CS 23021 Computer Science I - Detailed Contents

Fundamentals

• Compiling stages and purpose of each stage: preprocessor, compiler, assembler, linker
• Include directives, purpose, effect
• Types of errors
• main function
• C++ basics, variables, assignment statements, basic I/O
• Basic input, output
• Comments, purpose of comments
• Indentation, purpose of indentation
• Program development

Control Structures - Basics

• if, if/else
• while
• switch
• Infinite loop

Variables, Expressions - I

• Variable
• Parts of the C++ language (core/built-in and libraries)
• Type, categories of type (built-in, programmer defined)
• Built-in types, general differences; int, char, long, double, float, unsigned, bool, sizeof() operator
• Literals, string literals
• Operator precedence, associativity
• Result and side effect
• Result and side effect for pre-increment, post-increment, pre-decrement, post-decrement, assignment
• Result and side effect for the << and >> operators
• Division of integers in C++
• Implicit conversion
• Explicit conversion
• true and false with regard to expressions and integer values
• Boolean expressions, conversion of bool values to/from integer values
• Understand expression evaluation including those with mixed types and the following:
  • Evaluating, order of evaluation
  • Automatic/implicit conversions, when do they happen, what happens
  • Casting/explicit conversion
  • Using casting/explicit conversion to force implicit conversion
• Assignment operators

Variables, Expressions - II

• Order of operations in && and ||
• Character versus string

Using Functions

• Calling free functions
• Calling functions on objects

C++ string

• C++ string: defining, output, input, assignment, concatenation, append, index, compare, size, find, substring

I/O

• More on >> and <<
• Character input
• Line input
• Output formatting

Control Structures - for loop

• for loop
• break
• continue

Arrays

• Defining
• Indexing
• Array in memory

Vectors

• C++ vector: defining, indexing, finding size of, looping through store/read elements, using push_back()
• Vectors compared with arrays

Functions

• Function call
• Function definition
• Function prototype/declaration
• Two things necessary to use (call) a given function (declaration and machine language .o file (or definition))
• return statement
• Scope
  • Block/local scope
  • Program/global scope
• Shadowing
• Storage duration
  • Automatic storage duration
  • Static storage duration
  • Dynamic storage duration (covered later)
• Parameter passing: pass by value, pass by reference, pass by const reference.
• Returning values: return by value, return by reference, return by const reference.
• Functions, result versus side effect approaches
• Putting functions in separate files
• Separate compilation, linking, header files
• Include guards
• Make command, dependency graph, writing rules

File I/O

• File I/O: opening, testing for success of open(), inputting, outputting, closing
• What happens when a file is opened
• The two names relating to a file in a program, their meaning and purpose
• When does an input stream evaluate to false?

Structures, structs

• Defining structs
• Structure objects
• Structure member
• Structures containing arrays, other structures

Pointers

• Pointer as variable that has an address for its value
• The * operator (dereference)
• The & operator (address-of)
• C-style string

Dynamic Memory Allocation

• Basic dynamic memory allocation: dynamically allocate an object, assign it a value, and deallocate the object

More Control Structures

• do/while

Covered If Time Permits

• ? : operator
• Namespaces
• Default parameter values
• Function overloading

Pointers and Arrays

• What an array name by itself denotes
• Pointers and arrays, pointer arithmetic
• Simulated pass by reference using pointers.
• Passing arrays to functions

Not Covered

• Bit operators
• Operator overloading
• The -> operator
• Recursion details
• Much class stuff
  • Default operations for a programmer defined type
  • Destructor
  • Constructor, default constructor