Stroustrup - The C++ Programming Language

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Fourth Edition

Bjarne Stroustrup

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stroustrup, Bjarne.
The C++ programming language / Bjarne Stroustrup.Fourth edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-321-95832-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)ISBN 0-321-95832-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. C++ (Computer programming language) I. Title.
QA76.73.C153 S77 2013
005.133dc23 2013002159

Copyright 2013 by Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permissions, request forms and the appropriate contacts within the Pearson Education Global Rights & Permissions Department, please visit www.pearsoned.com/permissions/#.

This book was typeset in Times and Helvetica by the author.

ISBN-13: 978-0-321-95832-7
ISBN-10: 0-321-95832-2

Seventh printing, December 2017
7 17

All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection, except for the problem of too many layers of indirection.

David J. Wheeler

C++ feels like a new language. That is, I can express my ideas more clearly, more simply, and more directly in C++11 than I could in C++98. Furthermore, the resulting programs are better checked by the compiler and run faster.

In this book, I aim for completeness. I describe every language feature and standard-library component that a professional programmer is likely to need. For each, I provide:

Rationale: What kinds of problems is it designed to help solve? What principles underlie the design? What are the fundamental limitations?

Specification: What is its definition? The level of detail is chosen for the expert programmer; the aspiring language lawyer can follow the many references to the ISO standard.

Examples: How can it be used well by itself and in combination with other features? What are the key techniques and idioms? What are the implications for maintainability and performance?

The use of C++ has changed dramatically over the years and so has the language itself. From the point of view of a programmer, most of the changes have been improvements. The current ISO standard C++ (ISO/IEC 14882-2011, usually called C++11) is simply a far better tool for writing quality software than were previous versions. How is it a better tool? What kinds of programming styles and techniques does modern C++ support? What language and standard-library features support those techniques? What are the basic building blocks of elegant, correct, maintainable, and efficient C++ code? Those are the key questions answered by this book. Many answers are not the same as you would find with 1985, 1995, or 2005 vintage C++: progress happens.

C++ is a general-purpose programming language emphasizing the design and use of type-rich, lightweight abstractions. It is particularly suited for resource-constrained applications, such as those found in software infrastructures. C++ rewards the programmer who takes the time to master techniques for writing quality code. C++ is a language for someone who takes the task of programming seriously. Our civilization depends critically on software; it had better be quality software.

There are billions of lines of C++ deployed. This puts a premium on stability, so 1985 and 1995 C++ code still works and will continue to work for decades. However, for all applications, you can do better with modern C++; if you stick to older styles, you will be writing lower-quality and worse-performing code. The emphasis on stability also implies that standards-conforming code you write today will still work a couple of decades from now. All code in this book conforms to the 2011 ISO C++ standard.

This book is aimed at three audiences:

C++ programmers who want to know what the latest ISO C++ standard has to offer,

C programmers who wonder what C++ provides beyond C, and

People with a background in application languages, such as Java, C#, Python, and Ruby, looking for something closer to the machine something more flexible, something offering better compile-time checking, or something offering better performance.

Naturally, these three groups are not disjoint a professional software developer masters more than just one programming language.

This book assumes that its readers are programmers. If you ask, Whats a for-loop? or Whats a compiler? then this book is not (yet) for you; instead, I recommend my Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ to get started with programming and C++. Furthermore, I assume that readers have some maturity as software developers. If you ask Why bother testing? or say, All languages are basically the same; just show me the syntax or are confident that there is a single language that is ideal for every task, this is not the book for you.