Woldia University

Institute of Technology (IoT)

Department of Computer Science
Programming Chair

Computer Programming in C++

By
Derso M. (MSc in SE)
May 21, 2021
 Chapter One
Introduction to Computer Programming

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 Language

▪ Human Language:
• Commonly used to express feelings and understand other
person expressions.
• It can be oral or gestural kind of communication

▪ Computer Language:
• Computer languages are the languages by which a user
command a computer to work on the algorithm which a user
has written to get an output.

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 What is a program, programming, and
programmer?

▪ Program:
• Usually, one or more algorithms written in a programming
language that can be translated to run on a real machine.
• We sometimes call programs software.
• A computer program is a series of organized instructions that
directs a computer to perform tasks.

▪ Programmer is someone who writes computer program.

• Programmers write, test, and maintain programs or software
that tell the computer what to do.

▪ Programming is the process of writing computer programs

for various purposes.

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 What skills are required to become a
programmer?

▪ For someone to be a programmer, in addition to basic skills

in computer, needs to have the following major skills:

• Programming Language Skill: knowing one or more

programming language to talk to the computer and instruct the
machine to perform a task.

• Problem Solving Skill: skills on how to solve real world

problem and represent the solution in understandable format.

• Algorithm Development: skill of coming up with sequence

of simple and human understandable set of instructions
showing the step of solving the problem.

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 Programming language

▪ A programming language is a set of words, symbols and

codes that enables humans to communicate with computers.
▪ Hundreds of programming languages exist today. Each
language has its own standard or rules for writing the
commands and/or instructions.
▪ A programming language is some what like a natural
language, but with a very limited set of statements and strict
syntax rules.
▪ It has statements to implement sequential, conditional and
iterative processing - algorithms.
▪ Examples: FORTRAN, COBOL, Lisp, Basic, Pascal, C,
C++, Java, C#, Python, …

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 Programming language

▪ You eventually need to convert your program into machine

language so that the computer can understand it.
▪ There are two ways to do this:
• Compile the program
• Interpret the program

▪ Compile is to transform a program written in a high-level

programming language from source code in to object code.
▪ This can be done by using a tool called compiler.
▪ A compiler reads the whole source code and translates it into
a complete machine code program to perform the required
tasks which is output as a new file.

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 Programming language

▪ Interpreter is a program that executes instructions written

in a high-level language.

▪ An interpreter reads the source code one instruction or line at

a time, converts this line into machine code and executes it.

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 Generation of programming languages

▪ There are five generation of Programming languages. They are:

▪ First Generation Languages:
• These are low-level languages like machine language.
▪ Second Generation Languages:
• These are low-level assembly languages used in kernels and hardware
drives.
▪ Third Generation Languages:
• These are high-level languages like C, C++, Java, Visual Basic and
JavaScript.
▪ Fourth Generation Languages:
• These are languages that consist of statements that are similar to
statements in the human language. These are used mainly in database
programming and scripting. Example of these languages include Perl,
Python, Ruby, SQL, MatLab (Matrix Laboratory).
▪ Fifth Generation Languages:
• These are the programming languages that have visual tools to develop a
program. Examples of fifth generation language include Mercury,
OPS5, and Prolog.

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 Generation of programming languages

Assignment I: Detail description of the generation of

programming language.

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C++
 Problem solving using computers

▪ Problems: Undesirable situations that prevent an

organization from fully achieving its purpose, goals and
objectives

▪ There are two approaches of problem solving:

• Top-down approach: focuses on breaking down a big

problem into smaller and understandable chunks.

• Bottom-up approach: first focuses on solving the smaller

problems at the fundamental level and then integrating them
into a whole and complete solution.

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 Programming paradigm

▪ Structured/modular Programming:
• Divides a program into a set of functions or modules.
• These functions have statements embraced inside curly braces.
• Each of these functions performs a subtask.
• Usually, as each function represents a specific functionality.

▪ Object oriented programming:

• Allows the programmer to represent real-world scenarios using
objects.
• An object is any entity that has states and behaviours.
o States represent the attributes or data of an object,
o Methods represent the behaviours of objects.
• Student, Employee, Book etc. are objects.
• For example, to create an Employee object, there should be an
Employee class.
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 Programs we design need to be

▪ Reliable: the program should always do what it is expected to do

and handle all types of expectations

▪ Maintainable: the program should be in a way that it could be

modified and upgraded when the need arises.

▪ Portable: it needs to be possible to adapt the software written for

one type of computer to another with minimum modification.

▪ Efficient: the program should be designed to make optimal use of

time, space and other resources.

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 Software development life cycle

▪ The method (approach) that software Engineers use in

solving problems in computer science is called the software
development method or software life cycle.
▪ The software life cycle has the following components
• Preliminary Investigation (Defining the problem, feasibility
study) - technical, economical, operational, etc.
• Analysis (Requirement gathering) - try to understand the business
in general (activities done, how it is done, etc.)
• Design - develop a series of steps with a logical order
• Implementation - translate (code) each step of the algorithm
• Testing - Will the system produce the desired results?
• Maintenance - fix bugs found by the customer, make modifications, add
new features
• Documentation - written descriptions of, specifications, development,
and actual code of program.
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 Algorithm development

▪ An algorithm is procedure for solving a problem in terms of

the action to execute (what to do) and the order in which
these actions are executed(done)
▪ An algorithm needs to be
• Precise and unambiguous (no ambiguity in any instruction
and in the order of execution)
• Simple
• Correct
• Finite (has to have an end)
• Produce expected output
• Efficient: in time, memory and other resources
▪ An algorithm can be expressed in many ways. Some of these
methods are narrative, flowchart and pseudo-code.

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 Algorithm development

▪ Narrative: can be understood by any user who may not have any
knowledge of computer programming.
▪ Flowcharts: a diagram consisting of labelled symbols, together
with arrows connecting one symbols to another.
Terminal point marks the On-page Connector: used to connect
beginning or end of a program two points without drawing a flow line
Process: is used to
compute/calculate a process. Annotation flag: used to add
clarifying comments or descriptions
Decision: Indicates a yes/no
decision to be made by the program Inter-page Connector: used as exit or
entry from a flowchart on one page to
Input/output: is used to show input a flowchart in another page
or output data
Predefined Process: indicates a
process defined else where
Flow line: is used to show the
direction of logical flow

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 Algorithm development

▪ Example: a program that

identifies a larger and
smaller number from two
numbers

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 Algorithm development

▪ Pseudo-code: it is much similar to real code. We use verbs

to write pseudo-code. Capitalize important words that show
actions. A pseudo-code that calculates grade
ACCEPT Mark, Name
IF Mark>80 Then
GradeA
ELSE IF Mark>=70 Then
GradeB
ELSE IF Mark>=60 Then
GradeC
ELSE IF Mark>=50 Then
GradeD
ELSE
GradeF
ENDIF
DISPLAY Grade, Name

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 Chapter Two
C++ Basics

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 Outlines

▪ C++ terminology and syntax

▪ The complete development cycle in C++ or C++ IDE
▪ A simple C++ program description
▪ Basic Elements
• Input/output in C++
• Keywords
• Identifiers
• Variables
• Basic Data Types
• Constants
• Comments
▪ Operators
▪ Operator Precedence
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 C++ Terminology and Syntax

▪ Pre-processor directives are not regular code lines with

expressions but indications for the compiler's pre-processor.
• It is processed before compiling the program and not
terminated by semicolon.
▪ Statement is a simple or compound expression that can
actually produce some effect. It must be terminated by a
semicolon (;)
▪ Block is a group of programming statements enclosed by
braces { }.
▪ Comments are not executable statements and are ignored by
the compiler; but they provide useful explanation and
documentation.

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 C++ Terminology and Syntax

▪ Whitespaces includes Blank, tab, and newline are

collectively called whitespaces.
▪ C++ is case sensitive - a ROSE is NOT a Rose, and is NOT
a rose.
▪ Syntax consists of the rules for the correct use of the
language.
▪ Semantics are meanings given to syntactically correct
constructs of the language.

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 C++ IDE /
The complete development cycle in C++

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 C++ IDE /
The complete development cycle in C++

▪ Summary
▪ Start with C++ source code files (.CPP, .HPP/.H)
▪ Compile: convert source code to object code
• Object code stored in object file (.OBJ or .O)
▪ Link: combine contents of one or more object files (and
possibly some Libraries) to produce executable program
▪ Executable program can then be run directly

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 Structure of C++ Program

▪ A C++ program has the

following structure

[Comments]
[Pre processor directives]
[Global variable declarations]
[Prototypes of functions]
[Definitions of functions]

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 Sample C++ Program Description
▪ // my first program in C++ is a comment
and do not have any effect on the
behaviour of the program.
▪ #include <iostream> tells the pre-
processor to include the iostream
standard file.
• basic standard input/output library in
C++
▪ using namespace std; all the elements of ▪ cout << "Hello World!"; This line is a
the standard C++ library are declared C++ statement.
within what is called a namespace, • cout is declared in the iostream
the namespace with the name std. standard file within the std
▪ int main () is the beginning of the namespace.
definition of the main function. ▪ return 0; causes the main function
▪ other functions with other names to finish.
defined before or after it. ▪ interpreted as the program
▪ the instructions within always be the worked as expected without
first ones to be executed. any errors during its execution.

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 Input and Output (cin and cout respectively)
▪ Cout is an object used for printing data to the screen.
• The word cout followed by the insertion operator also called
output redirection operator (<<) and the object to be printed
on the screen.
• Syntax: Cout<<Object;
• The object at the right-hand side can be:
o A literal string: “Hello World”
o A variable: a place holder in memory
▪ Cin is an object used for taking input from the keyboard and
store it in the memory.
• The word cin followed by the input redirection operator (>>) and the
object name to hold the input value.
• Syntax: Cin>>Object;
▪ Both << and >> enabling multiple input or multiple output
operations to be combined into one statement.
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 Keywords

▪ Keywords/ reserved words are standard identifiers and

their functions is predefined by the compiler.
• We cannot use keywords as variable names, class names, or
method names, or as any other identifier.

• Keywords: asm, auto, bool, break, case, catch, char, class,

const, const_cast, continue, default, delete, do, double,
dynamic_cast, else, enum, explicit, export, extern, false, float,
for, friend, goto, if, inline, int, long, mutable, namespace, new,
operator, private, protected, public, register, reinterpret_cast,
return, short, signed, sizeof, static, static_cast, struct, switch,
template, this, throw, true, try, typedef, typeid, typename,
union, unsigned, using, virtual, void, volatile, wchar_t, while,
and, and_eq, bitand, bitor, compl, not, not_eq, or, or_eq, xor,
xor_eq
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 Identifiers

▪ Identifiers is a name given to program elements such as

variables, array, class and functions etc. It is a sequence of
letters, digits, and underscores.
▪ Following rules must be kept in mind while naming an
identifier.
• The first character must be an alphabet (uppercase or lowercase) or
can be an underscore.
• An identifier can not start with a digit.
• All succeeding characters must be alphabets or digits or underscore.
• No special characters like !, @, #, $, % or punctuation symbols is
allowed except the underscore”_”.
• No two successive underscores are allowed.
• Keywords can not be used as identifiers.

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 Variables

▪ Variable is a named location in memory that is used

to hold a value which may be modified by the
program.
• Syntax:
datatype variable = initial;

• Example:
int i; int m; int i, j, k;
char ch;
double current_balance;
int num_stud = 31; //variable initialization

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…cont. Variables

▪ Scope of variables is the

boundary or block in a
program where a variable can
be accessed.
• Global variables: are
variables that can be
referred/accessed anywhere
in the code, within any
function, as long as it is
declared first.
• Local Variables: the scope
of the local variable is
limited to the code level or
block within which they are
declared.
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 Basic Data Types

▪ When you define a variable in C++, you must tell the

compiler what kind of variable it is: an integer, a character,
and so forth.
▪ This information tells the compiler how much room to set
aside and what kind of value you want to store in your
variable.
▪ Several data types are built into C++. The varieties of data
types allow programmers to select the type appropriate to the
needs of the applications being developed.
▪ Basic (fundamental) data types in C++ can be conveniently
divided into numeric and character types

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…cont. Basic Data Types

▪ Numeric variables can further be divided into integer

variables and floating-point variables.
• Integer variables will hold only integers.
• Floating number variables can accommodate real numbers.

▪ Both the numeric data types offer modifiers that are used to
vary the nature of the data to be stored.

▪ The modifiers used can be short, long, signed and unsigned.

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…cont. Basic Data Types

▪ The data types used in C++ programs are described in

following table

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…cont. Basic Data Types

▪ Signed and Unsigned

▪ Signed integers are either

negative or positive.

▪ Unsigned integers are

always positive.

▪ Example: Lets us have

only 4 bits to represent
numbers.

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 Characters

▪ Characters variables (type char) are typically one byte in

size, enough to hold 256 different values.
▪ Char in C++ are represented as any value inside a single
quote.
• Example: ‘x’, ‘A’, ‘5’, ‘a’, etc.
▪ When the compiler finds such values (characters), it
translates back the value to the ASCII values.
• Example: ‘a’ has a value 97 in ASCII.
▪ Some special characters used for formatting.
\” double quote
\n new line
\’ single quote
\t tab
\? question mark
\b backspace
\\ backslash
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 Constants

▪ Constant is any expression that has a fixed value whose

values cannot be modified or changed during the execution
of program. Also called as Literals.
• Constant must be initialized when declared as values cannot
be assigned it to later.

• Literal constant: is a value typed directly into the program

wherever it is needed.
o Example: int num = 43;
o 43 is a literal constant in this statement:

• Symbolic constant: is a constant that is represented by a

name, similar to that of a variable. But unlike a variable,
its value can’t be changed after initialization.
o Example: int availableStudentInClass =25;
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…cont. Constants

▪ Enumerated Constants is used to declare multiple integer

constants using a single line with different features.
▪ The enum (short form of enumerated) type cannot take any
other data type than integer.
▪ The first constant will have the value 0, and the values for
the remaining constants will count up from the initial value
by 1.
▪ Every enumerated constant has an integer value.
• Example: enum SEASON{ SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER };

▪ But one can also assign different numbers for each.

• Example: enum COLOR{ RED=100,BLUE,GREEN=500,WHITE,BLACK };

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 Comments
▪ Comments are for the reader, not the compiler
▪ Two types:
• Single line
// This is a C++ program. It prints the sentence:
// Welcome to C++ Programming.

• Multiple line
/*
You can include comments that can
occupy several lines.
*/

/* Welcome to C++ Programming. */

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 Operators

▪ Operator is a special symbol that is used to carry out

some specific operation on its operand.
• Assignment operator
• Arithmetic operator
• Relational operator
• Logical operator
• Bitwise operator
• Increment/decrement operator
• Conditional operator
• Comma operator
• The size of operator
• Explicit type casting operators, etc
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...cont. Operators

▪ Assignment operator (=): is used to assign value to a

variable, you can assign a variable value or the result of an
arithmetical expression.

▪ Syntax: Operand1 = Operand2;

• Operand1 is always a variable

• Operand2 can be one or combination of:

o Literal constant (example: x=12;)

o Variable (example: x=y;)
o Expression (example: x=y+2;)

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...cont. Operators

▪ Assignment operators
Operator Description Expression
= Assignment Operator a=b
+= add and assign a+=b is equivalent to a=a + b
-= subtract and assign a-=b is equivalent to a=a - b
*= multiply and assign a*=b is equivalent to a=a * b
/= divide and assign a/=b is equivalent to a=a/b
%= mod and assign a%=b is equivalent to a=a % b
<<= Left shift AND assign a<<=5 is equivalent to a=a<<5
>>= Right shift AND assign a>>=5 is equivalent to a=a>>5
&= Bitwise AND assign a&=5 is equivalent to a=a&5
^= Bitwise exclusive OR and assign a^=5 is equivalent to a=a^5
|= Bitwise inclusive OR and assign a|=5 is equivalent to a=a|5

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...cont. Operators

▪ Arithmetic operator: is used to perform arithmetic

operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division,
%modulus, exponent, etc.
▪ Let variable a holds 20 and variable b holds 10, then

Operator Name Description Example

+ Addition Addition of given operands a + b //returns 30
Subtraction of second operand
- Subtraction
from first a - b //returns 10

* Multiplication Multiplication of given operands a * b //returns 200

/ Division Returns Quotient after division a / b //returns 2
Returns Remainder after
% Modulus
division a % b //returns 0

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...cont. Operators
▪ Increment/decrement operator: In C++, ++ and — are
know as increment and decrement operators respectively.
▪ ++ adds 1 to operand and — subtracts 1 to operand
respectively.
▪ Example: int k = 5;
Operator Example Description Example
++k + 10
++ [prefix] ++a The value of a after increment
// gives 16
k++ + 10
++ [postfix] a++ The value of a before increment
// gives 15
--k + 10
— [prefix] –a The value of a after decrement
// gives 14
--k + 1
— [postfix] a– The value of a before decrement
// gives 14
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...cont. Operators

▪ Comparison Operators: are used evaluate a comparison

between two operands.
• The result is a Boolean value that can only be true or false.
• Also referred as relational operators.
• Let variable a holds 20 and variable b holds 10, then
Operator Description Example
> greater than a>b returns TRUE
< Less than a<b returns FALSE
>= greater than or equal to a>=b returns TRUE
<= less than or equal to a<=b returns FALSE
== is equal to a==b returns FALSE
!= not equal to a!=b returns TRUE

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...cont. Operators

▪ Logical operators are used to combine expressions with

conditional statements using logical (AND, OR, NOT)
operators, which results in true or false.
▪ Let variable a holds true or 1 and variable b holds false or 0,
then
Operator Name Description Example
Return true if all (a && b)
&& Logical AND
expression are true //returns false
Return true if any (a || b)
|| Logical OR
expression is true //returns true
Return complement !a
! Logical NOT
of expression //returns false

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...cont. Operators

▪ Conditional / Ternary operator ( ? : ) is considered as

short hand for if-else statement.

• Syntax: condition ? result1 : result2;

• If condition is true the expression will return result1, if it is

not it will return result2.

• Example: result = (10 > 15) ? "Greater" : "Smaller";

o Output: Smaller

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...cont. Operators

▪ Bitwise operator is for manipulating the individual bits in

an integer quantity.

▪ Bitwise operators types are:

• Bitwise negation is a unary operator which reverses the bits
in its operands.
• Bitwise and compares the corresponding bits of its operands
and produces a 1 when both bits are 1, and 0 otherwise.
• Bitwise or compares the corresponding bits of its operands
and produces a 0 when both bits are 0, and 1 otherwise.
• Bitwise exclusive or compares the corresponding bits of its
operands and produces a 0 when both bits are 1 or both bits
are 0, and 1 otherwise.

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...cont. Operators

• Left shifting of an integer “x” with an integer “y” denoted as

‘(x<<y)’ is equivalent to multiplying x with 2^y (2 raised to
power y).
o Example: lets take N=22; which is 00010110 in Binary Form.
o Now, if “N is left-shifted by 2” i.e N=N<<2 then N will become
N=N*(2^2).
o Thus, N=22*(2^2)=88 which can be written as 01011000.
• Right shifting an integer “x” with an integer “y” denoted as
‘(x>>y)‘ is equivalent to dividing x with 2^y.
• Example: lets take N=32; which is 100000 in Binary Form.
• Now, if “N is right-shifted by 2” i.e N=N>>2 then N will
become N=N/(2^2).
• Thus, N=32/(2^2)=8 which can be written as 1000.

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...cont. Operators

▪ Binary equivalent of given numbers:

• 10 = 00 1010
• 11 = 00 1011
• 12 = 00 1100

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...cont. Operators

▪ sizeof() operator returns the size of its operand’s data type

in bytes.
• Example: a = sizeof (char);
o Output: a = 1 because char is a one-byte long data type.
▪ Comma operator ( , ) allows us to separate two or more
expressions that are included where only one expression is
expected.
• Example: i = (j=3, j+2); int i, j, k;
o First assign the value 3 to j then assign j+2 to variable i.
o Output: i=5
▪ Type casting operators allows you to convert a datum of a
given type to another data type.
▪ Example: int i; float f = 3.14; i = (int)f; equivalent to i = int(f);
o value variable i is 3 - ignoring the decimal point.
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 Operator Precedence
▪ Operator precedence defines the order in which given
mathematical expression is evaluated.
• Left-associative- are evaluated from the left to right,
• Right-associative- are evaluated from right to the left.
• No associativity- does not follow any predefined order.
Level Operator Order
Highest sizeof() ++ -- (pre fix) Right to left
* / % Left to right
+ - Left to right
< <= > >= Left to right
== != Left to right
&& Left to right
|| Left to right
? : Left to right
= ,+=, -=, *=, /=,^= ,%=, &= ,|= ,<<= ,>>= Right to left
++ -- (postfix) Left to right
, Left to right

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 Chapter Three
Control Statements

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 Outlines

▪ Introduction ▪ Repetition statements (loops)

▪ Selection Statements • For loop
• If • While loop
• If…else • Do… while loop
• Nested if…. else • Nested loops
• Switch • Infinite loop
▪ Jump statements
• Break
• Continue
• Go to
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 Introduction

▪ Control flow or flow of control is the order in which instructions,

statements and function calls being executed or evaluated when a
program is running.
▪ The control flow statements are also called as Flow Control
Statements.
▪ In C++, control flow statements are used to alter, redirect, or to
control the flow of program execution based on the application logic.
▪ In C++, Control flow statements are mainly categorized in following
types:
• Selection statements
• Iteration statements
• Jump statements
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 55
 C++ Selection Statements
if statement

▪ If statement consists of a boolean expression followed by one or

more statements.
▪ Syntax:
if(boolean_expression) {
// statement(s) will execute if the boolean expression is true
}
▪ If the boolean expression evaluates to true, then the block of code
inside the if statement will be executed.
▪ If boolean expression evaluates to false, then the first set of code after
the end of the if statement (after the closing curly brace) will be
executed.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 56
 C++ Selection Statements
if statement

• If you enter 55 for a and 10 for b, the output is:

55 is greater than 10.
• If you enter 5 for a and 10 for b, no output

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 57
 C++ Selection Statements
if…else statement

▪ In C++, when we want to execute a block of code when if condition is

true and another block of code when if condition is false.
▪ Syntax:
if (condition) {
// statement(s) will execute if the condition is true
}
else {
// statement(s) will execute if the condition is false
}
▪ If the condition evaluates to true, then the if block of code will be
executed, otherwise else block of code will be executed.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 58
 C++ Selection Statements
if…else statement

• If you enter 55 for a and 10 for b, the output is:

55 is greater than 10.
• If you enter 5 for a and 10 for b, the output is:
5 is less than 10.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 59
 C++ Selection Statements
if...else if...else statement
▪ An if statement can be followed by an optional else if...else statement,
which is very useful to test various conditions.
▪ Syntax:
if (condition_1) {
// statement(s) will execute if the condition_1 is true
}
else if (condition_2) {
// statement(s) will execute if the condition_2 is true
}
else {
// statement(s) will execute if the condition_3 is false
}
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 60
 C++ Selection Statements
if...else if...else statement

Output:
i is 20

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 61
 C++ Selection Statements
nested if statement

▪ Nested if statements means an if statement inside another if

statement.
▪ Syntax:
if (condition_1){
// Executes when condition_1 is true
if (condition_2){
// Executes when condition_1 and then condition_2 is true
}
}

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 62
 C++ Selection Statements
nested if statement

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 63
 C++ Switch Case Statement

▪ Syntax:
switch (expression){
▪ In C++, switch case statement is case value1:
simplified form of the C++ Nested // statements
if else statement , it helps to avoid break;
long chain of if…else if...else case value2:
statements.
// statements
▪ A switch case statement evaluates break;
an expression against multiple default:
cases in order to identify the block // statements
of code to be executed.
break;
}

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 64
 C++ Switch Case Statement

Output:
C++ Switch Case statement.
Today is Friday.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 65
 Jump Statements
Introduction

▪ Loop control statements change execution from its normal sequence.

▪ Break statement
• Terminates the loop or switch statement and transfers execution to
the statement immediately following the loop or switch.
▪ Continue statement
• Causes the loop to skip the remainder of its body and immediately
retest its condition prior to reiterating.
▪ Go to statement
• Transfers control to the labelled statement. Though it is not advised
to use go to statement in your program.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 66
 Jump Statements
break

▪ Break is a type of loop control

statement which is used to
terminate the loop.
▪ Syntax:
break;

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 67
 Jump Statements
continue
▪ The continue statement is opposite to that of break statement, instead of
terminating the loop, it forces to continue or execute the next iteration of
the loop.
▪ When the continue statement is executed in the loop, the code inside the
loop following the continue statement will be skipped and next iteration
of the loop will begin.
▪ Syntax:
continue;

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 68
 Jump Statements
continue

Output:
1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 69
 Jump Statements
goto
▪ The goto statement in C/C++ also referred to as unconditional jump
statement can be used to jump from one point to another within a
function.
▪ Syntax:
Syntax1 | Syntax2
----------------------------
goto label; | label:
. | .
. | .
. | .
label: | goto label;

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 70
 Jump Statements
goto

Output:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 71
 Looping Statements

▪ Loop statements are used to execute the block of code repeatedly for
a specified number of times or until it meets a specified condition.
▪ Loop statement are very useful to iterate over collection/list of items
or to perform a task for multiple times.
▪ In C++, we have following loop statements available:
• For loop
• While loop
• Do…while loop

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 72
 Looping Statements
for loop

Start
▪ The for loop is used when we want to
execute block of code known times. The Initialization
for loop takes a variable as iterator and
assign it with an initial value, and iterate
through the loop body as long as the test Condition
False
condition is true.
▪ Syntax: True
Loop body
for(initialization; condition; incr/decr){
// loop body incr/decr
// Or statement(s)
} Stop

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 73
 Looping Statements
for loop

▪ initialization: this section is used to

declare and initialize the loop iterator.
▪ condition: if the condition returns a
true value then the loop body is
executed for current iteration. If it
returns a false value then loop is
terminated and control jumps to the
next statement just after the for loop.
▪ incr/decr: Once, the loop body is
executed for current iteration then the
incr/decr statement is executed to
update the iterator value and the test
condition is evaluated again.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 74
 Looping Statements
while loop

▪ The while loop will execute a block

of statement as long as a test
expression is true.

▪ Syntax:
while(condition){
// loop body
}

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 75
 Looping Statements
while loop

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 76
 Looping Statements
do…while loop

▪ The do…while statement executes loop

statements and then test the condition
for next iteration and executes next
only if condition is true.

▪ Syntax:
do{
// loop body
} while(condition);

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 77
 Looping Statements
do…while loop

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 78
 Looping Statements
infinite loop

▪ A loop becomes infinite loop if a

condition never becomes false. The ▪ Example:
for loop is traditionally used for this #include <iostream>
purpose. Since none of the three using namespace std;
expressions that form the ‘for’ loop int main () {
are required, you can make an for( ; ; ) {
endless loop by leaving the
conditional expression empty. cout<<"This loop will
run forever. \n”;
▪ When the conditional expression is }
absent, it is assumed to be true.
return 0;
▪ Terminate an infinite loop by }
pressing Ctrl + C keys.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 79
 Chapter Four
C++ Functions

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ 80
Outlines

▪ Introduction
▪ User Defined Functions
▪ Function Prototype and Return Statement
▪ Integration of a Function
▪ Functions with Empty Parameter List
▪ Function Overloading
▪ The inline Functions
▪ C++ Standard Library Functions
▪ Passing Arguments by Value, by Reference, and by Pointer
▪ Recursive Functions

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 81
Introduction

▪ A function in C++ is a group of statements that together perform a

specific task.
▪ Every C/C++ program has at least one function that the name is
main.
▪ The main function is called by the operating system by which our
code is executed.
▪ We can make n number of function in a single program but we can
make only one main function in a single program.
▪ Every program has only one main function.

▪ There are two types of functions:

• Standard Library Functions: Predefined in C++
• User-defined Function: Created by users

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 82
User-defined Function

▪ C++ User-defined Function. C++ allows the programmer to define

their own function.

▪ A user-defined function groups code to perform a specific task and

that group of code is given a name (identifier).

▪ When the function is invoked from any part of the program, it all
executes the codes defined in the body of the function.

▪ Syntax:
returnType functionName (parameter1, parameter2,...) {
// function body
}

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 83
User-defined Function

▪ Return Type − A function may return a value. The return type is the
data type of the value the function returns.
• Some functions perform the desired operations without returning a value.
• In this case, the return type is the keyword void.
▪ Function Name − This is the actual name of the function. The
function name and the parameter list together constitute the
function signature.
▪ Parameters − A parameter is like a placeholder. When a function is
invoked, you pass a value to the parameter. This value is referred to
as actual parameter or argument.
▪ The parameter list refers to the type, order, and number of the parameters
of a function.
▪ Parameters are optional; that is, a function may contain no parameters.
▪ Function Body − The function body contains a collection of
statements that define what the function does.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 84
User-defined Function: Function Declaration

▪ A function declaration tells the compiler about a function name and

how to call the function. The actual body of the function can be
defined separately.
▪ Syntax:
returnType functionName (parameter list) ;
▪ Example: int max (int num1, int num2) ;
▪ Parameter names are not important in function declaration only
their type is required.
int max (int, int) ;
▪ Function declaration is required when you define a function in one
source file and you call that function in another file.
• In such case, you should declare the function at the top of the
file calling the function.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 85
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ To use a defined function, we have to call or invoke that function.

▪ When a program calls a function, program control is transferred to
the called function.
▪ A called function performs defined task and when it’s return
statement is executed or when its function-ending closing brace is
reached, it returns program control back to the main program.
The 4 ways of calling a function
1. FunctionName();
2. FuctionName(arguments);
3. VarName = FuctionName();
4. VarName = FuctionName(args);

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 86
 User-defined Function: Function Calling

1. Function not take any arguments 3. Function is take nothing and

and not return any value return something type
void FunctionName (void){ Ret_Type FunctionName (void){
// Function Body // Function Body
} }

2. Function takes an argument and 4. Function is take something and

not return any value return something type
void FunctionName (args){ Ret_Type FunctionName (args){
// Function Body // Function Body
} }

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 87
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Function Parameters/Arguments
• The type of the arguments passed while calling the function
must match with the corresponding parameters defined in the
function declaration.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 88
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Function Parameters/Arguments: the three ways that arguments can

be passed to a function.
No Call Type Description
Call by Value This method copies the actual value of an argument into
1 the formal parameter of the function. In this case, changes
made to the parameter inside the function have no effect
on the argument.
Call by Pointer This method copies the address of an argument into the
2 formal parameter. Inside the function, the address is used
to access the actual argument used in the call. This means
that changes made to the parameter affect the argument.
Call by This method copies the reference of an argument into the
3 Reference formal parameter. Inside the function, the reference is
used to access the actual argument used in the call. This
means that changes made to the parameter affect the
argument.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 89
User-defined Function: Function Calling
▪ Actual Parameters are the parameters that appear in the function
call statement.
▪ Formal Parameters are the parameters that appear in the declaration
of the function which has been called.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 90
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Call by Value: When a function is called in the call by

value, the value of the actual parameters is copied into
formal parameters.

• Both the actual and formal parameters have their own copies of
values, therefore any change in one of the types of parameters
will not be reflected by the other.

• This is because both actual and formal parameters point to

different locations in memory (i.e. they both have different
memory addresses).

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 91
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Call by Value:

• It is useful when we do not want the values of the actual

parameters to be changed by the function that has been
invoked.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 92
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Call by Value: Example-

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 93
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Call by Reference: In the call by reference, both formal and

actual parameters share the same value.
• Both the actual and formal parameter points to the
same address in the memory.
• That means any change on one type of parameter will
also be reflected by other.
• Calls by reference are preferred in cases where we do not
want to make copies of objects or variables, but rather
we want all operations to be performed on the same
copy.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 94
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Call by Reference:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 95
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Call by Reference: Example-

• Note: for creating reference, the ‘&‘ operator is used in
preceding of variable name.
• Note: the output in this case. The value of ‘a’ is increased
to 6, the value of ‘x’ in the main also changes to 6.
• This proves that changes made to formal parameters are
also reflected by the actual parameters as they share the
same memory address space.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 96
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Call by Reference: Example-

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 97
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Call by Address: In the call by address method, both actual

and formal parameters indirectly share the same variable.
• In this type of call mechanism, pointer variables are used
as formal parameters.
• The formal pointer variable holds the address of the
actual parameter, hence the changes done by the formal
parameter is also reflected in the actual parameter.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 98
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Call by Address: as demonstrated in the diagram, both

parameters point to different locations in memory, but since the
formal parameter stores the address of the actual parameter, they
share the same value.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 99
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Call by Address: Example-

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 100
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Default Values for Parameters:

▪ When you define a function, you 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.

▪ If a value for that parameter is not passed when the function is

called, the default given value is used, but if a value is specified,
this default value is ignored and the passed value is used
instead.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 101
User-defined Function: Function Calling

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 102
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Constant Arguments:
▪ Just like we can declare constant variables, C++ also allows us to
declare constant arguments which cannot be modified in the
function.
▪ For example:
float example (int day, int month, const int year = 2005);

▪ In this declaration the argument ‘year’ is declared as a constant

variable.
▪ The keyword const preceding this variable is an access specifier and
it tells the compiler that the function should not modify the
argument.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 103
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Return Statement
▪ In the below program, the add() function is used to find the sum of two
numbers.
▪ We store the returned value of the function in the variable sum.
▪ Note: sum is a variable of int type. This is because the return value of add()
is of int type.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 104
User-defined Function: Function Calling

▪ Function Prototype
▪ In C++, the code of function declaration should be before the function
call. However, if we want to define a function after the function call,
we need to use the function prototype.
▪ This provides the compiler with information about the function name
and its parameters.
▪ The syntax of a function prototype is:
returnType functionName(dataType1, dataType2, ...);

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 105
Benefits of User-defined Function

▪ Functions make the code reusable. We can declare them once

and use them multiple times.

▪ Functions make the program easier as each small task is divided

into a function.

▪ Functions increase readability.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 106
C++ Library Functions

▪ Library functions are the built-in functions in C++

programming.
▪ Programmers can use library functions by invoking the
functions directly; they don't need to write the functions
themselves.
▪ Some common library functions in C++ are sqrt(), abs(),
isdigit(), etc.
▪ In order to use library functions, we usually need to include the
header file in which these library functions are defined.
▪ For instance, in order to use mathematical functions such as
sqrt() and abs(), we need to include the header file cmath.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 107
C++ Library Functions

▪ Example: C++ Program to Find the Square Root of a Number

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 108
Function Overloading

▪ Function overloading is a feature of object-oriented programming

where two or more functions can have the same name but different
parameters.

▪ When a function name is overloaded with different jobs it is called

Function Overloading.

▪ In Function Overloading “Function” name should be the same and

the arguments should be different.

▪ Function overloading can be considered as an example of a

polymorphism feature in C++.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 109
Function Overloading
▪ Notice that the return types of all these 4 functions are not the same.

▪ Overloaded functions may or may not have different return types but
they must have different arguments.
▪ For example:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 110
Function Overloading

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 111
Function Overloading

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 112
Inline Functions

▪ C++ enable you to use inline functions that expand into their
statements. Thus, inline functions offer faster execution time
especially helpful where speed is critical at the cost of expanding the
code.
▪ An inline function is a function that is expanded in line when it is
called.
▪ When the inline function is called whole code of the inline function
gets inserted or substituted at the point of the inline function call.
▪ This substitution is performed by the C++ compiler at compile time. .

▪ The inline function can be defined as follows:

inline returnType functionName(DataType parameterList);

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 113
Inline Functions

▪ The compiler may not perform in lining in such circumstances as:

• If a function contains a loop. (for, while and do-while)
• If a function contains static variables.
• If a function is recursive.
• If a function return type is other than void, and the return
statement doesn’t exist in a function body.
• If a function contains a switch or goto statement.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 114
Inline Functions

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 115
Inline Functions

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 116
Recursive functions

▪ When function is called within the same function, it is known as

recursion in C++. The function which calls the same function, is
known as recursive function.

▪ A function that calls itself, and doesn't perform any task after
function call, is known as tail recursion. In tail recursion, we
generally call the same function with return statement.

▪ A function that calls itself is known as a recursive function. And,

this technique is known as recursion.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 117
Recursive functions: Types of Recursion

1. Direct recursion: In direct recursion, the function calls itself

directly.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 118
Recursive functions: Types of Recursion

2. Indirect recursion: If a function calls itself indirectly from

another function, then this type of recursion is called indirect
recursion.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 119
Recursive functions

▪ Working of Recursion in C++

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 120
Recursive functions

▪ Example 1: Factorial of a Number Using Recursion

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 121
Recursive functions

▪ Example 2: find the sum of all the digits up to a particular

number, i.e. entered by the user with the help of recursion.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 122
Exercises

1. Write a program to take two numbers say, ‘x’ and ‘y’ from the
user and add these numbers using a function and then
display the sum of these two numbers on the screen.
2. Write a program which declares a function ‘int accept(int a,
int b, int c);’ which accepts three parameters ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’
inputted by the user and returns the value obtained by
computing value of the expression ‘a * b +c’ to the main
program which displays the returned value.
3. Write a program to find the roots of a quadratic equation.
Assume that the quadratic equation only has unequal or
equal roots. The program should use separate set of functions
to determine whether the equation has equal or unequal
roots.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 123
Exercises

4. Write a program to display the following type of pattern

using functions (The value of n entered by the user)?
*
**
***
****
*****
5. Write a program which declares a function which prints the
Fibonacci series on the screen, where the number of terms to
be displayed is passed as a parameter by the user.

6. Declare a function ‘multiply’ which takes in two integers as

arguments and returns their product as an integer.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 124
 Chapter Five
Arrays, Strings, and Pointer

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ 125
 Part I
Arrays in C++

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 126
Outlines

▪Arrays in C++
• What does it mean?
• Declaration of an Array
• Accessing Elements of an Arrays
• Input/Output of an Array
• Searching a Value in an Array
• Address of an Array
• Multidimensional arrays
• Two Dimensional Arrays
• Three Dimensional Arrays
• Passing an Array to a Functions

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 127
Overview of C++ Arrays

▪ An array is a collection of identical data objects (i.e. can only

hold values of one type), which are stored in consecutive
memory locations under a common variable name.

▪ It’s a group of values referred to by the same name.

▪ The objects (i.e. individual values in array) are called the

elements of the array and are numbered consecutively from
0 up to n-1.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 128
Overview of C++ Arrays

▪ Advantages of C++ Array

• Code Optimization (less code)
• Random Access
• Easy to traverse data
• Easy to manipulate data
• Easy to sort data etc.
▪ Disadvantages of C++ Array
• Fixed size

▪ C++ Array Types

• Single Dimensional Array- 1D
• Multidimensional Array- 2D, 3D, … , ND
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 129
Declaration of an Array

▪ Declaring/defining the name and type of an array and

setting the number of elements in an array is called
dimensioning the array.
• The array must be declared before one uses in like other
variables.
▪ Syntax: dataType arrayName [arraySize] ;
▪ Example: double balance[5];
▪ dataType - the data type of the elements of the array (e.g.
int, float, char, double, etc.)
▪ arrayName - the name or identifier of the array,
▪ arraySize - the total number of memory locations to be
allocated or the maximum value of each subscript. i.e. the
total number of elements in the array.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 130
Initialization of an Array

▪ You can initialize C++ array elements either one by one or

using a single statement as follows
double balance[5] = {10.0, 2.0, 3.4, 17.0, 50.0};
double balance[ ] = {1000.0, 2.0, 3.4, 17.5, 50.6};

Array Indices 0 1 2 3 4
Array Data 10.0 2.0 3.4 17.5 50.6

▪ The number of values between braces { } can not be larger

than the number of elements that we declare for the array
between square brackets [ ].
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 131
Address of an array

▪ The values of any of the elements in an array can be accessed

just like the value of a regular variable of the same type.
▪ Syntax: arrayName[index];

▪ So, from the previous example the elements of the array

balance are as follows:
• balance[0] = 10.0
• balance[1] = 2.0
• balance[2] = 3.4
• balance[3] = 17.5
• balance[4] = 50.6

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 132
Accessing Elements of an Array

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 133
Address of an array

▪ With the declaration of array as int section[3]; three blocks of

memory are allocated by the compiler for the array elements, i.e. one
block for each element for storing its value. The array is initialized as
given below.
int section [3] = {1,2,3};
▪ The size of blocks depends on the type of data in the array. For the
present case, the type of elements is int so 2 bytes are allocated for each
block. The value of each element is stored in binary as shown below.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 134
Address of an array

▪ The address of an array is the address of first element of the

array which is the number of the first byte of the memory
block allocated to the first element of the array.

• It may be extracted by simply calling the name of array. Thus, for

array section [3] the code for getting address of the array is:

cout << section; //returns the address of an array section/address of section [0]

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 135
Address of an array

▪ The output will be the address of the array. The address of

any element of an array may also be extracted by calling
array (name + offset).
• The offset is equal to the subscript or index value of the
element.

cout << section+1; //returns the address of the second element (i.e. section [2]).

cout << section+2; //returns the address of the third element (i.e. section [3]).

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 136
Multidimensional Arrays

▪ If the elements of an array are arrays, the array is a multi-

dimensional array. Thus, an array having elements which
are one dimensional arrays, is a two-dimensional array.
Similarly, an array whose elements are two-dimension arrays
is a three-dimensional array and so forth for others.
▪ Let the 5 elements of an array Names be arrays of 30
characters each.
char Names [5][30];

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 137
Multidimensional Arrays
▪ Two-dimensional array example:

▪ In computer memory a two-dimensional array is also stored

in the same way as shown below. i.e. two rows and 5 columns
like a matrix.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 138
Multidimensional Arrays

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 139
Passing arrays as an argument
▪ C++ does not allow to pass an entire array as an argument to
a function. However, you can pass a pointer to an array by
specifying the array's name without an index.
▪ If you want to pass a single-dimension array as an argument
in a function, you would have to declare function formal
parameter in one of following three ways and all three
declaration methods produce similar results because each
tells the compiler that an integer pointer is going to be
received.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 140
Passing arrays as an argument
▪ Way 1: Formal parameters as a pointer as follows:

▪ Way 2: Formal parameters as a sized array as follows:

▪ Way 3: Formal parameters as an unsized array as follows:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 141
Passing arrays as an argument
▪ By passing a particular element of the array to the function

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 142
Passing arrays as an argument
▪ By passing the whole array to the function:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 143
Passing arrays as an argument

▪ When a two-dimensional array is used as an argument to a

function, only a pointer to the first element is actually passed.
▪ However, the parameter receiving a two-dimensional array
must define at least the size of the rightmost dimension.
(You can specify the left dimension if you like, but it is not
necessary.)

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 144
 [Link]
s/cpp/strings-in-cpp/

Part 2
C++ String

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 145
Outlines

▪Strings in C++
• Overview
• The C-style character string
• String vs. Character Array
• Concatenation of Strings
• Passing Strings to Functions
• C++ Built-in String Functions
• Operations of C++ Strings
• Input functions
• Capacity Functions
• Iterator Functions
• Manipulating Functions

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 146
Overview of C++ Strings

▪ A string in C++ is a type of object representing a collection

(or sequence) of different characters surrounded by double
quotes.
▪ Strings in C++ are a part of the standard string class
(std::string).
▪ The string class stores the characters of a string as a
collection of bytes in contiguous memory locations.
▪ In order to use the string data type, the C++ string header
<string> must be included at the top of the program.
▪ C++ provides following two types of string representations-
▪ The C-style character string.
▪ The string class type introduced with Standard C++.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 147
The C-style character string
▪ The C-style character string originated within the C
language and continues to be supported within C++.
▪ This string is actually a one-dimensional array of characters
which is terminated by a null character ‘\0’.
▪ Thus a null-terminated string contains the characters that
comprise the string followed by a null.
▪ The following declaration and initialization create a string
consisting of the word "Hello". To hold the null character at
the end of the array, the size of the character array
containing the string is one more than the number of
characters in the word "Hello."
char greeting[6] = {'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '\0’};
char greeting[] = "Hello";
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 148
The C-style character string

▪ Following is the memory presentation of above defined

string in C/C++.

▪ Actually, you do not place the null character at the end of a

string constant. The C++ compiler automatically places the
'\0' at the end of the string when it initializes the array.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 149
The C-style character string

▪ Here are the different ways to create C-style strings:

▪ Alternatively, we have:

▪ It is not necessary to utilize all the space allocated to a

character array (string):

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 150
The C-style character string

▪ C++ supports a wide range of functions that manipulate

null-terminated strings-
No Function Purpose
1 strcpy(s1, s2); Copies string s2 into string s1.
2 strcat(s1, s2); Concatenates string s2 onto the end of string s1.
3 strlen(s1); Returns the length of string s1.
4 strcmp(s1, s2); Returns 0 if s1 and s2 are the same; less than 0 if s1<s2;
greater than 0 if s1>s2.
5 strchr(s1, ch); Returns a pointer to the first occurrence of character ch in
string s1.
6 strstr(s1, s2); Returns a pointer to the first occurrence of string s2 in
string s1.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 151
The C-style character string

▪ Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 152
The String Class in C++

▪The standard C++ library provides a string class type

that supports all the operations mentioned above,
additionally much more functionality.
▪Using the string keyword is the best and the most
convenient way of defining a string.
▪We should prefer using the string keyword because it
is easy to write and understand.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 153
String vs. Character Array

Comparison Strings Character Array

Definition String is a C++ class Character array is a collection
while the string of variables with the data
variables are the type char.
objects of this class
Syntax string string_name; char arrayname[array_size];
Access Speed Slow Fast
Indexing To access a particular A character can be accessed
character, we use by its index in the character
"str_name.charAt(inde array.
x)" or "str[index]".
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 154
String vs. Character Array

Comparison Strings Character Array

Operators Standard C++ operators Standard C++ Operators
can be applied. can not be applied.
Memory Memory is allocated Memory is allocated
Allocation dynamically. More statically. More memory
memory can be allocated can not be allocated at run
at run time. time.
Array Decay Array decay (loss of the Array decay might occur.
type and dimensions of
an array) is impossible.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 155
Concatenation of Strings

▪ Combining two or more strings to form a resultant string is

called the concatenation of strings.
▪ In C++, we have three ways to concatenate strings. These are
as follows.
1. Using strcat() function
2. Using append() function
3. Using the '+' operator

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 156
Concatenation of Strings

▪ Using strcat() function

• We need to include the cstring header file in our
program.
• The strcat() function takes two character arrays as the
input. It concatenates the second array to the end of the
first array.
• Syntax: strcat(char_array1, char_array2);
• It is important to note that the strcat() function only
accepts character arrays as its arguments.
• We can not use string objects in the function.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 157
Concatenation of Strings

▪ Using strcat() function- Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 158
Concatenation of Strings

▪ Using append() function

• The append() function appends the first string to the
second string.
• The variables of type string are used with this function.
• Syntax: [Link](str2);

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 159
Concatenation of Strings

▪ Using append() function- Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 160
Concatenation of Strings

▪ Using the '+' operator

• This is the easiest way to concatenate strings.
• The + operator takes two (or more) strings and returns
the concatenated string.
• Syntax: str1 + str2;

▪ It is up to the programmer to use + or append(). Compared to +,

the append() function is much faster. However, in programs that do
not have very long strings, replacing + with append() will not
significantly affect program efficiency. On the other hand,
the strcat() function has some potential performance issues based on
the function's time complexity and the number of times the function
runs in the program. So, in a nutshell, it is best to use
the append() function or the + operator.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 161
Concatenation of Strings

▪ Using the '+' operator- Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 162
Passing Strings to Functions

▪ This is the same as we do with other arrays. The only

difference is that this is an array of characters.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 163
C++ Built-in String Functions

Functions Description
int length() Used to find the string length
void swap(string& str1) Used to swap the values of 2 strings
int compare(const Used to compare 2 strings
string& str1)
string substr(int Used to create a new string of a given
position, int length) length
int size() Used to find the string length in
terms of bytes
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 164
C++ Built-in String Functions

Functions Description
void resize(int length) Used to resize the string length up to
the given no. of characters
string& replace(int pos, Used to replace a portion of the
int n, string& str1) string that begins at position pos and
is of the length of n characters
string& append(const Used to add new characters at the
string& str1) end of a string
char& at(int position) Used to access an individual
character at the given position
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 165
 C++ Built-in String Functions

Functions Description
int find(string& str1, int Used to find the string given in the
position, int len) parameter
int find_first_of(string& str1, Used to find the first occurrence of the
int position, int len) given sequence
int find_first_not_of(string& Used to search the string for the first
str1, int position, int n) character that does not match any
characters specified in the string
int find_last_of(string& str1, Used to search the string for the last
int position, int n) character of the sequence specified
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 166
 C++ Built-in String Functions

Functions Description
int find_last_not_of(string& Used to search for the last character that
str1, int position) does not match with the sequence
specified
string& insert() Used to insert a new character before the
character indicated at the given position
int max_size() Used to get the maximum length of a
string
void push_back(char c) Used to add a new character at the end of
a string

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 167
 C++ Built-in String Functions

Functions Description
void pop_back() Used to remove the string's last character
string& assign() Used to assign new value to a string
int copy(string& str1) Used to copy the contents of a string into
another
begin() Used to return the first character's reference

char& back() Used to return the last character's reference

int capacity() Used to return the allocated space for the string

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 168
 C++ Built-in String Functions

Functions Description
void clear() Used to remove string's all elements
const_iterator cbegin() Used to point to the string's first element
const_iterator cend() Used to point to the string's last element
const_reverse_iterator Used to point to the string's last character
crbegin()
bool empty() Used to check if the string is empty or not
string& erase() Used to remove the characters
const_char* data() Used to copy the string's characters into an
array
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 169
 C++ Built-in String Functions

Functions Description
char& front() Used to return a reference of the string's first
character
string& operator=() Used to assign a new value to a string
string& operator+=() Used to insert a new character at the end of a
string
char Used to retrieve a character at the position
operator[](position) specified
int rfind() Used to search for the string's last occurrence
iterator end() Used to reference the string's last character
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 170
C++ Built-in String Functions

Functions Description
reverse_iterator rend() Used to point to the string's first character
void shrink_to_fit() Used to reduce the capacity of the container
and make it equal to the size of the string
char* c_str() Used to return pointer to an array containing
null-terminated character sequence
const_reverse_iterator Used to reference the first character of the
crend() string

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 171
C++ Built-in String Functions

Functions Description
allocator_type Used to return the allocated object connected
get_allocator(); with a string
reverse_iterator rbegin() Used to reference the last character of a string
void reserve(int length) Used to reserve the vector capacity

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 172
Operations of C++ Strings

▪Although the implementation of character arrays is

faster than that of string objects, string objects are
widely used in C++ because of the number of in-built
functions it supports.

▪Some of the most commonly used string functions are

as follows:
• Input functions
• Capacity Functions
• Iterator Functions
• Manipulating Functions
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 173
C++ String Input Functions

▪The input functions help add or remove a character or

string to a string.
Functions Description
getline() Used to read and store a string that the user
enters through the input stream
push_back() Inputs a new character to the string’s end
pop_back() Pops out (deletes) a string’s last character
(introduced from C++11)

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 174
C++ String Input Functions

▪getline(): it is used to read a string entered by the user.

• The getline() function extracts characters from the input
stream.
• It adds it to the string object until it reaches the
delimiting character.
• The default delimiter is \n.
• The delimiter could either be a character or the number of
characters a user can input.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 175
C++ String Input Functions

▪getline()- Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 176
C++ String Input Functions

▪push_back(): it is used to push (add) characters at the

end (back) of a string.

• After the character is added, the size of the string

increases by 1.
• For example using the push_back() function several
times, we added the word " Students" at the end of the
string.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 177
C++ String Input Functions

▪push_back()- Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 178
C++ String Input Functions

▪pop_back(): It is used to pop (remove) 1 character from

the end (back) of a string.
• As the character gets removed, the size of the string
decreases by 1.
• As we can see from the following example, the last
character of the name popped out, and the string is left
with one less character.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 179
C++ String Input Functions

▪pop_back()- Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 180
C++ String Capacity Functions

▪ The C++ string capacity functions help to work with the size
and capacity of the string. The primary functions of the
capacity type are:
Functions Description
capacity() Returns the capacity allocated to a string by the
compiler
resize() Allows increasing or decreasing the size of the
string
length() Returns the size of the string
shrink_to_fit() Decreases and makes the capacity equal to the
minimum to save memory
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 181
C++ String Capacity Functions

▪length(): As the name suggests, the length() function

returns the length of a string.
▪Example-

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 182
C++ String Capacity Functions

▪capacity(): It returns the current size of the allocated space

for the string. The size can be equal to or greater than the
size of the string. We allocate more space than the string size
to accommodate new characters in the string efficiently.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 183
C++ String Capacity Functions
▪resize(): It is used to either increase or decrease the size of a
string.
▪ In the below example, we used the resize() function to change the
number of characters in the string. Because we had specified the
first ten characters in resize(), all the characters after the first 10
were removed from the string.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 184
C++ String Capacity Functions

• shrink_to_fit(): It is used to decrease the string’s capacity to

make it equal to the string’s minimum capacity. This
function helps us save memory if we are sure that no
additional characters are required.
• In the above example, after using the resize() function,
we realized that the string capacity was 28. When we
used the shrink_to_fit() function, the size was reduced to
17.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 185
C++ String Capacity Functions
• shrink_to_fit():

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 186
C++ String Iterator Functions

▪The iterator functions are used to work with the

iterators that traverse through each character of a
string.
Functions Description
begin() Returns the iterator to the beginning
end() Returns the iterator to the end
rbegin() Returns a reverse iterator that points to the end
rend() Returns a reverse iterator that points to the
start
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 187
C++ String Iterator Functions

▪begin(): It returns an iterator that points to the

beginning of the string.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 188
C++ String Iterator Functions

▪end(): This function returns an iterator that points to the end of the
string. The iterator will always point to the null character.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 189
C++ String Iterator Functions

• rbegin(): The keyword rbegin stands for the reverse

beginning. It is used to point to the last character of
the string.

• The difference between rbegin() and end() is that end()

points to the element next to the last element of the
string while rbegin() points to the last element of a
string.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 190
C++ String Iterator Functions

• rbegin(): Example-

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 191
C++ String Iterator Functions

▪ rend(): The keyword rend stands for the reverse ending. It is

used to point to the first character of the string.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 192
C++ String Manipulating Functions

▪ The manipulating functions allow you to manipulate a

string with operations such as copying and swapping.
Functions Description
copy(“char array”, len, pos) It copies a substring from the char
array and copies it.
• The len and pos parameters define
the length of the substring to be
copied and starting position from
where the copies begin,
respectively.
swap() Swaps one string with another
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 193
C++ String Manipulating Functions

▪copy(): It is used to copy one sub-string to the other string

(character array) mentioned in the function's arguments.

• It takes three arguments (minimum two)-

• target character array,
• length to be copied, and
• starting position in the string to start copying.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 194
C++ String Manipulating Functions
▪ copy(): Example-

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 195
C++ String Manipulating Functions
▪ swap(): It swaps one string with another.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 196
 1. [Link]
2. [Link]
3. [Link]
4. [Link]

Part 3
C++ Pointers

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 197
Outlines

▪Pointers in C++
• Overview
• Declaring pointers
• Assigning values to pointers
• Pointer to void
• Invalid pointers
• Null pointers
• Arrays of pointers
• Pointers and arrays
• Pointer arithmetic
• Pointer and string
• Pointer to pointer
• Dynamic memory

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 198
Overview

▪ A pointer in C++ is a variable that stores the address (or

memory location) of another variable.
▪ In other words, a pointer points to the address of another
variable.
▪ Like regular variables, pointers in C++ have data types.
▪ A pointer should have the same data type as that of the
variable it points to.

▪ Note: The reason we declare data types of pointers is to know how many
bytes of data is used by the variable it stores the address of. If we increment
(or decrement) a pointer, we increase (or decrease) the pointer by the size
of the data type it points to.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 199
Overview

int Var = 10;

int *ptr;
ptr = &Var;

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 200
Reference Operator and Dereference Operator

▪Reference Operator (&)

▪ The reference operator (&) returns the address of any
variable (including pointers). For example:

▪ Output:

▪ Note: that the address of each variable is different in different

systems.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 201
Reference Operator and Dereference Operator

▪Reference Operator (&)

▪ As we know, pointers in C++ are used to store addresses
of variables. In order to store the address of any variable
in a pointer, we use the reference operator. In other
words, we can assign addresses to pointers using the
reference operator.
▪ Example:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 202
Reference Operator and Dereference Operator

▪Dereference Operator (*)

▪ The Asterisk symbol (*) is called dereference operator
when it is used with pointers. We can access the values
stored in a variable to which pointer points to, by using
the pointer's identifier and the dereference operator.
▪ In relation to pointers, the asterisk symbol (*) has two
different meanings.
• When * is used in a variable declaration, the value
written on the right-hand side of the = sign should be
an address of a variable (present in the memory).
• The unary operator (*) when used with a pointer
allows us to retrieve or assign a value stored in the
memory location pointed by the pointer. The unary
operator can be read as "value pointed by".
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 203
Reference Operator and Dereference Operator

▪Dereference Operator (*) - Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 204
Pointer Declaration Syntax

▪ Pointers in C++ are declared using the following syntax:

▪ We use the asterisk (*) symbol to designate a variable as a

pointer in C++. The asterisk symbol can be placed anywhere
before the pointer name and after the datatype.
▪ If we have to declare two (or more) pointers together in the
same line, we will need to use the asterisk symbol before each
variable name. For example:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 205
How to use Pointers in C++?

▪ We have to follow a few steps to use pointers in C++:

1. Define a pointer variable
2. Assigning the address of a variable to a pointer using the unary
operator (&) which returns the address of that variable.
3. Accessing the value stored in the address using unary operator (*)
which returns the value of the variable located at the address
specified by its operand.
▪ The following table shows the symbols that are used with pointers.
Symbol Name Description
& Used to find the address of a
Address of operator
variable
* Indirection operator Used to access the value at an
address
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 206
How to use Pointers in C++?

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 207
Ways to Pass C++ Arguments to a Function

▪In C++, we can pass arguments to functions in three

different ways. These are:

• Call By Value
• Call By Reference with Pointer Argument
• Call By Reference with Reference Argument

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 208
Ways to Pass C++ Arguments to a Function

▪Call By Value
▪ By default, C++ uses the call by value method.
▪ This method copies the real value of an argument into
the function's parameter.
▪ So, if the parameter inside the function is changed, it will
not affect the argument.
▪ From the below example, we can observe that the address
of variable var was different inside the function triple().
Also, altering var inside the function triple() did not have
any impact on var present in the main() function.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 209
Ways to Pass C++ Arguments to a Function

▪Call By Value- Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 210
Ways to Pass C++ Arguments to a Function

▪Call By Reference With Pointer Argument

• In call by reference with pointer argument, we pass the
variables' address as the arguments to the parameters of
a function.
• That's why the original variables are modified if we make
changes to the function's parameters.
• Because we used call by reference in the following
example, the address of variable var was the same in
both triple() and main() functions. This means
both var variables share the same memory location.
That's why changing the value of var inside triple(),
resulted in the change in var inside main().
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 211
Ways to Pass C++ Arguments to a Function

▪Call By Reference With Pointer Argument- Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 212
Ways to Pass C++ Arguments to a Function

▪Call By Reference With Reference Argument

• In call by reference with reference argument, we pass the
variables' address as the arguments.
• There is only one difference between the two types of call
by references.
• Call by reference with pointer argument takes pointers (that
point towards the memory location of arguments) as the
function's parameters.
• Call by reference with reference argument takes the original
variable itself (not a copy of variables) as the function's
parameters.
• To pass the original variable as a function's parameter,
we use the reference operator (&) in the declaration of a
function's parameters.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 213
Ways to Pass C++ Arguments to a Function

▪Call By Reference With Reference Argument- Example

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 214
Void Pointers

▪ A void pointer in C++ is a special pointer that can point to

objects of any data type.
▪ In other words, a void pointer is a general purpose pointer
that can store the address of any data type, and it can be
typecasted to any type.
▪ A void pointer is not associated with any particular data
type.

▪ The size of a void pointer is different in different systems.

• In 16-bit systems, the size of a void pointer is 2 bytes.
• In a 32-bit system, the size of a void pointer is 4 bytes.
• In a 64-bit system, the size of a void pointer is 8 bytes.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 215
Void Pointers

▪ In C++, we use the void keyword to declare a void pointer.

▪ It is used with a * symbol after the void keyword.
▪ Syntax: void* pointer_name;

▪ In the following example, we used a void pointer to store the

address of an integer variable and then used the same
pointer to store the address of a character variable.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 216
Void Pointers
▪ In the following example, we declared a void pointer variable and a
float variable. Then, we stored the address of the float variable in the
void pointer variable.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 217
Invalid Pointers

▪ A pointer in C++ is considered valid if:

• It is a NULL pointer value, or
• It points to an object, or
• It does not points to an out of bounds element of an array that is,
other than range array_name to arrry_name + array_size (both
inclusive).
▪ A pointer that satisfies no condition of three conditions
written above, is known as an invalid pointer. A valid pointer
may become invalid if the object to which (or after which) it
points ends its life cycle i.e., the memory location to which it
points to gets deallocated.
▪ Invalid pointers may or may not raise errors in a program.
Accessing these pointers can lead to unexpected behavior of
a program. Hence, we should always avoid invalid pointers.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 218
Invalid Pointers
▪ In the following example, we created two pointers ptr1 and
ptr2. The pointer ptr1 is invalid because it does not point to
any address. The pointer ptr2 is invalid because &arr[0] + 7
does not point to any object in this program.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 219
NULL Pointers

▪ We can assign NULL to a pointer in C++. The value of NULL

is zero. A pointer that is assigned a NULL value is called a
null pointer.

▪ NULL allows us to create valid pointers, without storing the

address of any variable in the pointer.

▪ It is recommended to assign NULL during the pointer

declaration. Otherwise, the compiler may generate a run
time error.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 220
NULL Pointers

▪ As we can observe, we created a null pointer and then

printed its value in the below example.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 221
Arrays of pointers

▪ An array of pointers is an array that consists of variables of

pointer type, which means that the variable is a pointer
addressing to some other element.
▪ Suppose we create an array of pointer holding 5 integer
pointers; then its declaration would look like:

▪ The element of an array of a pointer can also be initialized by

assigning the address of some other element.

▪ We can also retrieve the value of 'a' be dereferencing the

pointer.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 222
Arrays of pointers

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 223
Arrays and Pointers

▪ An array name contains the address of the first element of

the array which acts like a constant pointer.
▪ It means, the address stored in the array name can’t be
changed.
▪ The name of an array acts like a pointer because the address
of the first element of an array is stored in its name. So, if a
pointer contains the address of the first element of an array,
we can use that pointer to access all the elements of the
array.
▪ Not only can a pointer store the address of a single variable,
it can also store the address of cells of an array.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 224
Arrays and Pointers

▪ Consider this example:

▪ Here, ptr is a pointer variable while arr is an int array. The

code ptr = arr; stores the address of the first element of the
array in variable ptr.
▪ Notice that we have used arr instead of &arr[0]. This is
because both are the same. So, the code below is the same as
the code above.

▪ The addresses for the rest of the array elements are given by
&arr[1], &arr[2], &arr[3], and &arr[4].
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 225
Arrays and Pointers
▪ Point to Every Array Elements
▪ Suppose we need to point to the fourth element of the
array using the same pointer ptr.
▪ Here, if ptr points to the first element in the above
example then ptr + 3 will point to the fourth element.
▪ For example,

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 226
Arrays and Pointers

▪ Point to Every Array Elements

▪ Similarly, we can access the elements using the single
pointer.
▪ For example,

▪ Suppose if we have initialized ptr = &arr[2]; then

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 227
Arrays and Pointers

▪ Point to Every Array Elements

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 228
Arrays and Pointers

▪ Point to Every Array Elements

• Note: The address between ptr and ptr + 1 differs by 4
bytes. It is because ptr is a pointer to an int data. And,
the size of int is 4 bytes in a 64-bit operating system.
• Similarly, if pointer ptr is pointing to char type data,
then the address between ptr and ptr + 1 is 1 byte. It is
because the size of a character is 1 byte.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 229
Arrays and Pointers

▪ For example, if we have an array named val then val and

&val[0] can be used interchangeably.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 230
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic

▪ A limited set of arithmetic operations can be performed on

pointers which are:
• incremented ( ++ )
• decremented ( -- )
• an integer may be added to a pointer ( + or += )
• an integer may be subtracted from a pointer ( - or -= )
• difference between two pointers (p1-p2)
▪ Note: Pointer arithmetic is meaningless unless performed on
an array.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 231
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic
▪ Example 1: Using Increment Operator
• When we increment a pointer using the increment
operator (++), the address of the pointer increases. The
increase in address of the pointer is equal to the size of its
data type.
• As all the elements of the array are stored in contiguous
memory, we can use the increment operator on pointers to
access the elements of an array.
• In the example, we used ptr++ to access each element of the
array arr. Since ptr had an int type, the address was
increased by 44 (because size of an int is 44 ) when we
used ptr++.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 232
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic
▪ Example 1: Using Increment Operator

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 233
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic

▪ Example 2: Using Decrement Operator

• The decrement operator (--) is similar to the increment
operator. Decrement operator decreases the address of a
pointer by the size of its data type.
• The decrement operator can also be used with arrays to
access their elements.

• In the following example, the pointer ptr was pointing to

the last element of the array arr. In order to access each
element of the array using ptr, we used ptr-- inside
the for loop.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 234
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic

▪ Example 2: Using Decrement Operator

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 235
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic
▪ Example 3: Addition and Subtraction
• If we add 3 to a pointer (ptr + 3), the pointer will point to
the memory address located 3 places ahead of the current
address. In other words, the pointer will point to an
address that is three times the size of the pointer's data
type ( 3 * size_of_pointer_type).
• The subtraction operation is similar to addition. In case of
the subtraction operation in pointers, if we subtract 1 from
the pointer (ptr - 1), the pointer will point to the previous
memory address.
• In the following example, ptr1 + 2 is equivalent to &arr[2],
and ptr2 - 1 is equivalent to &arr[3].
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 236
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic

▪ Example 3: Addition and Subtraction

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 237
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic

▪ Example 4: Subtracting two Pointers

• Subtracting two pointers is a valid operation although
adding two pointers is not a valid operation.
• The subtraction of two pointers is possible only when
they have the same data type.
• The subtraction of two pointers returns the increments
between the two pointers.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 238
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic

▪ Example 4: Subtracting two Pointers

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 239
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic
▪ Example 5: Pointer Comparison
• Pointers can be compared using relational operators,
such as ==, <, >, <= and >=. If two pointers are related to
each other such as pointing to the elements of same
array, then they can be compared meaningfully.

• In the example below, pointer comparison property is

used to iterate over an array. A pointer pointing to an
element of an array is incremented in each loop until its
value becomes greater than the address of the last
element of the array.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 240
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic
▪ Example 5: Pointer Comparison

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 241
Pointer Expressions and Pointer Arithmetic

▪Programming Exercises:
1. Write a program that initializes integer values to an
array and displays the value of the array on the screen
using pointer notation and pointer arithmetic in C++.
2. Write a program that inputs values into an array and
displays the odd value of array on screen using pointer
notation and pointer arithmetic in C++.
3. Write a program that inputs value into array and
display in reverse order on screen using pointer
notation and pointer arithmetic in C++.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 242
Pointer and string

▪ Strings can also be declared using pointers.

▪ In the above example, since p stores the address of name[0], therefore

the value of *p equals the value of name[0] i.e., 'S'. So in while loop,
the first character gets printed and p++ increases the value of p by 1
so that now p+1 points to name[1]. This continues until the pointer
reaches the end of the string i.e., before *p becomes equal to '\0'.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 243
Pointers to Pointers
▪ A pointer to a pointer is a chain of pointers. When we define
a pointer to a pointer, the first pointer points to the second
pointer, and the second pointer points to the actual variable.
▪ To declare a pointer to a pointer, we use one unary operator
(*) for each level of chaining of pointers.

▪ In the following example, we created a variable var and two

pointers ptr1 and ptr2. The address of var was stored in ptr1,
while the address of ptr1 was stored in ptr2.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 244
Pointers to Pointers

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 245
Common Mistakes When Working With Pointers

▪ Let us now take a look at a few common mistakes people

make while using pointers.

▪ In the above example, var is a variable, not an address. So,

we need to write &var to store the address of var in ptr.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 246
Common Mistakes When Working With Pointers
▪ In the above example, *ptr denotes the value stored in the
variable var, while &var denotes the address of var. If we
want to store the value of var in *ptr, we need to
remove & from &var.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 247
Advantages of Using Pointers

▪Following are the advantages of using pointers:

• We can dynamically allocate and de-allocate memory
using pointers.
• Pointers are more efficient in handling arrays and data
tables.
• Pointers can be used to return multiple values from a
function. This can be done by passing the arguments
with their addresses and making changes to the
argument's values using pointers.
• Pointers are efficient in handling dynamic data
structures like linked lists, trees, etc.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 248
Conclusion

▪ Pointers can store the memory address of variables, other pointers,

and functions.
▪ We can pass arguments to a function in three ways: call by value, call
by reference with pointer argument, and call by reference with
reference argument.
▪ We can perform four arithmetic operations on arrays: increment,
decrement, addition, and subtraction.
▪ We can use the const keyword with pointers and we can iterate
through the elements of an array using pointers.
▪ A pointer may become invalid if it is not a NULL pointer, not
pointing to any object/memory, or pointing to an array index which
is out of bounds.
▪ Pointers without a data type are called void pointers. Additionally, we
can assign NULL to pointers.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 249
 Chapter Six
C++ Structures

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ 250
 Outline

▪ Introduction
▪ Defining the structure
▪ Accessing Structure Members
▪ Single Structure
▪ Arrays of Structure
▪ Structures as Function Arguments
▪ Pointers to Structs

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 251
 User Defined Data Types

▪ Structure
• Member of the structure
• Variables
• Functions

▪ Class
• Member of the class
• Variables
• Functions

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 252
 Introduction
• C++ struct, short for C++ Structure, is an user-
defined data type available in C++. It allows a user
to combine data items of (possibly) different data
types under a single name.

• C++ structs are different from arrays because

arrays only hold data of similar data-types; C++
struct, on the other hand,​ can store data of multiple
data-types.

• Each element in the structure is called a member.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 253
 How to create a structure?
▪ Syntax:

▪ C++ Structures can contains two types of members:

• Data Member: These members are normal C++
variables. We can create a structure with variables of
different data types in C++.
• Member Functions: These members are normal
C++ functions. Along with variables, we can also
include functions inside a structure declaration.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 254
 How to create a structure?
▪ Example:

▪ In the above structure, the data members are:

▪ three integer variables to store roll number, age and
marks of any student and
▪ the member function is printDetails() which is
printing all of the above details of any student.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 255
 How to declare structure variables?
▪ A structure variable can either be declared with
structure declaration or as a separate declaration
like basic types.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 256
 Access Structure Members
▪ To access members of a structure, use the dot syntax (.):
▪ Example: Assign data to members of a structure and
print it:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 257
 An array of structures
▪ Like other primitive data types, we can create an array
of structures.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 258
 Structures as function arguments

▪ In C++, we can pass a structure variable to a function as

argument like we pass any other variable to a function.
▪ Structure variable is passed using call by value.
▪ To take a structure variable as argument, function must
declare a structure argument in it's declaration.
▪ Any change in the value of formal parameter inside
function body, will not affect the value of actual
parameter.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 259
 Structures as function arguments
▪ Example:

▪ We can also pass address of a structure to a function. In

this case, any change in the formal parameter inside
function's body will reflect in actual parameter also. To
take a structure pointer as parameter a function declare
a structure pointer as it's formal parameter.

▪ Like any other inbuilt data type, we can also pass

individual member of a structure as function argument.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 260
 Structures as function arguments
Example:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 261
 Structures as function arguments
Example:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 262
 Structures as function arguments
Example: Output

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 263
 A structure pointer
▪ Like primitive types, we can have pointer to a structure.
If we have a pointer to structure, members are accessed
using arrow ( -> ) operator instead of the dot (.)
operator.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 264
 Chapter Seven
File Management in C++

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ 265
 What is File Handling in C++?

▪ File handling in C++ is a mechanism to store the output of a

program in a file and help perform various operations on it.
Files help store these data permanently on a storage device.
▪ The term “Data” is commonly referred to as known facts or
information. In the present era, data plays a vital role. It
helps to describe, diagnose, predict or prescribe. But to
achieve all this, we need to store it somewhere. You all
would argue that there are so many text editors like
‘Notepad’ and ‘MS Office’, which help us store data in the
form of text. You are right! But here we are discussing at a
level of programming. In contrast, text editors like ‘Notepad’
and ‘MS Office’ are pre-built and cannot be accessed at the
programming level to store data.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 266
 What is File Handling in C++?
▪ Almost every programming language has a ‘File
Handling’ method to deal with the storage of data.
In this article, we will learn about file handling in
C++. But, before that, if you are a newbie at C++, you
could check out this free course on C++ to learn the
basics.
▪ Now, This topic of file handling is further divided
into sub-topics:
• Create a file
• Open a file
• Read from a file
• Write to a file
• Close a file
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 267
 fstream library
▪ Before diving into each sub-topics, let us first learn about
the header file we will be using to gain access to the file
handling method.
▪ In C++, fstream library is used to handle files, and it is dealt
with the help of three classes:
• ifstream: This class helps create and write the data to the
file obtained from the program’s output. It is also known as
the input stream.
• ifstream: We use this class to read data from files and also
known as the input stream.
• fstream: This class is the combination of both ofstream
and ifstream. It provides the capability of creating, writing
and reading a file.
▪ To access the following classes, you must include the
fstream as a header file like how we declare iostream in the
header.
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 268
 File Operations in C++

▪ C++ provides us with four different operations for file

handling. They are:
• open() – This is used to create a file.
• read() – This is used to read the data from the file.
• write() – This is used to write new data to file.
• close() – This is used to close the file.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 269
 Opening files in C++
▪ To read or enter data to a file, we need to open it first.
This can be performed with the help of ‘ifstream’ for
reading and ‘fstream’ or ‘ofstream’ for writing or
appending to the file. All these three objects have
open() function pre-built in them.
▪ Syntax: open( FileName , Mode );
▪ FileName – It denotes the name of file which has to
be opened.
▪ Mode – There different mode to open a file and it
explained in the next slide.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 270
 Opening files in C++

▪ File opening modes:

1. ios::in - Opens an existing file for input
2. ios::out - Opens a file for output. This flag implies
ios::trunc if it is not combined with one of the flags
ios::in or ios::app or ios::ate.
3. ios::app - Opens a file for output at the end-of-file.
4. ios::trunc - An existing file is truncated to zero length.
5. ios::ate - Open and seek to end immediately after
opening. Without this flag, the starting position after
opening is always at the beginning of the file.
6. ios::binary - Perform input and output in binary mode.
7. ios::noreplace – open fails if the file already exist.
8. ios::nocreate - open fails if the file does not exist.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 271
 Opening files in C++

▪ Default settings when opening a file

▪ The constructor and the method open() of all
stream classes use the following default values:
Class Fags
• ifstream ios::in
• ofstream ios::out | ios::trunc
• fstream ios::in | ios::out

▪ In C++, we can use two modes simultaneously with

the help of | (OR) operator.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 272
 Opening files in C++
▪ Example:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 273
 Writing to file in C++

▪ Till now, we learned how to create the file using

C++. Now, we will learn how to write data to file
which we created before. We will use fstream or
ofstream object to write data into the file and to do
so; we will use stream insertion operator (<<) along
with the text enclosed within the double-quotes.

▪ With the help of open() function, we will create a

new file named ‘FileName’ and then we will set the
mode to ‘ios::out’ as we have to write the data to
file.
▪ Syntax: FileOpeningObject<<"Insert the text here";
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 274
 Writing to file in C++
▪ Example:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 275
 Reading from file in C++

▪ Getting the data from the file is an essential thing to

perform because without getting the data, we
cannot perform any task. But don’t worry, C++
provides that option too. We can perform the
reading of data from a file with the CIN to get data
from the user, but then we use CIN to take inputs
from the user’s standard console. Here we will use
fstream or ifstream.
▪ Syntax: FileOpeningObject<<variable;

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 276
 Reading from file in C++

▪ Example:

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 277
 Closing a file in C++

▪ When a C++ program terminates it automatically

flushes all the streams, release all the allocated
▪ memory and close all the opened files. But it is
always a good practice that a programmer should
▪ close all the opened files before program
termination. Following is the standard syntax for
close()
▪ function, which is a member of fstream, ifstream,
and ofstream objects.
▪ Syntax: [Link]();

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 278
 File Position Pointers
▪ When our program reads and writes files Randomly,
it treats the file like a big Array. with arrays, we know
we can add, print, or remove values in any order. we
don't have to start at the first array element,
sequentially looking at the Next one, until we get the
Element we need. We can view our
▪ Random-access-file in the same way, accessing the
data in any order. In Random Access file:
▪ We Can Read from Anywhere from the file.
▪ We Can Write to Anywhere in the file.
▪ We can Modify our record.
▪ We can Search any Record from file.
▪ And we can Delete Any record from file:
@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 279
 File Position Pointers
▪ Special function to move File-Pointer within the File:
Function Syntax Description
seekg() [Link]( We can move input pointer to a specified location
long_num, for reading by using this function. fileObject is the
origin); pointer to the file that we want to access. long_num
is the number of bytes in the file we want to skip.
and origin is a value that tells to compiler, where to
begin the skipping of bytes.
seekp() [Link]( We can move Output pointer to a specified location
long_num, by using this function. it's same like seekg()
origin); Function but in Case of writing:
tellg() [Link](); This function return the current position of Input
pointer. this function don't need any argument.
tellg() [Link](); This function return the current position of Output
pointer. this function don't need any argument.

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 280
 File Position Pointers
▪ origin from the syntax of file pointers is the value that
tells Compiler, where to begin the skipping of bytes
specified by long_num . Origin can be any of the three
values shown in the table below.
Function Description
bad() Returns True if an Error occurs while reading or writing
Operation. (Example: in case we try to write to a file that is
not open for writing or if the device where we try to write
has no space left).
fail() Returns true in the same cases as bad() plus in case that a
format error happens. (as trying to read an integer number
and an alphabetical character is received:).
eof() Returns true if a file opened for reading has reached the end.
good() Return False in the same cases in which calling any of the
previous functions would return true

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 281
 File Position Pointers
▪ origin from the syntax of file pointers is the value that
tells Compiler, where to begin the skipping of bytes
specified by long_num . Origin can be any of the three
values shown in the table below.
Function Syntax Description
ios::beg [Link] Go to Start: No matter how far into a file we
kg(0, have read, by using this Syntax, the file-
ios::beg); pointer will back to the beginning of the file.
ios::cur [Link] Stay at Current Position: Using this syntax,
kg(0, ios::cur); the filepointer will show its current
position.
ios::end [Link] Go to End of the file: using this syntax, the
kg(0, file-pointer will point to end of the file.
ios::end);

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 282
File Position Pointers – Examples

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 283
File Position Pointers – Examples

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 284
File Position Pointers – Examples

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 Error Handling in C++ Files
▪ In our each example, we are trying to use error checker to
avoid error, and it's really good for us and for our program.
C++ provides it's self some function, which can help us to
reduce our error in our program
Function Description
bad() Returns True if an Error occurs while reading or writing
Operation. (Example: in case we try to write to a file that is
not open for writing or if the device where we try to write
has no space left).
fail() Returns true in the same cases as bad() plus in case that a
format error happens. (as trying to read an integer number
and an alphabetical character is received:).
eof() Returns true if a file opened for reading has reached the end.
good() Return False in the same cases in which calling any of the
previous functions would return true

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 286
 Other Functions in C++ Files

1. Write(): This function is used with Output-Pointer

object to write the Block of data. Write() Function
uses the binary version of data instead of the text
version. when write() is used, each value is stored in
its binary format and each record is created to have a
fixed length. The write function takes three
arguments, first is Pointer to Character, the second is
Address of the object, and last the size of Object.
• Syntax: write( (char *) &Obj, sizeof(Obj));

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 287
 Other Functions in C++ Files
2. Read(): his function is used with Input-Pointer object
to read the block of data. It's same like read()
Function, but in sense of reading.
• Syntax: read( (char *) &Obj, sizeof(Obj));
3. Remove(): This Function is used to remove any file
from record. it take one argument, which is the file
Name to be delete.
• Syntax: read( (char *) &Obj, sizeof(Obj));
4. Rename(): This function is used to rename any file. it
take two argument, first is the Old Name of file, and
the other is New name for that file.
• Syntax: rename(Old_Name, New_Name);

@ WDU: WiT: School of Computing: Programming Chair 2023 Computer Programming in C++ Slide 288
 Thank You!!!
Any ???

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