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

Software Design Chapter
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

Twitter: twitter.com/fedebusato
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/federico-busato/

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