Intermediate C++ Programming | Effective C++

Course Objectives

This “skills-centric” course is about 50% hands-on lab and 50% lecture, designed to train attendees in basic coding with C++, coupling the most current, effective techniques with the soundest industry practices. Students will explore:

• Overview/Review of C++
• Modern C++ 11, 14, 17
• Templates
• Memory Management
• Inheritance and Polymorphism
• Exception Handling
• Input/Output in C+
• Unit Testing in C++
• Advanced Polymorphism and Inheritance
• Functional Programming
• Runtime Type Information
• Overview of Standard Library
• STL Containers
• STL Iterators
• Threads & Tasks

Need different skills or topics?  If your team requires different topics or tools, additional skills or custom approach, this course may be further adjusted to accommodate.  We offer additional C++, programming, development, design, testing, services, application security and other related topics that may be blended with this course for a track that best suits your needs. Our team will collaborate with you to understand your needs and will target the course to focus on your specific learning objectives and goals.

Course Prerequisites

Course Agenda

Please note that this list of topics is based on our standard course offering, evolved from typical industry uses and trends. We’ll work with you to tune this course and level of coverage to target the skills you need most.

1. Quick Review of C++

• Implementing a basic O-O design
• Implementing Classes
• Visibility & friends
• File organization
• C++ types – structs, classes, interfaces, enums

2. Modern C++

• New keywords in C++ 11,14,17
• RAII - Modern memory management in C++ - overview
• Copy vs Move semantics
• Namespaces

3. Templates

• General Purpose Functions
• Function Templates
• Template Parameters
• Template Parameter Conversion
• Function Template Problem
• Generic Programming
• General Purpose Classes
• Class Templates
• Class Template Instantiation
• Non-Type Parameter
• C++ Containers overview
• Variadic Templates

4. Memory Management

• The handle/body (Bridge) pattern
• Using strings effectively
• Smart Pointers
• Move constructor in depth
• Other <memory> features

5. Inheritance and Polymorphism

• Inheritance Concept
• Inheritance in C++
• Protected Members
• Base Class Initializer List
• Composition
• Member Initialization List
• Order of Initialization
• Inheritance vs. Composition
• A Case for Polymorphism
• Dynamic Binding
• Pointer Conversion in Inheritance
• Polymorphism Using Dynamic Binding
• Virtual Function Specification
• Invoking Virtual Functions
• VTable
• Virtual Destructors
• Abstract Class Using Pure Virtual Function
• Interfaces

6. Exception Handling

• Exception Handling
• try and catch
• Exception Flow of Control
• Context and Stack Unwinding
• Handling Exceptions in best Context
• Benefits of Exception Handling
• Unhandled Exceptions
• Clean Up
• Multiple Catch Handlers

7. Input/Output in C+

• Input/Output in C++
• Built-in Stream Objects
• Output Operator <<
• Input Operator >>
• Character Input
• String Input
• Formatted I/O
• Streams Hierarchy (Simplified)
• File I/O
• File Opening
• Integer File Copy
• Character File Copy
• Overloading Stream Operators
• Implementing Overloaded Stream Operators

8. Unit Testing in C++

• Unit testing – Quick Overview
• Unit testing in C++
• Introduction <catch.hpp>

9. Advanced Polymorphism and Inheritance

• Good Class Design
• string Class
• Public Inheritance
• Public Inheritance Problems
• Inheritance and Semantics
• Private Inheritance
• Composition
• Composition vs. Private Inheritance
• Templates vs. Inheritance
• Protected Inheritance
• Implementation Encapsulation
• Interface Inheritance
• Multiple inheritance issues

10. Functional Programming

• Overview
• The IoC pattern
• Dependency Injection
• Functions as objects
• IoC via interface
• Functors
• IoC with Functors
• Implementing Functors
• Function Pointers
• IoC with Function Pointers
• Lambda Expressions
• Lambda Syntax
• IoC with Lambdas

11. Runtime Type Information

• Runtime Type and Polymorphism
• type_info Class
• typeid Operator
• Compiler Options
• Safe Pointer Conversions
• Dynamic Cast
• New C++ Style Casts
• Static Cast
• Reinterpret Cast
• Const Cast

12. Overview of Standard Library

• Perspective
• History and Evolution
• New Features
• The Standard Template Library
• Generic Programming
• Design Goals
• Header Files
• STL Components
• Containers
• Algorithms
• Iterators
• Threads & Tasks

13. STL Containers

• Vectors
• Vector.cpp
• Vector Operations
• Typedefs
• Deques
• deque as Stack
• deque Functionality
• Lists
• Generic Programming
• Tradeoff with Lists
• List Memory Allocation
• list Functionality
• Associate Containers
• Sets
• Sets with User Defined Objects
• Multisets (Bags)
• Maps
• Multimaps
• Functional Programming with Containers

14. STL Iterators

• Pointers
• Template Version
• String Version
• A Generalization of Pointers
• STL Iterators
• Input Iterators
• Output Iterators
• Forward Iterators
• Bidirectional Iterators
• Random Access Iterators

15. Threads & Tasks

• Overview Threads
• Starting Threads
• Managing threads
• Overview of Tasks
• Tasks
• async
• Future & Promise

Course Materials

Each student will receive a Student Guide with course notes, code samples, software tutorials, diagrams and related reference materials and links (as applicable). Our courses also include step by step hands-on lab instructions and and solutions, clearly illustrated for users to complete hands-on work in class, and to revisit to review or refresh skills at any time. Students will also receive the project files (or code, if applicable) and solutions required for the hands-on work.