c_plus_plus_glossary_getting

C++ Glossary Getting Started
# and Symbols
A
B
C
D
E
F
H
I
L
M
N
O
P
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C++ Glossary Getting Started

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These terms below are the most fundamental programming terms. They apply to other C++ like languages such a Java, C#, Scala, Kotlin, Objective-C, Swift and in many ways to Golang, JavaScript and TypeScript as well.

Defined Terms

# and Symbols

() operator - “Call operator. A pair of parentheses “()” following a function name. The operator causes a function to be invoked. Arguments to the function may be passed inside the parentheses.” (CppPrmLp 2012) and (CppPrmLp 2012)

++ operator - “Increment operator. Adds 1 to the operand; ++i is equivalent to i = i + 1.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

+= operator - “Compound assignment operator that adds the right-hand operand to the left and stores the result in the left-hand operand; a += b is equivalent to a = a + b.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

. operator - “Dot operator. Left-hand operand must be an object of class type and the right-hand operand must be the name of a member of that object. The operator yields the named member of the given object.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

operator - “Scope operator. Among other uses, the scope operator is used to access names in a namespace. For example, std::cout denotes the name cout from the namespace std.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

= operator - “Assigns the value of the right-hand operand to the object denoted by the left-hand operand.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

-- operator - “Decrement operator. Subtracts 1 from the operand; –i is equivalent to i = i - 1.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

<< operator - “Output operator. Writes the right-hand operand to the output stream indicated by the left-hand operand: cout « “hi” writes hi to the standard output. Output operations can be chained together: cout « “hi” « “bye” writes hibye.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

>> operator - “Input operator. Reads from the input stream specified by the left-hand operand into the right-hand operand: cin » i reads the next value on the standard input into i. Input operations can be chained together: cin » i » j reads first into i and then into j. (CppPrmLp 2012)

include - ”Directive that makes code in a header available to a program.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

== operator - “The equality operator. Tests whether the left-hand operand is equal to the right-hand operand.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

!= operator - “The inequality operator. Tests whether the left-hand operand is not equal to the right-hand operand.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

<= operator - “The less-than-or-equal operator. Tests whether the left-hand operand is less than or equal to the right-hand operand.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

< operator - “The less-than operator. Tests whether the left-hand operand is less than the right-hand operand.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

>= operator - ”Greater-than-or-equal operator. Tests whether the left-hand operand is greater than or equal to the right-hand operand.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

> operator - ”Greater-than operator. Tests whether the left-hand operand is greater than the right-hand operand.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

A

argument - ”Value passed to a function.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

assignment - ”Obliterates an object’s current value and replaces that value by a new one.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

B

block - ”Sequence of zero or more statements enclosed in curly braces.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

buffer - “A region of storage used to hold data. IO facilities often store input (or output) in a buffer and read or write the buffer independently from actions in the program. Output buffers can be explicitly flushed to force the buffer to be written. By default, reading cin flushes cout; cout is also flushed when the program ends normally.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

built-in type - ”Type, such as int, defined by the language.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

C

cerr - ”ostream object tied to the standard error, which often writes to the same device as the standard output. By default, writes to cerr are not buffered. Usually used for error messages or other output that is not part of the normal logic of the program.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

character string literal - “Another term for string literal.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

cin - ”istream object used to read from the standard input.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

class - ”Facility for defining our own data structures together with associated operations. The class is one of the most fundamental features in C++. Library types, such as istream and ostream, are classes.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

class type - “A type defined by a class. The name of the type is the class name.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

clog - ”ostream object tied to the standard error. By default, writes to clog are buffered. Usually used to report information about program execution to a log file.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

comments - ”Program text that is ignored by the compiler. C++ has two kinds of comments: single-line comments and paired. Single-line comments start with a //. Everything from the // to the end of the line is a comment. Paired comments begin with a /* and include all text up to the next */.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

condition - “An expression that is evaluated as true or false. A value of zero is false; any other value yields true.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

cout - ”ostream object used to write to the standard output. Ordinarily used to write the output of a program.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

curly brace - ”Curly braces delimit blocks. An open curly ({) starts a code block; a close curly (}) ends one.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

D

data structure - “A logical grouping of data and operations on that data.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

E

edit-compile-debug - “The build process of getting a program to execute properly.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

end-of-file - ”System-specific marker that indicates that there is no more input in a file.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

expression - “The smallest unit of computation. An expression consists of one or more operands and usually one or more operators. Expressions are evaluated to produce a result. For example, assuming i and j are ints, then i + j is an expression and yields the sum of the two int values.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

F

for statement - ”Iteration statement that provides iterative execution. Often used to repeat a calculation a fixed number of times.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

function - ”Named unit of computation.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

function body - ”Code block that defines the actions performed by a function.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

function name - ”Name by which a function is known and can be called.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

H

header - ”Mechanism whereby the definitions of a class or other names are made available to multiple programs. A program uses a header through a include directive.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

I

if statement - ”Conditional execution based on the value of a specified condition. If the condition is true, the if body is executed. If the condition is false, the else body is executed if there is one.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

initialize - “Give an object a value at the same time that it is created (see object creation).” (CppPrmLp 2012)

iostream - ”Header that provides the library types for stream-oriented input and output.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

istream - ”Library type providing stream-oriented input.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

L

library type - ”Type, such as istream, defined by the standard library.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

M

main Function - ”called by the operating system to execute a C++ program. Each program must have one and only one function named main.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

manipulator - ”Object, such as endl, that when read or written “manipulates” the stream itself.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

member function - ”Operation defined by a class. Member functions ordinarily are called to operate on a specific object.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

method - ”Synonym for member function.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

N

namespace - ”Mechanism for putting names defined by a library into a single place. Namespaces help avoid inadvertent name clashes. The names defined by the C++ library are in the namespace std.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

O

ostream - ”Library type providing stream-oriented output.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

P

parameter list - “Part of the definition of a function. Possibly empty list that specifies what arguments can be used to call the function.” (CppPrmLp 2012)

R

return type - ”Type of the value returned by a function.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

S

source file - ”Term used to describe a file that contains a C++ program.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

standard error - ”Output stream used for error reporting. Ordinarily, the standard output and the standard error are tied to the window in which the program is executed.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

standard input - ”Input stream usually associated with the window in which the program executes.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)

standard library - ”Collection of types and collection of functions that every C++ compiler must support. The library provides the types that support IO. C++ programmers tend to talk about “the library,” meaning the entire standard library. They also tend to refer to particular parts of the library by referring to a library type, such as the “iostream library,” meaning the part of the standard library that defines the IO classes.“ (CppPrmLp 2012)