Computer Programming

SECT-M1082
Chapter 2
C++ Basics
SECT-M1082
 Variables
• Programs manipulate data such as numbers and letters.
• C++ and other programming languages use variable to
name and store data.
• Variables are at the heart of any programming languages.
• The number or other type of data held by the variable is
called value.
• In programming languages, variables are implemented as
Memory locations.
• The complier will assign a memory location to each
variable name in the program.
• The value of the variable is kept in the memory location
assigned to that variable.

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 Identifiers
• The name of the variable is called an identifiers.
• An identifiers must start with a letter or an underscore _ and
all the rest of the characteristics must be letters, digits or the
underscore symbol.
• C++ is a case-sensitive language
• It distinguishes between upper and lower case letters in an
identifier.
• For Example:
Rate RATE rate
This are three distinct variable but it is not advised to use
such identifiers as they might be confusing.

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 Rules for writing an Identifier
1. The first letter should be either be a letter or
underscore
2. Identifiers shouldn’t be keywords
 Keywords or Reserved words are words that have
predefined meaning in C++, which means they’re defined in
the libraries.
Example: cin , cout, int, include

3. To make your program easy to understand, you should

always use meaningful names for variables.
Example:
If you are declaring a variable to hold an age of a person it is
better if you name it age than naming it x or ag.

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 Variable Declarations
• When you declare a variable you are telling the complier and ultimately the computer what kind
of data you will be storing in the variable.
Example:
int number_of_bars;
double one_weight , total_weight;
• The word int is abbreviation for integer. This line declares that the identifier number_of_bars to
be a variable of type int.
• The word double declares the two identifiers one_weight and total_weight to be varibles of type
double.
• When there is more than one declarations they are separated by comma.
• Note that each declarations end with a semicolon.
Example:
int number_of_bars, total_quantity, days_left;
• NOTE: All variables must be declared before use.

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 Variable Assignment
• Assignment Statement :A direct way to change the value of variable.
An assignment statement is an order to the computer saying “set the value of this variable to what I have written down. ”
For example:
total_weight = one_weight * number_of_bars;
This assignment statement tells the computer to set the value of total_weight equal to the number in the variable
one_weight multiplied by the number in number_of_bars.
• A variable can be initialized at the time of declaration.
• An assignment statement always consists of:
• a variable on the left-side of the equal sign
• an expression on the right-side.
• ends with a semicolon.
Examples of assignment:
int a = 10;
total_weight = 6;
total_weight = one_weight;
total_weight = one_weight + 3;

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 Constants
• In programming there are constant values we face over time that don’t change throughout life of the program
or are important to the program that the values don’t change.
• Named constants are constants that are created or named by the programmer.
• To declare a constant variable the keyword const must be used.
• When using the const keyword it declares the variable as "constant", which means unchangeable and read-
only.
Example:
const int myNum = 15; // myNum will always be 15
myNum = 10; // error: assignment of read-only variable 'myNum'

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 Input and Output
• An input stream is the stream of input that is being fed into the computer for the program to use.
• Input is fed to the program by using cin keyword.
• Used to accept an input from user
For example
cin >> firstname
• An output stream is the stream of output generated by the program.
• Program output is streamed by using cout keyword.
- Used to stream an output from the program to the screen.
- For example
cout << ”Please enter your name: ”;
cout << “the total cost is $” << (price + tax);
cout << first name << “ “ << second number;
• The arrow notation << is often called the insertion operation.

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 Include Directives and Namespaces
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
• These two lines make the library iostream available.
• iostream is the library that includes the definition of cin and cout among other things. The operations of cin
and cout is defined in this file.
• C++ divides name into namespaces.
• A namespace is a collection of names, such as the names cin and cout.
using namespace std;
• This statement says that your program is using the std (standard) namespace.

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 Escape Sequences
• The \ preceding a character tells the compiler that the character following the \ does not have the
same meaning as the character appearing by itself.
• Such a sequence is called an escape sequence.
• The sequence is typed in as two characters with no space between the symbols.

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 Data Type
• All variables use data-type during declaration to
restrict the type of data to be stored.
• Data types are used to tell the variables the type of
data it can store.
• Whenever a variable is defined in C++, the
compiler allocates some memory for that variable
based on the data-type with which it is declared.
• Every data type requires a different amount of memory.
• Data-types are classified into three:
1. Primitive or Primary Data Types
2. Derived Data Types
3. Abstract or User-Defined Data Types

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 Data-type
1. Primitive Data Types
• These data types are built-in or predefined data types.
• It can be used directly by the user to declare variables.
• Primitive data types available in C++ are:
 Integer
 Character
 Boolean
 Floating Point
 Double Floating Point
 Valueless or Void
 Wide Character

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 Data-type
2. Derived Data Types:
• The data-types that are derived from the primitive or built-in datatypes are referred to as Derived Data
Types.
• These can be of four types namely:
 Function
 Array
 Pointer
 Reference

3. Abstract or User-Defined Data Types:

• These data types are defined by user itself.
• C++ provides the following user-defined datatypes:
 Class
 Structure
 Union
 Enumeration
 Typedef defined DataType

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 Primitive Data Type
• Integer:
 Keyword used for integer data types is int.
 Integers typically require 4 bytes of memory space.
 It ranges from -2147483648 to 2147483647.
• Character:
 Used for storing characters.
 Keyword used for character data type is char.
 Characters typically requires 1 byte of memory space .
 It ranges from -128 to 127 or 0 to 255.
• Boolean:
 Used for storing logical values.
 A Boolean variable can store either true or false.
 Keyword used for Boolean data type is bool.

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 Primitive Data Type
• Floating Point:
 Used for storing single precision floating point values or decimal values.
 Keyword used for floating point data type is float.
 Float variables typically requires 4 byte of memory space.
• Double Floating Point:
 Used for storing double precision floating point values or decimal values.
 Keyword used for double floating point data type is double.
 Double variables typically requires 8 byte of memory space.
• Valueless or Void:
 Void means without any value.
 Void datatype represents a valueless entity.
 Void data type is used for those function which does not return a value.
• Wide Character:
 Wide character data type is also a character data type but this data type has size greater than the normal 8-bit datatype.
 Represented by wchar_t.
 It is generally 2 or 4 bytes long.

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 Data Type Modifiers
• A modifier is used to alter the meaning of the base
type so that it more precisely fits the needs of
various situations.
• C++ allows the char, int, and double data types to
have modifiers preceding them.
• There are four type modifiers in C++
 short
 long
 signed
 unsigned

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 Data Type Modifiers

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 Operators
• An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific
mathematical or logical manipulations.
Arithmetic Operators
Assignment Operator
Compound Assignment Operators
Relational or Comparison Operators
Logical Operators
Bitwise Operators

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 Arithmetic Operators

• Arithmetic operators are used to make mathematical or arithimetic operation on the operands.

• All of the arithmetic operators can be used with numbers of type int, double, and even with one
number of each type.

• If both operands (that is, both numbers) are of type int, then the result of combining them with
an arithmetic operator is of type int.

• If one, or both, of the operands is of type double, then the result is of type double.

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 Arithmetic Operators
• There are two types of arithmetic operators.
1. Binary operators have two operands.
• Operators that work with two operands.

2. Unary operators have only one operand.

• One of the unary operators are + and –. Both are used in the expressions to show the sign of the
number.
Example: +7 and −7.

• The C++ language has two other very common unary operators, ++ and --.
• The ++ operator is called the increment operator.
• The -- operator is called the decrement operator.

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 Arithmetic Operators

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 Compound Assignment Operators

• = is called an assignment operator.

• When an assignment operator is
used with arithmetic, comparison
or bitwise operator we call it
compound assignment operator.

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 Compound Assignment Operators

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 Relational or Comparison Operators

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 Logical Operators

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 Bitwise Operators

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 Post fix and Prefix
• Postfix - returns the value and then performs the operation
Example:
int a = 2;
cout <<a; //this gives out 2
cout<<a++; //this gives out 2
cout<<a; //this gives out 3

• Prefix - performs the operation and returns the value

Example:
int a = 2;
cout <<a; //this gives out 2
cout<<++a; //this gives out 3
cout<<a; //this gives out 3

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 Precedence Rule
• Operations in parentheses will ALWAYS come first.
• When parentheses are omitted from an expression, the computer groups
items according to rules knowns as precedence rules.
• If one operation is evaluated before another, the operation that is evaluated
first is said to have higher precedence.

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 Precedence Rule

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 Program Style
• A program that is written with careful attention to style is
 easier to read,

 easier to correct and

 easier to maintain or change.

• The recommended program style is to use:

 Indentation

 Comments

 Named constants where needed.

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 Program Style

• Indenting
• Indenting means using tabs and spaces to make the code we write clear.

• Indenting can help to make the structure of the program clearer.

• A statement within a statement should be indented.

• Use 4 space indentation or tab, and indent only one level for each nested if, while, or switch.

• Place the opening brace { at the end of the first line of the if, while, struct, etc.

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 Program Style
A program with bad indentation A program with good indentation
int Test(int number){int count;for (count = 1; count < int Test(int number)
MAX;count++) {if (number+1 > i && number-1 < count)
{
{printf("hello\n");}else {printf("goodbye\n");}number =
number + 1;}count = number;while (count > int count;
MAX)count = count - DECREMENT;}
for (count = 1; count < MAX; count++) {
if (number+1 > i && number-1 < count) {
printf("hello\n");
}
else {
printf("goodbye\n");
}
number = number + 1;
}

count = number;
while (count > MAX)
count = count - DECREMENT;
}

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 Program Style
• Comments
• In order to make a program understandable, you should include some explanatory
notes at key places in the program. Such notes are called comments.
• C++ and most other programming languages have provisions for including such
comments within the text of a program.
• There are two types of comments in C++
 Single line comment:
Can be added at the beginning, on a new line and after a code
//single line comment
 Multi-line comment
/* multi line comment
Another line comment
*/

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 Program Style

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 Thank you!

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