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

If you enjoy the course or you find it useful, please add a Star

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
• C++ Operators: Operators precedence, Prefix/Postfix increment/decrement, Assignment, Compound , and comma operators, Spaceship operator <=>
• Integral Data Types: Fixed width integers, When use signed/unsigned integer? Promotion, Truncation, Undefined behavior
• Floating-point Types and Arithmetic: Normal/Denormal values, Not a Number (NaN), Infinity, Properties
• Floating-point Issues: Floating-point comparison, Catastrophic cancellation

3. Basic Concepts II - Entities and Control Flow

• Enumerators
• struct, union, and Bitfield
• using, decltype, and auto
• Control Flow: if Statement, for Loop, switch, goto

4. Basic Concepts III - Memory Management

• Heap and Stack: Stack Memory, new, delete, Memory Leak
• Initialization: Variable initialization, Uniform initialization, Structure initialization, Fixed-size array initialization, Dynamic array initialization
• Pointers and References: Pointer, 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, 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
• Class Hierarchy: Access specifiers, Inheritance access specifiers
• Class Constructor: Default constructor, Initializer list, 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(), 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: One Definition Rule (ODR), inline functions/variables, Class in multiple translation units, Global variable issues
• Function Template
• Class Template
• ORD 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

1. Complete C++20 topics
2. Software Design Chapter
3. 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 fbusato@nvidia.com
• Dept. of Computer Science, University of Verona, Italy federico.busato@univr.it
• Twitter: twitter.com/fedebusato
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/federico-busato/