Optimizing C++

EBook Description: Imagine that you are about to finish a relatively large program, one that has taken a few weeks or months to write and debug. Just as you are putting the finishing touches on it, you discover that it is either too slow or runs out of memory when you feed it a realistic set of input data. You sigh, and start the task of optimizing it.

Function Pointers provide some extremely interesting, efficient and elegant programming techniques. You can use them to replace switch/if-statements, to realize your own late-binding or to implement callbacks. Unfortunately - probably due to their complicated syntax - they are treated quite stepmotherly in most computer books and documentations.

C Language

Developed originally at Bell Labs by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie in the second half of the 1980’s, the C Language has become a high-level programming language responsible for almost all operating systems of today. Together with the object-oriented successor of C, C++, these two languages have become commercial software’s first choice in programming language. UNIX runs on C Language and is becoming commercially acceptable on a mass scale.

C++ Tutorials

Created by Bjarne Stroustrup of AT&T Bell Labs as an extension of C, C++ is an object-oriented computer language used in the development of enterprise and commercial applications. Microsoft’s Visual C++ became the premier language of choice among developers and programmers.

Eddie's Basic Guide to C Programming - Intro

C is a high-level programming language developed by Dennis Ritchie in 1972. He named it C because there was an existing programming language called B.

The Basics of C Programming

The C code you write is called the SOURCE CODE or the SYNTAX.

Hello World

Let's write and compile your first program! But first of all it makes sense if you create a folder on your computer to store all your example programs.

Constants, Variables and Data Types

Variables are like containers in your computer's memory - you can store values in them and retrieve or modify them when necessary. To INITIALIZE a variable means to store a value in it for the first time, which is done using the ASSIGNMENT OPEARTOR, like this: x = 2

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The char Data Type

In C, there are four DATA TYPES: char, int, float, and double. Each one has its own properties. For instance, they all have different sizes. The size of a variable can be pictured as the number of containers / memory slots that are required to store it. Later on, we will use the sizeof operator to determine the size of various data types.

The int Data Type

Variables of the int data type represent whole numbers. If you try to assign a fraction to an int variable, the decimal part is ignored and the value assigned is rounded down (or TRUNCATED) from the actual value.