Modern C++ Programming

C++11 / C++14 / C++17 / (C++20)

This open-access course is directed at those who are already familiar with C and object-oriented programming towards a proficiency level of C++ programming. The course covers the basics of C++ programming and moves on to advanced C++ semantics and concepts.

Key features:

Free and frequently updated
Include the last language standard concepts and features
Practical teaching: small structured descriptions associated to code
Minimal code examples for showing just a specific feature or issue without digressing
Complementary language aspects: tools, coding conventions, project organization, and code optimization
Experience-based: many aspects, examples, and problems come from real-world cases faced during my work as software engineer

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CHAPTERS

	TITLE	MAIN FOCUS
1	Introduction	History of C/C++, Areas of Applications, Course introduction
2	Basic Concepts I - Fundamental Types	Integral data types, floating-point, operators, and conversion
3	Basic Concepts II - Entities and Control Flow	Enumerators, structures, control flow statements
4	Basic Concepts III - Memory Management	Heap, Stack, pointers, references, const property, conversion operators
5	Basic Concepts IV - Functions and Preprocessing	Functions, lambda expressions, preprocessing directives
6	C++ Object Oriented Programming I	Class hierarchy, constructor, destructor, class keywords
7	C++ Object Oriented Programming II	Polymorphism, operators overloading
8	C++ Templates and Meta-programming I	Function template, type traits
9	C++ Templates and Meta-programming II	Class template, SFINAE
10	Translation Units	Dealing with multiple translation units and files, namespace
11	Code Conventions	Project organization and main code conventions
12	Ecosystem	Debugging, testing, building, documenting tools
13	Utilities	Main `std` libraries
14	Containers, Iterators, and Algorithms	Containers, iterators, algorithms
15	Advanced Topics	Move semantics, error handling, C++ idioms
16	Optimization I	Code optimizations, e.g. arithmetic, memory, etc.
17	Optimization II	Compiler optimizations, profiling and benchmarking tools

TOPICS

1. Introduction

A Little History of C/C++ Programming Languages
Areas of Application and Popularity
C++ Philosophy
Books and References
The Course

2. Basic Concepts I - Fundamental Types

Preparation: What compiler should I use?, What editor/IDE compiler should I use?, How to compile?
Hello World: I/O Stream
C++ Fundamental Types Overview: Arithmetic types, Non-standard arithmetic types, void type, Pointer type and nullptr
Conversion Rules
auto declaration
C++ Operators: Operators precedence, Prefix/Postfix increment/decrement, Assignment, Compound , and comma operators, Spaceship operator <=>
Integral Data Types: Fixed width integers and size_t, When use signed/unsigned integer? Promotion, Truncation, Undefined behavior
Floating-point Types and Arithmetic: Normal/Denormal values, Infinity, Not a Number (NaN), Summary, Properties
Floating-point Issues: Catastrophic cancellation, Floating-point comparison

3. Basic Concepts II - Entities and Control Flow

Enumerators
**struct, Bitfield, union
Control Flow: if Statement, for Loop, Range-base for loop, switch, goto

4. Basic Concepts III - Memory Management

Heap and Stack: Stack Memory, new, delete, Memory Leak
Initialization: Variable initialization, Uniform initialization, Fixed-size array initialization, Structure initialization, Dynamic array initialization
Pointers and References: Pointer Operations, Address-of operator &, Reference
const, constexpr, consteval, constinit
Explicit Type Conversion: static_cast, const_cast, reinterpret_cast, Type punning
sizeof Operator

5. Basic Concepts IV - Functions and Preprocessing

Declaration and Definition
Functions: Pass by-value, Pass by-pointer, Pass by-reference, Function signature and Overloading, Default parameters, Attributes
Function Objects and Lambda Expressions: Function pointer, Function object (or Functor), Capture list, Other features, Capture list and classes
Preprocessing: Preprocessors, Common errors, Useful macro, Stringizing operator (#), #pragma and #error, Token-Pasting Operator (##), Variadic Macro

6. C++ Object Oriented Programming I

C++ Classes: RAII Idiom
Class Hierarchy: Access specifiers, Inheritance access specifiers
Class Constructor: Default constructor, Class initialization, Uniform initialization, Delegate constructor, explicit keyword
Copy Constructor
Class Destructor
Defaulted Members (= default)
Class Keywords: this, static, const, mutable, using, friend, delete

7. C++ Object Oriented Programming II

Polymorphism: virtual methods, Virtual table, override keyword, final keyword, Common errors, Pure virtual method, Abstract class and interface
Inheritance Casting and Run-time Type Identification
Operator Overloading: Overview, Subscript operator [], Comparison operator <, Spaceship operator <=> Function call operator (), Conversion operator T(), Return type overloading resolution, Increment and decrement operators ++/--, Assignment operator =, Stream operator <<, Operator Notes
C++ Special Objects: Aggregate, Trivial class, Standard-layout class, Plain old data (POD), Hierarchy

8. C++ Templates and Meta-programming I

Function Template: Overview, Template parameters, Template parameter - default value, Specialization, Overloading, auto deduction
Compile-Time Utilities: static_assert, decltype Keyword, using Keyword
Type Traits: Overview, Type traits library, Type manipulation, Type relation and transformation
Template Parameters: Overview, Special cases

9. C++ Templates and Meta-programming II

Class Template: Class specialization, Class + Function - specialization, friend keyword, Dependent names, Template variable
Template Meta-Programming
SFINAE: Substitution Failure Is Not An Error: Function SFINAE, Class SFINAE, Class + Function SFINAE
Variadic Template: Folding Expression, Variadic Class Template

10. Translation Units

Basic Concepts: Translation unit, Local and global scope, Linkage
Storage Class and Duration: Storage duration, Storage class, static and extern keywords, Internal/External linkage examples, Linkage of const and constexpr, Static Initialization Order Fiasco
Dealing with Multiple Translation Units: Class in multiple translation units
One Definition Rule (ODR): Global variable issues,inline functions/variables
Function Template: Cases, extern keyword
Class Template: Cases, extern keyword
ODR and Undefined Behavior
#include Issues: Forward declaration, Include guard, Circular dependencies, Common linking errors
Namespace: Namespace functions vs. static methods, Namespace alias, Anonymous namespace, inline namespace
How to Compile: Compile strategies, Deal with libraries, Build static/dynamic libraries, Find dynamic library dependencies, Analyze object/executable symbols

11. Code Conventions

C++ Project Organization: Project directories, Project files, src/include directories
Coding Styles and Conventions
#include
Macro and Preprocessing
Namespace
Variables
Functions
Structs and Classes
Control Flow
Modern C++ Features
Maintainability
Naming and Formatting
Code Documentation

12. Ecosystem

Debugging: Assertion, Execution debugging (gdb)
Memory Debugging: valgrind, Stack protection
Sanitizers: Address sanitizer, Leak sanitizer, Memory sanitizers, Undefined behavior sanitizer
Debugging Summary
Code Checking and Analysis: Compiler warnings, Static analyzers
Code Testing: Unit test, Code coverage, Fuzz testing
Code Quality: clang-tidy
CMake: cmake and ctest
Code Documentation: doxygen
Code Statistics: Count lines of code, Cyclomatic complexity analyzer
Other Tools: Code formatting - clang-format, Compiler Explorer, Code transformation - CppInsights, Code autocompletion - TabNine/Kite, Local code search - ripgrep, Code search engine - searchcode/grep.app, Code exploration - SourceTrail, Code benchmarking - Quick-Bench, Font for Coding

13. Utilities

I/O Stream: Manipulator, ofstream/ifstream
Math Libraries
Strings: std::string, Conversion from/to numeric balues, std::string view, std::format
Random Number: Basic Concepts, C++ <random>, Seed, PRNG period and quality, Distribution, Quasi-random
Time Measuring: Wall-Clock time, User time, System time
Std Template Classes: std::pair, std::tuple, std::variant, std::optional, std::any
Filesystem Library: Query methods, Modify methods

14. Containers, Iterators, and Algorithms

Containers and Iterators
Sequence Containers: std::array, std::vector, std::list, std::deque, std::forward_list
Associative Containers: std::set, std::map, std::multiset
Container Adaptors: std::stack, std::queue, std::priority_queue
View: std::span
Implement a Custom Iterator: Semantic, Implement a simple Iterator
Iterator Utility Methods: std::advance, std::next, std::prev, std::distance, Range access methods, Iterator traits
Algorithms Library: std::find_if, std::sort, std::accumulate, std::generate, std::remove_if

15. Advanced Topics

Move Semantic: lvalues and rvalues references, Move semantic, Compiler implicitly declared, std::move
Universal Reference and Perfect Forwarding: Universal reference, Reference collapsing rules, Perfect forwarding
Value Categories
&, && Overloading - Ref-qualifiers
Copy Elision and RVO
Type Deduction: Pass by-reference, Pass by-pointer, Pass by-value
const Correctness
Undefined Behavior
Error Handling: C++ Exceptions, Defining custom exceptions, noexcept keyword, Memory allocation issues, Alternative error handling approaches
C++ Idioms: Rule of zero/three/five, Singleton, PIMPL, CRTP, Template Virtual Functions
Smart pointers: std::unique_ptr, std::shared_ptr, std::weak_ptr
Concurrency: Thread Methods, Mutex, Atomic, Task-based parallelism

16. Optimization I

General Concepts: Asymptotic complexity, Optimization cycle, Ahmdal's Law, Throughput, Bandwidth, Latency, Performance Bounds, Arithmetic Intensity
Basic Architecture Concepts: Instruction-level parallelism, Little’s Law, Data-level parallelism, thread-level parallelism, RISC, CISC Instruction sets
I/O Operations: printf, Memory Mapped I/O, Speed up raw data loading
Locality and Memory Access Patterns: Memory hierarchy, Memory locality, Internal structure alignment, External structure alignment
Arithmetic: Data types, Operations, Conversion, Floating-point, Compiler intrinsic functions, Value in a Range, Lookup Table
Control Flow: Loop hoisting, Loop unrolling, Branch hints, Recursion
Functions: Function call cost, Argument passing, Function optimizations, Function inlining, Pointers Aliasing
C++ Objects: C++ Objects Optimizations

17. Optimization II

Compiler Optimizations: About the compiler, Architecture flags, Optimization flags, Help the Compiler to produce better code, Profile guided optimization (PGO)
Compiler Transformation Techniques
Libraries and Data Structures: External libraries, Std library
Profiling: gprof, uftrace, callgrind, cachegrind, perf Linux profiler
Performance Benchmarking: What to test?, Workload/Dataset quality, Cache behavior, Stable CPU performance, Program memory layout
Parallel Computing: Concurrency vs. Parallelism, Performance scaling, Gustafson’s Law, Parallel programming languages

Roadmap

Complete C++20 topics
Software Design Chapter
Build Aspects Chapter (e.g. reducing build time)

Essential Tool

Online compiler and execution: CompilerExplorer

for code execution: [Add new..] -> [execution only]

Reporting bugs and contributing

If you find any typos, conceptual errors, or sections to improve, please report them by writing directly to me or by using the issue panel

Author

Federico Busato

Nvidia Corporation [email protected]
Dept. of Computer Science, University of Verona, Italy [email protected]
Twitter: twitter.com/fedebusato
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/federico-busato/