Stephen R. Davis
Beginning Programming with C++ For Dummies®
Beginning Programming with C++ For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
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Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2014937186
ISBN 978-1-118-82387-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-82389-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-82393-4 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Introduction
Welcome to Beginning Programming with C++ For Dummies, Second Edition. This book is intended for the reader who wants to learn to program.
Somehow over the years, programming has become associated with mathematics and logic calculus and other complicated things. I never quite understood that. Programming is a skill like writing advertising or drawing or photography. It does require the ability to think a problem through, but I’ve known some really good programmers who had zero math skills. Some people are naturally good at it and pick it up quickly, others not so good and not so quick. Nevertheless, anyone with enough patience and “stick-to-itiveness” can learn to program a computer. Even me.
Learning to program necessarily means learning a programming language. This book is based upon the C++ programming language. Versions of the suggested compiler for Windows and Macintosh are included with the online materials accompanying this book. Linux versions are available for download at www.codeblocks.org. (Don’t worry: I include step-by-step instructions for installing the package and building your first program in the book.)
The goal of this book is to teach you the basics of programming in C++, not to inundate you with every detail of the C++ programming language. At the end of this book, you’ll be able to write a reasonably sophisticated program in C++. You’ll also be in a position to quickly grasp a number of other similar languages, such as Java and C#.NET.
In this book, you discover what a program is, how it works, plus how to do the following:
✔ Install the Code::Blocks C++ compiler and use it to build a program.
✔ Create and evaluate expressions.
✔ Direct the flow of control through your program.
✔ Create data structures that better model the real world.
✔ Define and use C++ pointers.
✔ Manipulate character strings to generate output the way you want to see it.
✔ Write to and read from files.
I try to make very few assumptions in this book about the reader, but I do assume the following:
✔ You have a computer. Most readers will have computers that run Windows; however, the programs in this book run equally well on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Unix. In fact, because C++ is a standardized language, these programs should run on any computer that has a C++ compiler.
✔ You know the basics of how to use your computer. For example, I assume that you know how to run a program, copy a file, create a folder, and so on.
✔ You know how to navigate through menus. I include lots of instructions such as “Click File and then click Open.” If you can follow that instruction, then you’re good to go.
✔ You are new to programming. I don’t assume that you know anything about programming. Heck, I don’t even assume that you know what programming is.
To help you navigate this book as efficiently as possible, I use a few conventions:
✔ C++ terms and other such items you see in computer code are in monofont typeface, like this.
✔ New terms are emphasized with italics (and defined).
✔ Numbered steps that you need to
