Programming language can be defined as a notation for writing programs. Programming languages are formal languages consisting of some strings that produce various kinds of machine code output. Programming languages are also known as Computer languages. These languages are used for the implementation of algorithms in computer programming. Most programming languages contain instructions for computers. Nowadays, thousands of programming languages have been created. C++ is a mid-level programming language for computers.
This programming language was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup in the early 1980s. C++ is based on the traditional programming language of computer “C”. But a lot of additions are done in C languages such as Object-Oriented Programming and many other capabilities. This programming language is a cross-platform language. Because of this feature, it can be used to create high-performance applications. C++ with Java has developed commercial software packages that integrate multiple interrelated applications. This programming language is nowadays considered one of the fastest languages.
How to Learn C++ Programming Language?
C++ is very much close to low-level computer programming languages. That allows complete control over memory allocations and memory management. All these features and capabilities also make C++ one of the difficult languages to handle on a large scale and to learn. This can be found in operating systems that are used today.
The most amazing thing about it is that If you are interested in learning this language it is complete fun. A lot of environments are used for C++ coding. This is easiest for everyone especially for students is DevC++. Visual Studio is also one of the easiest environments for coding C++.
If you want to use C++, you will need two things:
- A text editor likes notepad for writing C++ code.
- Compiler, for the translation of C++ code into a language that can be understood by the computer for its execution.
For a tutorial, let us create our first program.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std
int main()
{
cout<<” Hello world!”;
return 0; }
When you have written the statements of the program you can execute the program. If there is an error in the program you can debug that error by understanding it. If there is no error your output will be displayed on the screen. For your convenience, I will show the output.
Hello, world!
You cannot understand this until I explain this code. Let me explain this.
Line no. 1: #include <iostream> is a header file that allows us to input and output objects such as cout that is used in the program. Header files are used to add functionality to all C++ programs.
Line no 2: using namespace std is used to reuse names for objects and variables from the standard library.
Line no 3: we gave a space. White spaces are ignored by C++.
Line no 4: the thing that will always appear in every C++program is int main (). Anything inside curly brackets will be executed. In the next line, cout is an object that is used together with the insertion operator “<<” to output. “Hello world” is the output of the program that we wrote as a tutorial. Every C++ statement is terminated with a semicolon;
Line no 6: return 0 ends the main function.
This is the simplest program for your basic understanding. When you will start learning it your interest will automatically produce in learning more programming languages. A lot of keywords are used in C++. keywords are the words that are reserved. There are 32 keywords used in C++ such as auto, break, char, case, for, etc.
Types of errors
There can be five types of error in C++. The errors are following:
- Syntax error
- Run-time error
- Linker error
- Logical error
- Semantic error
Syntax errors
These types of errors are the errors that occur when you violate the rules of writing C++ code. Missing Parenthesis () or semicolon at the end of statement, printing value of a variable without discussing are the most frequent syntax errors.
Run-time errors
Such errors are defined as the errors that occur during the execution of the program even after successful compilation. The most common run time error is Division error. Such errors are very difficult to find as these are not pointed out by the compiler.
Linker error
Linker errors can be defined as all those errors that occur when we link different object files with the main’s object while executing the program. One of the most common linker errors is writing “Main” instead of “main”.
Logical error
The next type of error in C++ is Logical error. A logical error is an error that does not provide the desired output. In these errors, incorrect input is provided.
Semantic error
The last type of error of C++ is Semantic error. This kind of error occurs when statements of the program are not being mean to the compiler.
Features of C++
C++ has a lot of features but one of the most remarkable features is OOP. OOP stands for object-oriented programming. Object-oriented programming is a programming model of computers that organizes software design around data rather than functions and logic. Oop is a computer programming model that organizes software design around objects and data instead of functions and logic.
If an object is once known, then that object is labeled with a class of objects that defines the data that it consists of. And any logic sequences that can manipulate it. The principles of oop are four which are polymorphism, abstraction, inheritance, and encapsulation. In short, we can say that oop allows programmers to think of software developments as if they are working with their life entities.
Careers in C++
There are extensive opportunities for all the candidates who are good with C++ programming language. I will tell you about the different jobs like:
- Game Programmer
- Junior Programmer
- Senior Programmer
- Quality Analyst
- Software developers
- C/C++ Analysts
- Programming Architects
- Software Developer Engineers