C++ Common Knowledge: Essential Intermediate Programming

Item 1. Data Abstraction A "type" is a set of operations, and an "abstract data type" is a set of operations with an implementation....

Item 2. Polymorphism The topic of polymorphism is given mystical status in some programming texts and is ignored in others, but it's a simple,...

Item 3. Design Patterns Anyone who is not already familiar with design patterns may, after a brief survey of the field, come away with...

Item 4. The Standard Template Library A short description of the standard template library (STL) cannot do its design justice. What follows is an...

Item 5. References Are Aliases, Not Pointers A reference is another name for an existing object. Once a reference is initialized with an object,...

Item 6. Array Formal Arguments Array formal arguments are problematic. The major surprise in store for the C/C++ novice is that there are no...

Item 7. Const Pointers and Pointers to Const In casual conversation, C++ programmers will often say "const pointer" when they really mean "pointer to...

Item 8. Pointers to Pointers It's legal to declare a pointer to a pointer. This is what the C++ standard calls a "multilevel" pointer....

Item 9. New Cast Operators There's something sneaky and underhanded about old-style casts. Their syntax is such that they can often pass unnoticed in...

Item 10. Meaning of a Const Member Function Technically, const member functions are trivial. Socially, they can be complex. The type of the this...

Item 11. The Compiler Puts Stuff in Classes C programmers are used to knowing everything there is to know about the internal structure and...

Item 12. Assignment and Initialization Are Different Initialization and assignment are different operations, with different uses and different implementations. Let's get it absolutely straight....

Item 13. Copy Operations Copy construction and copy assignment are different operations. Technically, they have nothing to do with each other, but socially they...

Item 14. Function Pointers It's possible to declare a pointer to a function of a particular type. void (*fp)(int); // ptr to function Note...

Item 15. Pointers to Class Members Are Not Pointers It's unfortunate that pointers to class members have the term "pointer" in their descriptions, because...

Item 16. Pointers to Member Functions Are Not Pointers When you take the address of a non-static member function, you don't get an address;...

Item 17. Dealing with Function and Array Declarators The main confusion with pointer to function and pointer to array declarations arises because the function...

Item 18. Function Objects Often you'll need something that behaves like a function pointer, but function pointers tend to be unwieldy, dangerous, and (let's...

Item 19. Commands and Hollywood When a function object is used as a callback, that's an instance of the Command pattern. What's a callback?...

Item 20. STL Function Objects How did we ever get by without the STL? Not only is it easier and faster to write complex...

Item 21. Overloading and Overriding Are Different Overloading and overriding have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. Nothing. They are entirely different concepts....

Item 22. Template Method The Template Method pattern has nothing whatsoever to do with C++ templates. Rather, it's a way for a base class...

Item 23. Namespaces Global scope was getting overly crowded. Everybody and his brother implemented libraries that reused the same names for different classes and...

Item 24. Member Function Lookup When you call a member function, there are three steps involved. First, the compiler looks up the name of...

Item 25. Argument Dependent Lookup Namespaces have a pervasive influence on modern C++ programs and designs (see Namespaces [23, 81]). Some of these influences...

Item 26. Operator Function Lookup Sometimes it looks like a member operator function overloads a non-member operator, but this is not the case. It's...

Item 27. Capability Queries Most times when an object shows up for work, it's capable of performing as required, because its capabilities are advertised...

Item 28. Meaning of Pointer Comparison In C++, an object can have multiple, valid addresses, and pointer comparison is not a question about addresses....

Item 29. Virtual Constructors and Prototype Suppose you find yourself in a Swedish restaurant, and you'd like to order a meal. Unfortunately, your knowledge...

Item 30. Factory Method A high-level design often requires the creation of an object of the "appropriate" type, based on the type of an...

Item 31. Covariant Return Types Generally, an overriding function must have the same return type as the function it overrides: class Shape { public:...

Item 32. Preventing Copying Access specifiers (public, protected, and private) can be used to express and enforce higher-level constraints on how a type may...

Item 33. Manufacturing Abstract Bases Abstract base classes typically represent abstract concepts from the problem domain, and therefore it doesn't make sense to declare...

Item 34. Restricting Heap Allocation Sometimes it's a good idea to indicate that objects of a particular class should not be allocated on the...

Item 35. Placement New It's impossible to call a constructor directly. However, we can trick the compiler into calling a constructor for us through...

Item 36. Class-Specific Memory Management If you don't like the way standard operator new and operator delete are treating one of your class types,...

Item 37. Array Allocation Most C++ programmers know to keep the array and nonarray forms straight when allocating and deallocating memory. T *aT =...

Item 38. Exception Safety Axioms Writing an exception safe program or library is a little like proving a theorem in Euclidean geometry. Starting with...

Item 39. Exception Safe Functions The hard part about writing exception safe code isn't the throwing or catching of exceptions; it's everything in between....

Item 40. RAII The C++ community has a long and proud tradition of inscrutable abbreviations and odd names for techniques. RAII manages to attain...

Item 41. New, Constructors, and Exceptions To write perfectly exception safe code, it's necessary to keep track of any allocated resources and to be...

Item 42. Smart Pointers We C++ programmers are a loyal bunch. Whenever we're faced with a situation that requires a feature the language doesn't...

Item 43. auto_ptr Is Unusual Whenever one discusses RAII, it's necessary to discuss auto_ptr. This is always a task. It's not that we're ashamed...

Item 44. Pointer Arithmetic Pointer arithmetic is straightforward. To understand the nature of pointer arithmetic in C++, it's best to consider a pointer into...

Item 45. Template Terminology Precise use of terminology is always important in any technical field, particularly in programming, most particularly in C++ programming, and...

Item 46. Class Template Explicit Specialization Class template explicit specialization is straightforward. First, you need a general case to specialize. This general case is...

Item 47. Template Partial Specialization Let's get it straight: you can't partially specialize function templates. It's just not a part of the C++ language...

Item 48. Class Template Member Specialization A common misconception about class template explicit specialization and partial specialization is that a specialization somehow "inherits" something...

Item 49. Disambiguating with Typename Even experienced C++ programmers are often put off by the rather complex syntax required to program with templates. Of...

Item 50. Member Templates Class templates have members that are not themselves templates, and many of these members can be defined outside the class....

Item 51. Disambiguating with Template In Disambiguating with Typename [49, 169], we saw how it is sometimes necessary to tell the compiler explicitly that...

Item 52. Specializing for Type Information Class template explicit specialization and partial specialization are commonly used to produce versions of a primary class template...

Item 53. Embedded Type Information How do we know the type of a container's elements? template <typename T> class Seq { //... }; At...

Item 54. Traits Sometimes it's not enough to know just an object's type. Often, there is information related to the object's type that is...

Item 55. Template Template Parameters Let's pick up the Stack template we considered in Specializing for Type Information [52, 183]. We decided to implement...

Item 56. Policies In Specializing for Type Information [52, 183], we designed a stack template that deleted any remaining elements left in the stack...

Item 57. Template Argument Deduction Class templates must be specialized explicitly. For example, if we want to specialize the Heap container discussed in Class...

Item 58. Overloading Function Templates Function templates can be overloaded with other function templates and with nontemplate functions. This capability is useful but easy...

Item 59. SFINAE In attempting to use function template argument deduction to select among a number of overloaded function templates and nontemplate functions, the...

Item 60. Generic Algorithms A generic algorithm is a function template that is designed in such a way that it can be easily and...

Item 61. You Instantiate What You Use In both C and C++, if you don't call a declared function (or take its address), you...

Item 62. Include Guards Production C++ applications tend to use a lot of header files, and many header files include other header files. Under...

Item 63. Optional Keywords Some keyword usage is strictly optional from the perspective of the C++ language, though other considerations may argue for their...