C++ Programming

this pointer
 C++ uses a unique keyword called this to represent an object that
invokes a member function.
 this is a pointer that points to the object for which the function was
called
 This pointer is automatically passed to the member function when it
is called.

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 C++ streams
 A stream is a sequence of bytes.
 The source stream that provides data to the program is called input
stream
 The destination stream that receives output from the program is
called output stream.
 In C++, cin represents the input stream connected to the standard
input device and cout represents the output stream connected to the
output device.

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 C++ stream classes
 ios is the base class for istream(Input Stream) and ostream(Output
Stream) which are in turn base classes for iostream.
 ios class provides the basic support for formatted and unformatted
I/O operations
 istream class provides the facilities for formatted and unformatted
input while ostream class provides the facilities for formatted output .
 iostream class provides the facilities for handling both input and
output streams
 These classes are declared in the header file iostream. .

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 Unformatted I/O operations
 >> operator with cin
 << operator with cout
 The classes istream and ostream defines two member functions get()
and put() respectively to handle the single character I/O operations.
char ch;
[Link](ch);
ch=[Link]();
[Link](ch);

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 Unformatted I/O operations
 getline() function reads a whole line of text that ends with a newline
character.
[Link](line,size);
The reading is terminated as soon as either the newline character is
encountered or size-1 characters are read.
 write() function displays a line of text
[Link](line,size)
 The first argument represents the name of the string to be displayed
and the second argument indicates the number of characters to
display
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 Formatted I/O operations
 The ios class contains a large number of member functions that will
format the output
 width()
 precision()
 fill()
 setf()
 unsetf()

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 Formatted I/O operations
 width()
– width() function is used to define the width of a field necessary for the output
of an item
– [Link](w) where w is the field width
– The output will be printed in a field of w characters wide at the right end of the
field

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 Formatted I/O operations
 precision()
– precision() function is used to specify the number of digits to be displayed after
the decimal point
– [Link](d) where d is the number of digits to the right of the decimal
point
 fill()
– fill() function is used to fill the unused positions by any desired character
– [Link](ch) where ch represents the character which is used for filling the
unused positions

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 Formatted I/O operations
 setf()
– [Link](arg1,arg2) where arg1 is the formatting flags defined in the class ios
and arg2 known as the bit field specifies the group to which the formatting flag
belongs

 unsetf()
– [Link](arg1) where arg1 is the formatting flags defined in the class ios

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 Formatted I/O operations
Format Required Flag(arg1) Bit-field(arg2)
Left justified output ios::left ios::adjustfield
Right justified output ios::right ios::adjustfield
Padding after sign or base ios::internal ios::adjustfield
indicator l(like -####20)
Scientific notation ios::scientific ios::floatfield
Fixed Point notation ios::float ios::floatfield
Decimal base ios::dec ios::basefield
Octal base ios::oct ios::basefield
HexaDecimal base ios::hex ios::basefield

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 Managing output with Manipulators
 The header file iomanip provides a set of functions called
manipulators which can be used to manipulate the output
formats.
 They provide the same features as that of the ios member
functions and flags

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 Managing output with Manipulators
 The most commonly used manipulators are:
– setw(int w)
• set the field width to w
– setprecision(int d)
• set the floating point precision to d
– setfill(char c)
• set the fill character to c
– setiosflags(long f)
• set the format flag f
– resetiosflags(long f) // clear the flag specified by f
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 File stream classes
 There are 3 classes for handling files
– ifstream – for handling input files
– ofstream – for handling output files
– fstream – for handling files on which both input and output can be performed
 These classes are derived from fstreambase and from classes declared
in the header file iostream.
 All these classes are declared in the header file fstream

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 Opening and Closing of files
 To process a file, the file must be opened.
 In C++, a file can be opened using the following:
– Constructor of the class
• Create a file stream object to manage the stream using the appropriate class and initialize the
file object with the desired filename.
• Eg: ofstream obj(“[Link]”)
– open() method
• open() can be used to open multiple files that use the same stream object
• filestreamclass stream_object;
• stream_object.open(“filename”)

 The files can be closed using close() function

– [Link]() where obj is the filestream object
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 End of file
 An ifstream object, returns a value of 0 if any error occurs in the file
operation including the end-of-file condition
while(fin)
 The while loop terminates when fin returns a value of zero on
reaching the end of file condition
 eof() function of ios class returns a non-zero value if the end of ile
condition is encountered and a zero otherwise
if([Link]()!=0) { …..} where fin is a file object

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 File modes
 File modes are specified as the second argument to the open()
function.
 Most commonly used file modes are
– ios :: in
• This opens the file in input mode. If the file does not exist , open() function returns
a null pointer
– ios : :out
• This opens the file in output mode. If the file does not exist , a new file will be created and if
the file exists, the file will be used after erasing the existing contents of the file
– ios :: app
• This opens the file in append mode. If the file does not exist , a new file will be created and if
the file exists, the new contents will be written from the end of file.

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 put() and get() functions
 put() function writes a single character to the associated
stream.
– [Link](character)
 get() function reads a single character from the associated
stream
– [Link](character) or character=[Link]()

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 read() and write() functions
 read() and write() functions handles the data in binary form
 Syntax of read() and write() functions are as follows
[Link]((char *) &object, sizeof(object))
[Link]((char *) &object, sizeof(object))

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 Exception Handling
 Exceptions are runtime anomalies or unusual conditions that a
program may encounter while executing.
 C++ exception handling mechanism is usually built upon 3 keywords
namely try, catch and throw.
 The keyword try is used to preface a block of statements which may
generate exceptions.

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 Exception Handling
 The keyword try is used to preface a block of statements which may
generate exceptions. This block of statements is known as try block.
 When an exception is detected, it is thrown using a throw statement in
the try block.
 The point at which the throw is executed is called the throw point.
 A catch block defined by the keyword catches the exception thrown
by the throw statement in the try block and handles it appropriately.
 The catch block that catches an exception must immediately follow
the try block that throws the exception.

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 Exception Handling
try
{……………
throw exception;
……….
}
catch(type arg)
{
…………
}
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 Throwing Mechanism
 When an exception that is desired to be handled is detected, it is
thrown using the throw statement in one of the following forms
– throw(exception);
– throw exception;
– throw;
 When an exception is thrown, it will be caught by the catch statement
associated with the try block.

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 Throwing Mechanism
 When an exception that is desired to be handled is detected, it is
thrown using the throw statement in one of the following forms
– throw(exception);
– throw exception;
– throw;
 When an exception is thrown, it will be caught by the catch statement
associated with the try block.

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 Catching Mechanism
 catch(type arg)
{ //statements for managing exceptions
}
 The type indicates the type of exception that catch block handles.

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 Multiple Catch Statements
 We can associate more than one catch statement with a try statement.
try{ // try block }
catch(type1 arg){ //catch block}
catch(type2 arg){ //catch block}
……………
catch(typen arg){ //catch block}

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 Multiple Catch Statements
 When an exception is thrown, the exception handlers are searched in
order for an appropriate match.
 The first handler that yields a match is executed.
 After executing the handler, the control goes to the first statement
after the last catch block for that try.
 When no match is found, the program is terminated.

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 Catch All Exceptions
 To define a catch statement to catch all exceptions instead of a certain
type, the catch statement should be defined as follows:
catch(…)
{
//Statements for processing all exceptions
}

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 Rethrowing an Exception
 A handler may decide to rethrow the exception caught without
processing it.
 For such cases, throw is called without any arguments as shown below
throw;
 This causes the current exception to be thrown to the next enclosing
try/catch sequence and is caught by a catch statement listed after that
enclosing try block.

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 Specifying Exceptions
 A function can be restricted to throw only certain exceptions by
adding a throw list clause to the function definition.
type function(arg-list) throw (type-list)
{ //function body }
 The type-list specifies the type of exceptions that may be thrown.
 Throwing any other type of exception will cause abnormal program
termination.

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 Templates
 Templates enable to define generic classes and functions and thus
provides support for Generic Programming
 Generic Programming is an approach where generic types are used as
parameters so that they can work for a variety of suitable data types
and data structures

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 Class Templates
template<class T>
class classname
{ …….. //body of the class };
 The template keyword in the class definition tells the compiler that a template is
being declared and use T as a typename in the declaration.
 We can use the generic type for declaring instance variables and in member
functions
 While creating objects of class templates we have to pass the appropriate data type
classname< datatype> object;
This data type will be substituted for the generic type T

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 Class Templates with Multiple Parameters
template<class T1,class T2>
class classname
{
…….. //body of the class
};

Objects of such class templates are created as

classname< datatype1,datatype2> object;

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 Function Templates
 Function templates can also be used to create a family of functions with different
argument types
template<class T>
returntype functionname(arguments of type T)
{ …….. //body of the function };

 The function template syntax is similar to that of the class template except that we
are defining functions instead of classes.

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 Function Templates with Multiple Parameters
template<class T1,class T2>
returntype functionname(arguments of type T1,T2)
{ …….. //body of the function };

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 Function and Function templates
 If a program has both the function and function template
with the same name, first, the compiler selects the normal
function, if it matches with the requested data type,
otherwise, it creates a function using the function template.

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