/Modern-CPP-Programming

Modern C++ Programming Course (C++11/14/17/20)

Modern C++ Programming

C++11 / C++14 / C++17 / C++20 / (C++23)

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
  • 22 lectures, ~1500 slides
  • Include the last language standard concepts and features
  • Practical teaching: non-verbose, short structured descriptions associated with 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

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CHAPTERS

# TITLE MAIN FOCUS
1 Introduction History of C/C++, Areas of Applications, Course introduction
2 Basic Concepts I - Fundamental Types Types overview, operators, and conversion
3 Basic Concepts II - Integral and Floating-point Types Integral and floating-point types and their arithmetic
4 Basic Concepts III - Entities and Control Flow Enumerators, structures, control flow statements
5 Basic Concepts IV - Memory Management Heap, Stack, pointers, references, const properties, conversion operators
6 Basic Concepts V - Functions and Preprocessing Functions, lambda expressions, preprocessing directives
7 Object Oriented Programming I - Class Concepts Class hierarchy, constructor, destructor, class keywords
8 Object Oriented Programming II - Polymorphism and Operator Overloading Polymorphism, operators overloading
9 Templates and Meta-programming I - Function Templates and Compile-Time Utilities Function template, type traits
10 Templates and Meta-programming II - Class Templates and SFINAE Class template, SFINAE
11 Translation Units I Linkage and One Definition Rule
12 Translation Units II Dealing with multiple translation units and files,  #include, and modules
13 Code Conventions Project organization and main code conventions
14 Ecosystem I Debugging, and testing
15 Ecosystem II Cmake, documenting, and other Tools
16 Utilities Main std libraries
17 Containers, Iterators, and Algorithms Containers, iterators, algorithms, ranges
18 Advanced Topics I Move semantics, universal reference, type deduction
19 Advanced Topics II Error handling, C++ idioms, smart pointers
20 Optimization I - Basic Concepts Ahmdal Law, performance bounds, architecture concepts (ILP, SIMD, etc.), memory hierarchy
21 Optimization II - Code Optimization Arithmetic optimizations, memory optimizations, etc.
22 Optimization III - Non-Coding Optimizations and Benchmarking Compiler optimizations, profiling and benchmarking tools

ALL-IN-ONE BOOK: modern-cpp.pdf

TOPICS IN DETAILS

1. Introduction

  • A Little History of C/C++ Programming Languages
  • Areas of Application and Popularity
  • C++ Philosophy
  • C++ Weakness
  • 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
  • auto declaration
  • C++ Operators: Operators precedence, Prefix/Postfix increment/decrement, Assignment, Compound , and Comma operators, Spaceship operator <=> , Safe Comparison Operators

3. Basic Concepts II - Integral and Floating-point Types

  • Integral Data Types: Fixed width integers, size_t andptrdiff_t, When use signed/unsigned integer? Promotion, Truncation, Undefined behavior
  • Floating-point Types and Arithmetic: IEEE Floating-point Standard and Other Representations, Normal/Denormal values, Infinity, Not a Number (NaN), Machine Epsilon, Units at the Last Place (ULP), Cheatsheet, Summary, Arithmetic Properties, Detect Floating-point Errors
  • Floating-point Issues: Catastrophic cancellation, Floating-point comparison

4. Basic Concepts III - Entities and Control Flow

  • Enumerators
  • struct, Bitfield, union
  • Control Flow: if Statement, for Loop, Range-base for loop, switch, goto

5. Basic Concepts IV - Memory Management

  • Heap and Stack: Stack Memory, new, delete, Non-allocating placement allocation, Non-throwing allocation, Memory leak
  • Initialization: Variable initialization, Uniform initialization, Fixed-size array initialization, Structure initialization, Dynamic memory initialization
  • Pointers and References: Pointer Operations, Address-of operator &, Reference
  • Constant and Literals, const, constexpr, consteval, constinit, if constexpr, std::is constant evaluated(), if consteval
  • volatile keyword
  • Explicit Type Conversion: static_cast, const_cast, reinterpret_cast, Type punning
  • sizeof Operator

6. Basic Concepts V - Functions and Preprocessing

  • Declaration and Definition
  • Functions: Pass by-value, Pass by-pointer, Pass by-reference, Function signature and Overloading, Overloading and =delete, Default parameters, Attributes
  • Function Pointer and Function Objects
  • Lambda Expressions: Capture list, Other features, Capture list and classes
  • Preprocessing: Preprocessors, Common errors, Useful macro, Stringizing operator (#), #error and warning, #pragma, Token-Pasting Operator (##), Variadic Macro

7. Object-Oriented Programming I - Class Concepts

  • C++ Classes: RAII Idiom
  • Class Hierarchy: Access specifiers, Inheritance access specifiers
  • Class Constructor: Default constructor, Class initialization, Uniform initialization, Delegate constructor, explicit keyword, [[nodiscard]] and classes
  • Copy Constructor
  • Class Destructor
  • Defaulted Constructors, Destructor, and Operators (= default)
  • Class Keywords: this, static, const, mutable, using, friend, delete

8. Object-Oriented Programming II - Polymorphism and Operator Overloading

  • 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, Comparison operator <, Spaceship operator <=>, Subscript operator [], Multidimensional Subscript operator [], Function call operator (), static operator [] and operator (), Conversion operator T(), Return type overloading resolution, Increment and decrement operators ++/--, Assignment operator =, Stream operator <<, Operator Notes
  • C++ Special Objects: Aggregate, Trivial class, Standard-layout class, Plain old data (POD), Hierarchy

9. Templates and Meta-programming I - Function Templates and Compile-Time Utilities

  • Function Template: Overview, Template parameters, Template parameter - default value, Specialization, Overloading
  • Template Variable
  • Template Parameter Types: Generic Type Notes, auto Placeholder, Class template parameter type, Array and pointer types, Function type
  • Compile-Time Utilities: static_assert, decltype Keyword, using Keyword
  • Type Traits: Overview, Type traits library, Type manipulation

10. Templates and Meta-programming II -  - Class Templates and SFINAE

  • Class Template: Class specialization, Template class constructor
  • Class Template - Advanced Concepts: Class + Function - Specialization, Dependent Names - typename and template Keywords, Class template hierarchy and using, friend Keyword, Template Template Arguments
  • Template Meta-Programming
  • SFINAE: Substitution Failure Is Not An Error: Function SFINAE, Class SFINAE, Class + Function SFINAE
  • Variadic Template: Folding Expression, Variadic class template
  • C++20 Concepts: Overview, concept Keyword, requires Clause, requires Expression, requires Expression + Clause, requires Clause + Expression, requires and constexpr, Nested requires

11. Translation Units I

  • 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
  • Linkage Summary
  • Dealing with Multiple Translation Units: Class in multiple translation units
  • One Definition Rule (ODR): Global variable issues, ODR - Point 3, inline functions/variables, constexpr and inline
  • ODR - Function Template: Cases, extern keyword
  • ODR - Class Template: Cases, extern keyword
  • ODR Undefined Behavior and Summary

12. Translation Units II

  • #include Issues: Forward declaration, Include guard, Circular dependencies, Common linking errors
  • C++20 Modules: Overview, Terminology, Visibility and Reachability, Module unit types, Keywords, Global module fragment, Private module fragment, Header module unit, Module partitions
  • Namespace: Namespace functions vs. static methods, Namespace alias, Anonymous namespace, inline namespace, Attributes and namespace
  • Compiling Multiple Translation Units: Fundamental compiler flags, Compile Methods, Deal with libraries, Build static/dynamic libraries, Find dynamic library dependencies, Analyze object/executable symbols

13. Code Conventions

  • C++ Project Organization: Project directories, Project files, “Common” Project Organization Notes, Alternative - “Canonical” project organization
  • Coding Styles and Conventions
  • #include
  • Macro and Preprocessing
  • Namespace
  • Variables
  • Functions
  • Structs and Classes
  • Control Flow
  • Modern C++ Features
  • Maintainability
  • Naming
  • Readability and Formatting
  • Code Documentation

14. Ecosystem I

  • Debugging
  • Assertion
  • Execution debugging
  • Memory Debugging: valgrind, Stack protection
  • Sanitizers: Address sanitizer, Leak sanitizer, Memory sanitizers, Undefined behavior sanitizer
  • Debugging Summary
  • Compiler Warnings
  • Static Analysis
  • Code Testing: Unit test, Code coverage, Fuzz testing
  • Code Quality: clang-tidy

15. Ecosystem II

  • 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 - GitHub Co-Pilot/TabNine/Kite, Local code search - ripgrep, Code search engine - searchcode/grep.app, Code benchmarking - Quick-Bench, Font for Coding

16. Utilities

  • I/O Stream: Manipulator, ofstream/ifstream
  • Math Libraries
  • Strings: std::string, Conversion from/to numeric values, std::string_view, std::format, std::print
  • 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::byte std::pair, std::tuple, std::variant, std::optional, std::any
  • Filesystem Library: Query methods, Modify methods

17. 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, Container access methods, Iterator traits
  • Algorithms Library: std::find_if, std::sort, std::accumulate, std::generate, std::remove_if
  • C++20 Ranges: Key concepts, Range view, Range adaptor, Range factory, Range algorithms, Range actions

18. Advanced Topics I

  • 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
  • &, && Ref-qualifiers and volatile Overloading
  • Copy Elision and RVO
  • Type Deduction: Pass by-reference, Pass by-pointer, Pass by-value, auto deduction
  • const Correctness

19. Advanced Topics II

  • 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

20. Optimization I - Basic Concepts

  • Introduction: Moore’s Law, Moore’s Law limitations, Reasons for Optimizing
  • Basic Concepts: Asymptotic complexity, Time-Memory Trade-off, Developing Cycle, Ahmdal's law, Throughput, Bandwidth, Latency, Performance bounds, Arithmetic intensity
  • Basic Architecture Concepts: Instruction-level parallelism (ILP), Little’s law, Data-level parallelism (SIMD), Thread-level parallelism (TLP), Single Instruction Multiple Threads (SIMT), RISC, CISC Instruction sets
  • Memory Hierarchy: Memory hierarchy concepts, Memory locality

21. Optimization II - Code Optimization

  • I/O Operations: printf, Memory mapped I/O, Speed up raw data loading
  • Memory Optimizations: Heap memory, Stack memory, Cache utilization, data alignment, Memory Prefetch
  • Arithmetic: Data types, Operations, Conversion, Floating-point, Compiler intrinsic functions, Value in a range, Lookup table
  • Control Flow: Loop hoisting, Loop unrolling, Branch hints, Compiler hints, Recursion
  • Functions: Function call cost, Argument passing, Function optimizations, Function inlining, Pointers aliasing
  • C++ Objects: Object RAII optimizations
  • Std Library and Other Language Aspects

22. Optimization III - Non-Coding Optimizations and Benchmarking

  • Compiler Optimizations: About the compiler, Compiler optimization flags, Linker optimization flags, Architecture flags, Help the Compiler to produce better code, Profile guided optimization (PGO), Post-Processing Binary Optimizer
  • Compiler Transformation Techniques
  • Libraries and Data Structures: External libraries, Std library
  • Performance Benchmarking: What to test?, Workload/Dataset quality, Cache behavior, Stable CPU performance, Program, Multi-threads considerations, Program memory layout, Measurement overhead, Compiler optimizations, Metric evaluation
  • Profiling: gprof, uftrace, callgrind, cachegrind, perf Linux profiler
  • Parallel Computing: Concurrency vs. Parallelism, Performance scaling, Gustafson’s Law, Parallel programming languages

Roadmap

  1. Software Design Chapter
  2. 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 typo, conceptual error, or section to improve, please report them by using the issue panel.

Author

Federico Busato