end up with a value set indirectly through the use of mypointer. This is the procedure:

First, we have assigned as value of mypointer a reference to firstvalue using the reference operator (&). And then we have assigned the value 10 to the memory location pointed by mypointer, that because at this moment is pointing to the memory location of firstvalue, this in fact modifies the value of firstvalue.

In order to demonstrate that a pointer may take several different values during the same program I have repeated the process with secondvalue and that same pointer, mypointer.

Here is an example a little bit more elaborated:

// more pointers
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  int firstvalue = 5, secondvalue = 15;
  int * p1, * p2;

  p1 = &firstvalue;  // p1 = address of firstvalue
  p2 = &secondvalue; // p2 = address of secondvalue
  *p1 = 10;          // value pointed by p1 = 10
  *p2 = *p1;         // value pointed by p2 = value pointed by p1
  p1 = p2;           // p1 = p2 (value of pointer is copied)
  *p1 = 20;          // value pointed by p1 = 20
  
  cout << "firstvalue is " << firstvalue << endl;
  cout << "secondvalue is " << secondvalue << endl;
  return 0;
}

	

firstvalue is 10
secondvalue is 20

I have included as a comment on each line how the code can be read: ampersand (&) as “address of” and asterisk (*) as “value pointed by”.

Notice that there are expressions with pointers p1 and p2, both with and without dereference operator (*). The meaning of an expression using the dereference operator (*) is very different from one that does not: When this operator precedes the pointer name, the expression refers to the value being pointed, while when a pointer name appears without this operator, it refers to the value of the pointer itself (i.e. the address of what the pointer is pointing to).

Another thing that may call your attention is the line:

int * p1, * p2;

This declares the two pointers used in the previous example. But notice that there is an asterisk (*) for each pointer, in order for both to have type int* (pointer to int).

Otherwise, the type for the second variable declared in that line would have been int (and not int*) because of precedence relationships. If we had written:

int * p1, p2;

p1 would indeed have int* type, but p2 would have type int (spaces do not matter at all for this purpose). This is due to operator precedence rules. But anyway, simply remembering that you have to put one asterisk per pointer is enough for most pointer users.

Pointers and arrays
The concept of array is very much bound to the one of pointer. In fact, the identifier of an array is equivalent to the address of its first element, as a pointer is equivalent to the address of the first element that it points to, so in fact they are the same concept. For example, supposing these two declarations:

int numbers [20];
int * p;

The following assignment operation would be valid:

p = numbers; 

After that, p and numbers would be equivalent and would have the same properties. The only difference is that we could change the value of pointer p by another one, whereas numbers will always point to the first of the 20 elements of type int with which it was defined. Therefore, unlike p, which is an ordinary pointer, numbers is an array, and an array can be considered a constant pointer. Therefore, the following allocation would not be valid:

numbers = p;

Because numbers is an array, so it operates as a constant pointer, and we cannot assign values to constants.

Due to the characteristics of variables, all expressions that include pointers in the following example are perfectly valid:

// more pointers
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main ()
{
  int numbers[5];
  int * p;
  p = numbers;  *p = 10;
  p++;  *p = 20;
  p = &numbers[2];  *p = 30;
  p = numbers + 3;  *p = 40;
  p = numbers;  *(p+4) = 50;
  for (int n=0; n<5; n++)
    cout << numbers[n] << ", ";
  return 0;
}

	

10, 20, 30, 40, 50,

In the chapter about arrays we used brackets ([]) several times in order to specify the index of an element of the array to which we wanted to refer. Well, these bracket sign operators [] are also a dereference operator known as offset operator. They dereference the variable they follow just as * does, but they also add the number between brackets to the address being dereferenced. For example:

a[5] = 0;       // a [offset of 5] = 0
*(a+5) = 0;     // pointed by (a+5) = 0 

These two expressions are equivalent and valid both if a is a pointer or if a is an array.
Pointer initialization
When declaring pointers we may want to explicitly specify which variable we want them to point to:

int number;
int *tommy = &number;

The behavior of this code is equivalent to:

int number;
int *tommy;
tommy = &number;

When a pointer initialization takes place we are always assigning the reference value to where the pointer points (tommy), never the value being pointed (*tommy). You must consider that at the moment of declaring a pointer, the asterisk (*) indicates only that it is a pointer, it is not the dereference operator (although both use the same sign: *). Remember, they are two different functions of one sign. Thus, we must take care not to confuse the previous code with:

int number;
int *tommy;
*tommy = &number;

that is incorrect, and anyway would not have much sense in this case if you think about it.

As in the case of arrays, the compiler allows the special case that we want to initialize the content at which the pointer points with constants at the same moment the pointer is declared:

char * terry = "hello"; 

In this case, memory space is reserved to contain "hello" and then a pointer to the first character of this memory block is assigned to terry. If we imagine that "hello" is stored at the memory locations that start at addresses 1702, we can represent the previous declaration as:

It is important to indicate that terry contains the value 1702, and not 'h' nor "hello", although 1702 indeed is the address of both of these.

The pointer terry points to a sequence of characters and can be read as if it was an array (remember that an array is just like a constant pointer). For example, we can access the fifth element of the array with any of these two expression:

*(terry+4)
terry[4]

Both expressions have a value of ‘o’ (the fifth element of the array).
Pointer arithmetics

To conduct arithmetical operations on pointers is a little different than to conduct them on regular integer data types. To begin with, only addition and subtraction operations are allowed to be conducted with them, the others make no sense in the world of pointers. But both addition and subtraction have a different behavior with pointers according to the size of the data type to which they point.

When we saw the different fundamental data types, we saw that some occupy more or less space than others in the memory. For example, let’s assume that in a given compiler for a specific machine, char takes 1 byte, short takes 2 bytes and long takes 4.

Suppose that we define three pointers in this compiler:

char *mychar;
short *myshort;
long *mylong;

and that we know that they point to memory locations 1000, 2000 and 3000 respectively.

So if we write:

mychar++;
myshort++;
mylong++;

mychar, as you may expect, would contain the value 1001. But not so obviously, myshort would contain the value 2002, and mylong3004, even though they have each been increased only once. The reason is that when adding one to a pointer we are making it to point to the following element of the same type with which it has been defined, and therefore the size in bytes of the type pointed is added to the pointer. would contain

This is applicable both when adding and subtracting any number to a pointer. It would happen exactly the same if we write:

mychar = mychar + 1;
myshort = myshort + 1;
mylong = mylong + 1;

Both the increase (++) and decrease (–) operators have greater operator precedence than the dereference operator (*), but both have a special behavior when used as suffix (the expression is evaluated with the value it had before being increased). Therefore, the following expression may lead to confusion:

*p++

Because ++ has greater precedence than *, this expression is equivalent to *(p++). Therefore, what it does is to increase the value of p (so it now points to the next element), but because ++ is used as postfix the whole expression is evaluated as the value pointed by the original reference (the address the pointer pointed to before being increased).

Notice the difference with:

(*p)++

Here, the expression would have been evaluated as the value pointed by p increased by one. The value of p (the pointer itself) would not be modified (what is being modified is what it is being pointed to by this pointer).

If we write:

*p++ = *q++; 

Because ++ has a higher precedence than *, both p and q are increased, but because both increase operators (++) are used as postfix and not prefix, the value assigned to *p is *q before both p and q are increased. And then both are increased. It would be roughly equivalent to:

*p = *q;
++p;
++q;

Like always, I recommend you to use parentheses () in order to avoid unexpected results and to give more legibility to the code.
Pointers to pointers
C++ allows the use of pointers that point to pointers, that these, in its turn, point to data (or even to other pointers). In order to do that, we only need to add an asterisk (*) for each level of reference in their declarations:

char a;
char * b;
char ** c;
a = 'z';
b = &a;
c = &b;

This, supposing the randomly chosen memory locations for each variable of 7230, 8092 and 10502, could be represented as:

The value of each variable is written inside each cell; under the cells are their respective addresses in memory.

The new thing in this example is variable c, which can be used in three different levels of indirection, each one of them would correspond to a different value:

    c has type char** and a value of 8092
    *c has type char* and a value of 7230
    **c has type char and a value of 'z'

void pointers
The void type of pointer is a special type of pointer. In C++, void represents the absence of type, so void pointers are pointers that point to a value that has no type (and thus also an undetermined length and undetermined dereference properties).

This allows void pointers to point to any data type, from an integer value or a float to a string of characters. But in exchange they have a great limitation: the data pointed by them cannot be directly dereferenced (which is logical, since we have no type to dereference to), and for that reason we will always have to cast the address in the void pointer to some other pointer type that points to a concrete data type before dereferencing it.

One of its uses may be to pass generic parameters to a function:

// increaser
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

void increase (void* data, int psize)
{
  if ( psize == sizeof(char) )
  { char* pchar; pchar=(char*)data; ++(*pchar); }
  else if (psize == sizeof(int) )
  { int* pint; pint=(int*)data; ++(*pint); }
}

int main ()
{
  char a = 'x';
  int b = 1602;
  increase (&a,sizeof(a));
  increase (&b,sizeof(b));
  cout << a << ", " << b << endl;
  return 0;
}

y, 1603

sizeof is an operator integrated in the C++ language that returns the size in bytes of its parameter. For non-dynamic data types this value is a constant. Therefore, for example, sizeof(char) is 1, because char type is one byte long.
Null pointer
A null pointer is a regular pointer of any pointer type which has a special value that indicates that it is not pointing to any valid reference or memory address. This value is the result of type-casting the integer value zero to any pointer type.

int * p;
p = 0;     // p has a null pointer value 

Do not confuse null pointers with void pointers. A null pointer is a value that any pointer may take to represent that it is pointing to “nowhere”, while a void pointer is a special type of pointer that can point to somewhere without a specific type. One refers to the value stored in the pointer itself and the other to the type of data it points to.
Pointers to functions
C++ allows operations with pointers to functions. The typical use of this is for passing a function as an argument to another function, since these cannot be passed dereferenced. In order to declare a pointer to a function we have to declare it like the prototype of the function except that the name of the function is enclosed between parentheses () and an asterisk (*) is inserted before the name:

// pointer to functions
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int addition (int a, int b)
{ return (a+b); }

int subtraction (int a, int b)
{ return (a-b); }

int operation (int x, int y, int (*functocall)(int,int))
{
  int g;
  g = (*functocall)(x,y);
  return (g);
}

int main ()
{
  int m,n;
  int (*minus)(int,int) = subtraction;

  m = operation (7, 5, addition);
  n = operation (20, m, minus);
  cout <<n;
  return 0;
}

	

8

In the example, minus is a pointer to a function that has two parameters of type int. It is immediately assigned to point to the function subtraction, all in a single line:

int (* minus)(int,int) = subtraction;

Arrays In C++

Arrays

An array is a series of elements of the same type placed in contiguous memory locations that can be individually referenced by adding an index to a unique identifier.

That means that, for example, we can store 5 values of type int in an array without having to declare 5 different variables, each one with a different identifier. Instead of that, using an array we can store 5 different values of the same type, int for example, with a unique identifier.

For example, an array to contain 5 integer values of type int called billy could be represented like this:

where each blank panel represents an element of the array, that in this case are integer values of type int. These elements are numbered from 0 to 4 since in arrays the first index is always 0, independently of its length.

Like a regular variable, an array must be declared before it is used. A typical declaration for an array in C++ is:

type name [elements];

where type is a valid type (like int, float…), name is a valid identifier and the elements field (which is always enclosed in square brackets []), specifies how many of these elements the array has to contain.

Therefore, in order to declare an array called billy as the one shown in the above diagram it is as simple as:

int billy [5];

NOTE: The elements field within brackets [] which represents the number of elements the array is going to hold, must be a constant value, since arrays are blocks of non-dynamic memory whose size must be determined before execution. In order to create arrays with a variable length dynamic memory is needed, which is explained later in these tutorials.

Initializing arrays.
When declaring a regular array of local scope (within a function, for example), if we do not specify otherwise, its elements will not be initialized to any value by default, so their content will be undetermined until we store some value in them. The elements of global and static arrays, on the other hand, are automatically initialized with their default values, which for all fundamental types this means they are filled with zeros.

In both cases, local and global, when we declare an array, we have the possibility to assign initial values to each one of its elements by enclosing the values in braces { }. For example:

int billy [5] = { 16, 2, 77, 40, 12071 };

This declaration would have created an array like this:

The amount of values between braces { } must not be larger than the number of elements that we declare for the array between square brackets [ ]. For example, in the example of array billy we have declared that it has 5 elements and in the list of initial values within braces { } we have specified 5 values, one for each element.

When an initialization of values is provided for an array, C++ allows the possibility of leaving the square brackets empty [ ]. In this case, the compiler will assume a size for the array that matches the number of values included between braces { }:

int billy [] = { 16, 2, 77, 40, 12071 };

After this declaration, array billy would be 5 ints long, since we have provided 5 initialization values.

Accessing the values of an array.

In any point of a program in which an array is visible, we can access the value of any of its elements individually as if it was a normal variable, thus being able to both read and modify its value. The format is as simple as:

name[index]

Following the previous examples in which billy had 5 elements and each of those elements was of type int, the name which we can use to refer to each element is the following:

For example, to store the value 75 in the third element of billy, we could write the following statement:

billy[2] = 75;

and, for example, to pass the value of the third element of billy to a variable called a, we could write:

a = billy[2];

Therefore, the expression billy[2] is for all purposes like a variable of type int.

Notice that the third element of billy is specified billy[2], since the first one is billy[0], the second one is billy[1], and therefore, the third one is billy[2]. By this same reason, its last element is billy[4]. Therefore, if we write billy[5], we would be accessing the sixth element of billy and therefore exceeding the size of the array.

In C++ it is syntactically correct to exceed the valid range of indices for an array. This can create problems, since accessing out-of-range elements do not cause compilation errors but can cause runtime errors. The reason why this is allowed will be seen further ahead when we begin to use pointers.

At this point it is important to be able to clearly distinguish between the two uses that brackets [ ] have related to arrays. They perform two different tasks: one is to specify the size of arrays when they are declared; and the second one is to specify indices for concrete array elements. Do not confuse these two possible uses of brackets [ ] with arrays.

int billy[5]; // declaration of a new array
billy[2] = 75; // access to an element of the array.

If you read carefully, you will see that a type specifier always precedes a variable or array declaration, while it never precedes an access.

Some other valid operations with arrays:

billy[0] = a;
billy[a] = 75;
b = billy [a+2];
billy[billy[a]] = billy[2] + 5;

// arrays example
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int billy [] = {16, 2, 77, 40, 12071};
int n, result=0;

int main ()
{
  for ( n=0 ; n<5 ; n++ )
  {
    result += billy[n];
  }
  cout << result;
  return 0;
}

	

12206

Multidimensional arrays

Multidimensional arrays can be described as “arrays of arrays”. For example, a bidimensional array can be imagined as a bidimensional table made of elements, all of them of a same uniform data type.

jimmy represents a bidimensional array of 3 per 5 elements of type int. The way to declare this array in C++ would be:

int jimmy [3][5];

and, for example, the way to reference the second element vertically and fourth horizontally in an expression would be:

jimmy[1][3]

(remember that array indices always begin by zero).

Multidimensional arrays are not limited to two indices (i.e., two dimensions). They can contain as many indices as needed. But be careful! The amount of memory needed for an array rapidly increases with each dimension. For example:

char century [100][365][24][60][60];

declares an array with a char element for each second in a century, that is more than 3 billion chars. So this declaration would consume more than 3 gigabytes of memory!

Multidimensional arrays are just an abstraction for programmers, since we can obtain the same results with a simple array just by putting a factor between its indices:

int jimmy [3][5];   // is equivalent to
int jimmy [15];     // (3 * 5 = 15) 

With the only difference that with multidimensional arrays the compiler remembers the depth of each imaginary dimension for us. Take as example these two pieces of code, with both exactly the same result. One uses a bidimensional array and the other one uses a simple array:

multidimensional array

#define WIDTH 5 #define HEIGHT 3 int jimmy [HEIGHT][WIDTH]; int n,m; int main () { for (n=0;n<HEIGHT;n++) for (m=0;m<WIDTH;m++) { jimmy[n][m]=(n+1)*(m+1); } return 0; }

pseudo-multidimensional array

#define WIDTH 5 #define HEIGHT 3 int jimmy [HEIGHT * WIDTH]; int n,m; int main () { for (n=0;n<HEIGHT;n++) for (m=0;m<WIDTH;m++) { jimmy[n*WIDTH+m]=(n+1)*(m+1); } return 0; }

multidimensional array pseudo-multidimensional array

#define WIDTH 5
#define HEIGHT 3

int jimmy [HEIGHT][WIDTH];
int n,m;

int main ()
{
  for (n=0;n<HEIGHT;n++)
    for (m=0;m<WIDTH;m++)
    {
      jimmy[n][m]=(n+1)*(m+1);
    }
  return 0;
}

	

#define WIDTH 5
#define HEIGHT 3

int jimmy [HEIGHT * WIDTH];
int n,m;

int main ()
{
  for (n=0;n<HEIGHT;n++)
    for (m=0;m<WIDTH;m++)
    {
      jimmy[n*WIDTH+m]=(n+1)*(m+1);
    }
  return 0;
}

None of the two source codes above produce any output on the screen, but both assign values to the memory block called jimmy in the following way:

We have used “defined constants” (#define) to simplify possible future modifications of the program. For example, in case that we decided to enlarge the array to a height of 4 instead of 3 it could be done simply by changing the line:

#define HEIGHT 3

to:

#define HEIGHT 4

with no need to make any other modifications to the program.
Arrays as parameters
At some moment we may need to pass an array to a function as a parameter. In C++ it is not possible to pass a complete block of memory by value as a parameter to a function, but we are allowed to pass its address. In practice this has almost the same effect and it is a much faster and more efficient operation.

In order to accept arrays as parameters the only thing that we have to do when declaring the function is to specify in its parameters the element type of the array, an identifier and a pair of void brackets []. For example, the following function:

void procedure (int arg[])

accepts a parameter of type “array of int” called arg. In order to pass to this function an array declared as:

int myarray [40];

it would be enough to write a call like this:

procedure (myarray);

Here you have a complete example:

// arrays as parameters
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

void printarray (int arg[], int length) {
  for (int n=0; n<length; n++)
    cout << arg[n] << " ";
  cout << "\n";
}

int main ()
{
  int firstarray[] = {5, 10, 15};
  int secondarray[] = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10};
  printarray (firstarray,3);
  printarray (secondarray,5);
  return 0;
}

5 10 15
2 4 6 8 10

As you can see, the first parameter (int arg[]) accepts any array whose elements are of type int, whatever its length. For that reason we have included a second parameter that tells the function the length of each array that we pass to it as its first parameter. This allows the for loop that prints out the array to know the range to iterate in the passed array without going out of range.

In a function declaration it is also possible to include multidimensional arrays. The format for a tridimensional array parameter is:

base_type[][depth][depth]

for example, a function with a multidimensional array as argument could be:

void procedure (int myarray[][3][4])

Notice that the first brackets [] are left blank while the following ones are not. This is so because the compiler must be able to determine within the function which is the depth of each additional dimension.
Arrays, both simple or multidimensional, passed as function parameters are a quite common source of errors for novice programmers. I recommend the reading of the chapter about Pointers for a better understanding on how arrays operate.

To perform the write operation with in a file.

ALGORITHM:
STEP 1: Start the program.
STEP 2: Declare the variables.
STEP 3: Read the file name.
STEP 4: open the file to write the contents.
STEP 5: writing the file contents up to reach a particular condition.
STEP 6: Stop the program.
PROGRAM:

#include<iostream.h>
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<fstream.h>
void main()
{
              char c,fname[10];
              ofstream out;
              cout<<"Enter File name:";
              cin>>fname;
              out.open(fname);
              cout<<"Enter contents to store in file (Enter # at end):\n";
              while((c=getchar())!='#')
              {
                            out<<c;
              }
              out.close();
              getch();
}

Output:
Enter File name: one.txt
Enter contents to store in file (enter # at end)

Master of Computer Applications#

Simple Example Program for virtual functions.

ALGORITHM:
Step 1: Start the program.
Step 2: Declare the base class base.
Step 3: Declare and define the virtual function show().
Step 4: Declare and define the function display().
Step 5: Create the derived class from the base class.
Step 6: Declare and define the functions display() and show().
Step 7: Create the base class object and pointer variable.
Step 8: Call the functions display() and show() using the base class object and pointer.
Step 9: Create the derived class object and call the functions display() and show() using the derived class object and pointer.
Step 10: Stop the program.
PROGRAM:

#include<iostream.h>
#include<conio.h>
class base
{
    public:
      virtual void show()
      {
                cout<<"\n  Base class show:";
      }
      void display()
      {
              cout<<"\n  Base class display:" ;
      }
};
 
class drive:public base
{
   public:
      void display()
      {
              cout<<"\n  Drive class display:";
      }
      void show()
      {
              cout<<"\n  Drive class show:";
      }
};
 
void main()
{
   clrscr();
   base obj1;
   base *p;
   cout<<"\n\t P points to base:\n"  ;
 
   p=&obj1;
   p->display();
   p->show();
 
   cout<<"\n\n\t P points to drive:\n";
   drive obj2;
   p=&obj2;
   p->display();
   p->show();
   getch();
}

Output:
P points to Base

Base class display
Base class show

P points to Drive

Base class Display
Drive class Show

To calculate the total mark of a student using the concept of virtual base class.

ALGORITHM:
Step 1: Start the program.
Step 2: Declare the base class student.
Step 3: Declare and define the functions getnumber() and putnumber().
Step 4: Create the derived class test virtually derived from the base class student.
Step 5: Declare and define the function getmarks() and putmarks().
Step 6: Create the derived class sports virtually derived from the base class student.
Step 7: Declare and define the function getscore() and putscore().
Step 8: Create the derived class result derived from the class test and sports.
Step 9: Declare and define the function display() to calculate the total.
Step 10: Create the derived class object obj.
Step 11: Call the function get number(),getmarks(),getscore() and display().
Step 12: Stop the program.
PROGRAM:

        
#include<iostream.h>
#include<conio.h>
 
class student
{
   int rno;
  public:
   void getnumber()
   {
              cout<<"Enter Roll No:";
              cin>>rno;
   }
   void putnumber()
   {
              cout<<"\n\n\tRoll No:"<<rno<<"\n";
   }
};
 
class test:virtual public student
{
  
  public:
   int part1,part2;
   void getmarks()
   {
              cout<<"Enter Marks\n";
              cout<<"Part1:";
              cin>>part1;
              cout<<"Part2:";
              cin>>part2;
   }
   void putmarks()
   {
              cout<<"\tMarks Obtained\n";
              cout<<"\n\tPart1:"<<part1;
              cout<<"\n\tPart2:"<<part2;
   }
};

class sports:public virtual student
{
 
  public:
    int score;
    void getscore()
    {
              cout<<"Enter Sports Score:";
              cin>>score;
    }
    void putscore()
    {
              cout<<"\n\tSports Score is:"<<score;
    }
};

class result:public test,public sports
{
    int total;
  public:
   void display()
   {
      total=part1+part2+score;
      putnumber();
      putmarks();
      putscore();
      cout<<"\n\tTotal Score:"<<total;
   }
};
 
void main()
{
   result obj;
   clrscr();
   obj.getnumber();
   obj.getmarks();
   obj.getscore();
   obj.display();
   getch();
}

Output:
Enter Roll No: 200

Enter Marks

Part1: 90
Part2: 80
Enter Sports Score: 80

Roll No: 200
Marks Obtained
Part1: 90
Part2: 80
Sports Score is: 80
Total Score is: 250

To write a program to find the complex numbers using unary operator overloading.

ALGORITHM:

Step 1: Start the program.

Step 2: Declare the class.

Step 3: Declare the variables and its member function.

Step 4: Using the function getvalue() to get the two numbers.

Step 5: Define the function operator ++ to increment the values

Step 6: Define the function operator – -to decrement the values.

Step 7: Define the display function.

Step 8: Declare the class object.

Step 9: Call the function getvalue

Step 10: Call the function operator ++() by incrementing the class object and call the function display.

Step 11: Call the function operator – -() by decrementing the class object and call the function display.

Step 12: Stop the program.
PROGRAM:

#include<iostream.h>

#include<conio.h>

 

class complex

{

     int a,b,c;

    public:

        complex(){}

        void getvalue()

       {

                 cout<<"Enter the Two Numbers:";

                 cin>>a>>b;

       }

             

    

 

  void operator++()

      {

                 a=++a;

                 b=++b;

       }

             

       void operator--()

       {

                 a=--a;

                 b=--b;

        }

             

        void display()

        {

                 cout<<a<<"+\t"<<b<<"i"<<endl;

         }

};

 

void main()

{

     clrscr();

     complex obj;

     obj.getvalue();

     obj++;

     cout<<"Increment Complex Number\n";

     obj.display();

     obj--;

     cout<<"Decrement Complex Number\n";

     obj.display();

     getch();

}

Output:

Enter the two numbers: 3 6

Increment Complex Number

4 + 7i

Decrement Complex Number

3 + 6i