Modern C++ Programming

C++03 / C++11 / C++14 / C++17 / C++20 / C++23 / C++26

This open-access course is directed at those who are already familiar with C and object-oriented programming towards a proficiency level of C++ programming. The course covers the basics of C++ programming and moves on to advanced C++ semantics and concepts.

Key features:

• Free and frequently updated
• 25 lectures, 1600+ slides
• Include the last language standard concepts and features
• Practical teaching: non-verbose, short structured descriptions associated with code
• Minimal code examples for showing just a specific feature or issue without digressing
• Complementary language aspects: tools, coding conventions, project organization, and code optimization
• Experience-based: many aspects, examples, and problems come from real-world cases faced during my work as software engineer

If you enjoy the course or you find it useful, please add a Star

CHAPTERS

#	TITLE	MAIN FOCUS
1	Introduction (html)	History of C/C++, Areas of applications, Course introduction
2	Preparation (html)	Books, How to compile, Hello world
3	Basic Concepts I (html)	Type System, Fundamental types, and Operators
4	Basic Concepts II (html)	Integral and Floating-point types and their arithmetic
5	Basic Concepts III (html)	Entities, Enumerators, Structures, Control flow statements
6	Basic Concepts IV (html)	Heap, Stack, Pointers, References, Const properties, Conversion operators
7	Basic Concepts V (html)	Functions, Lambda expressions, Preprocessing directives
8	Object-Oriented Programming I (html)	Class hierarchy, Constructor, Destructor, Class keywords
9	Object Oriented Programming II (html)	Polymorphism, Operators overloading
10	Templates and Meta-programming I (html)	Function template, Type traits, Compile-time utilities
11	Templates and Meta-programming II (html)	Class template, SFINAE
12	Translation Units I (html)	Linkage and One Definition Rule
13	Translation Units II (html)	Dealing with multiple translation units and files,#include, Modules
14	Code Conventions (html)	Project organization, Main code conventions
15	Debugging and Testing (html)	Execution/memory debugging, Sanitizers, Harding techniques, Unit test, Test-Driven Development
16	Ecosystem (html)	Cmake, Documenting, and Other Tools
17	Utilities (html)	Main std libraries
18	Containers, Iterators, and Algorithms (html)	Containers, Iterators, Algorithms, Ranges
19	Advanced Topics I (html)	Move semantics, Universal reference, Type deduction
20	Advanced Topics II (html)	Error handling, C++ idioms, Smart pointers
21	Performance Optimizations I (html)	Ahmdal Law, Performance bounds, Architecture concepts (ILP, SIMD, etc.), Memory hierarchy
22	Performance Optimizations II (html)	Arithmetic optimizations, Memory optimizations, etc.
23	Performance Optimizations III (html)	Compiler optimizations, Profiling, Benchmarking tools
24	Software Design I (html)	Basic Concepts, Principles, Use cases
25	Software Design II (html)	Design Patterns and Idioms

ALL-IN-ONE BOOK: modern-cpp.pdf (could be a few commits behind), html

TOPICS IN DETAILS

1. Introduction

• A Little History of C/C++ Programming Languages
• Areas of Application and Popularity
• C++ Philosophy
• C++ Weakness: C++ alternatives, Why switching to a new language is hard?
• The Course

2. Preparation

• Books and References
• Slide Legend
• What Editor/ IDE/Compiler Should I Use?
• How to compile?
• Hello World: I/O Stream

3. Basic Concepts I - Type System, Fundamental Types, and Operators

• The C++ Type System: Type categories, Type properties
• C++ Fundamental Types Overview: Arithmetic types, Suffix and prefix, Non-standard arithmetic types, void type, nullptr
• Conversion Rules
• auto declaration
• C++ Operators: Operators precedence, Prefix/Postfix increment/decrement, Assignment, compound, and comma operators, Spaceship operator <=> , Safe comparison operators

4. Basic Concepts II - Integral and Floating-point Types

• Integral Data Types: Fixed width integers, size_t and ptrdiff_t, Signed/Unsigned integer characteristics, Promotion, Truncation, Undefined behavior
• Floating-point Types and Arithmetic: IEEE Floating-point standard and other representations, Normal/Denormal values, Infinity, Not a Number (NaN), Machine Epsilon, Units at the Last Place (ULP), Cheatsheet, Limits and useful functions, Arithmetic properties, Special values behavior, Undefined behavior, Detect floating-point errors
• Floating-point Issues: Catastrophic cancellation, Floating-point comparison

5. Basic Concepts III - Entities and Control Flow

• Entities
• Declaration and Definition
• Enumerators
• struct, Bitfield, union
• [[deprecated]] Attribute
• Control Flow: if statement, for loop, Range-base for loop, switch, goto, Avoid unused variable warning

6. Basic Concepts IV - Memory Concepts

• Heap and Stack: Stack memory, new, delete, Non-allocating placement allocation, Non-throwing allocation, Memory leak
• Initialization: Variable initialization, Uniform initialization, Fixed-size array initialization, Structure initialization, Dynamic memory initialization
• Pointers and References: Pointer operations, Address-of operator &, Reference
• Constant and Literals, const, constexpr, consteval, constinit, if constexpr, std::is constant evaluated(), if consteval
• volatile keyword
• Explicit Type Conversion: static_cast, const_cast, reinterpret_cast, Type punning
• sizeof Operator: overview, [[no_unique_address]]

7. Basic Concepts V - Functions and Preprocessing

• Functions: Pass by-value, Pass by-pointer, Pass by-reference, Function signature and overloading, Overloading and =delete, Default parameters, Attributes [[attributes]]
• Function Pointer and Function Objects
• Lambda Expressions: Capture list, Parameters, Composability, constexpr/consteval, template, mutable, [[nodiscard]], Capture list and classes
• Preprocessing: Preprocessors, Common errors, Source location macros, Conditional compiling macros, Stringizing operator (#), #error and warning, #pragma, Token-pasting operator (##), Variadic macro

8. Object-Oriented Programming I - Class Concepts

• C++ Classes: RAII idiom
• Class Hierarchy
• Access specifiers: Inheritance access specifiers, When use public/protected/private for data members?
• Class Constructor: Default constructor, Class initialization, Uniform initialization for objects, Delegate constructor, explicit keyword, [[nodiscard]] and classes
• Copy Constructor
• Class Destructor
• Defaulted Constructors, Destructor, and Operators (= default)
• Class Keywords: this, static, const, mutable, using, friend, delete

9. Object-Oriented Programming II - Polymorphism and Operator Overloading

• Polymorphism: virtual methods, Virtual table, override keyword, final keyword, Common errors, Pure virtual method, Abstract class and interface
• Inheritance Casting and Run-time Type Identification
• Operator Overloading: Overview, Comparison operator <, Spaceship operator <=>, Subscript operator [], Multidimensional subscript operator [], Function call operator (), static operator [] and operator (), Conversion operator T(), Return type overloading resolution, Increment and decrement operators ++/--, Assignment operator =, Stream operator <<, Operator notes
• C++ Object Layout: Aggregate, Trivial class, Standard-layout class, Plain old data (POD), Hierarchy

10. Templates and Meta-programming I - Function Templates and Compile-Time Utilities

• Function Template: Overview, Template parameters,Template instantiation, Template parameter - default value, Overloading, Specialization
• Template Variable
• Template Parameter Types: Generic Type Notes, auto Placeholder, Class template parameter type, Array and pointer types, Function type
• Compile-Time Utilities: static_assert, decltype keyword, using keyword
• Type Traits: Overview, Type traits library, Type manipulation

11. Templates and Meta-programming II - Class Templates and SFINAE

• Class Template: Class specialization, Class template constructor
• Constructor template automatic deduction (CTAD)
• Class Template - Advanced Concepts: Class + Function - specialization, Dependent names - typename and template keywords, Class template hierarchy and using, friend keyword, Template template arguments
• Template Meta-Programming
• SFINAE: Substitution Failure Is Not An Error: Function SFINAE, Class SFINAE
• Variadic Template: Folding expression, Variadic class template
• C++20 Concepts: Overview, concept keyword, requires clause, requires expression, requires expression + clause, requires clause + expression, requires and constexpr, Nested requires

12. Translation Units I - Linkage and One Definition Rule

• Basic Concepts: Translation unit, Local and global scope, Linkage
• Storage Class and Duration: Storage duration, Storage class, static and extern keywords, Internal/External linkage examples
• Linkage of const and constexpr: Static initialization order fiasco
• Linkage Summary
• Dealing with Multiple Translation Units: Class in multiple translation units
• One Definition Rule (ODR): Global variable issues, ODR - Point 3, inline functions/variables, constexpr and inline
• ODR - Function Template: Cases, extern keyword
• ODR - Class Template: Cases, extern keyword
• ODR Undefined Behavior and Summary

13. Translation Units II - Include, Module, and Namespace

• #include Issues: Include guard, Forward declaration, Circular dependencies, Common linking errors
• C++20 Modules: Overview, Terminology, Visibility and reachability, Module unit types, Keywords, Global module fragment, Private module fragment, Header module unit, Module partitions
• Namespace: Namespace functions vs. static methods, Namespace alias, Anonymous namespace, inline namespace, Attributes and namespace
• Compiling Multiple Translation Units: Fundamental compiler flags, Compile Methods, Deal with libraries, Build static/dynamic libraries, Find dynamic library dependencies, Analyze object/executable symbols

14. Code Conventions

• C++ Project Organization: Project directories, Project files, "Common" project organization notes, Alternative - “Canonical” project organization
• Coding Styles and Conventions
• #include
• Macro and Preprocessing
• Namespace
• Variables and Arithmetic Types
• Functions
• Structs and Classes
• Control Flow
• Modern C++ Features
• Maintainability
• Naming
• Readability and Formatting
• Code Documentation

15. Debugging and Testing

• Debugging
• Assertion
• Execution debugging: Breakpoints, Watchpoints / Catchpoints, Control flow, Stack and Info, Print, Disassemble
• Memory Debugging: valgrind
• Hardening Techniques: Stack usage, Standard library checks, Undefined behavior protections, Control flow protections
• Sanitizers: Address sanitizer, Leak sanitizer, Memory sanitizers, Undefined behavior sanitizer
• Debugging Summary
• Compiler Warnings
• Static Analysis
• Code Testing: Unit test, Test-Driven Development (TDD), Code coverage, Fuzz testing
• Code Quality: clang-tidy

16. Ecosystem - Cmake and Other Tools

• CMake: cmake and ctest
• Code Documentation: doxygen
• Code Statistics: Count lines of code, Cyclomatic complexity analyzer
• Other Tools: Code formatting - clang-format, Compiler Explorer, Code transformation - CppInsights, Code autocompletion - GitHub Co-Pilot/TabNine/Kite, Local code search - ugrep, ripgrep, hypergrep, Code search engine - searchcode/grep.app, Code benchmarking - Quick-Bench, Font for coding

17. Utilities

• I/O Stream: Manipulator, ofstream/ifstream
• Strings: std::string, Conversion from/to numeric values, std::string_view, std::format, std::print
• View: std::span
• Math Libraries
• Random Number: Basic concepts, C++ <random>, Seed, PRNG period and quality, Distribution, Quasi-random
• Time Measuring: Wall-Clock time, User time, System time
• Std Class Templates: std::pair, std::tuple, std::variant, std::optional, std::any, std::stacktrace
• Filesystem Library: Query methods, Modify methods

18. Containers, Iterators, and Algorithms

• Containers and Iterators
• Sequence Containers: std::array, std::vector, std::list, std::deque, std::forward_list
• Associative Containers: std::set, std::map, std::multiset
• Container Adaptors: std::stack, std::queue, std::priority_queue
• View: std::span
• Implement a Custom Iterator: Semantic, Implement a simple Iterator
• Iterator Notes:
• Iterator Utility Methods: std::advance, std::next, std::prev, std::distance, Container access methods, Iterator traits
• Algorithms Library: std::find_if, std::sort, std::accumulate, std::generate, std::remove_if
• C++20 Ranges: Key concepts, Range view, Range adaptor, Range factory, Range algorithms, Range actions

19. Advanced Topics I

• Move Semantic: lvalues and rvalues references, Move semantic, std::move, Class declaration semantic
• Universal Reference and Perfect Forwarding: Universal reference, Reference collapsing rules, Perfect forwarding
• Value Categories
• &, && Ref-qualifiers and volatile Overloading
• Copy Elision and RVO
• Type Deduction: Pass by-reference, Pass by-pointer, Pass by-value, auto deduction, auto(x): Decay-copy
• const Correctness

20. Advanced Topics II

• Undefined Behavior: Illegal behavior, Platform specific behavior, unspecified behavior, Detecting undefined behavior
• Error Handling: Recoverable error handing, Return code, C++ Exceptions, Defining custom exceptions, noexcept keyword, Memory allocation issues, Return code and exception summary, std::expected, Alternative error handling approaches
• Smart pointers: std::unique_ptr, std::shared_ptr, std::weak_ptr
• Concurrency: Thread methods, Mutex, Atomic, Task-based parallelism

21. Optimization I - Basic Concepts

• Introduction: Moore's Law, Moore's Law limitations, Reasons for optimizing
• Basic Concepts: Asymptotic complexity, Time-Memory trade-off, Developing cycle, Ahmdal's law, Throughput, Bandwidth, Latency, Performance bounds, Arithmetic intensity
• Basic Architecture Concepts: Instruction throughput, In-Order, and Out-of-Order Execution, Instruction pipelining, Instruction-level parallelism (ILP), Little’s law, Data-level parallelism (DLP) and SIMD, Thread-level parallelism (TLP), Single Instruction Multiple Threads (SIMT), RISC, CISC instruction sets
• Memory Hierarchy: Memory hierarchy concepts, Memory locality, Core-to-core latency and thread affinity, Memory ordering model

22. Optimization II - Code Optimization

• I/O Operations: printf, Memory mapped I/O, Speed up raw data loading
• Memory Optimizations: Heap memory, Stack memory, Cache utilization, Data alignment, Memory Prefetch
• Arithmetic Types: Data types, Arithmetic operations, Conversion, Floating-point, Compiler intrinsic functions, Value in a range, Lookup table
• Control Flow: Branch Hints - [[likely]] / [[unlikely]], Signed/Unsigned integers, Loops, Loop hoisting, Loop unrolling, Assertions, Compiler hints [[assume]], Recursion
• Functions: Function call cost, Argument passing, Function inlining, Function attributes, Pointers aliasing
• Object-Oriented Programming
• Std Library and Other Language Aspects

23. Optimization III - Non-Coding Optimizations and Benchmarking

• Compiler Optimizations: About the compiler, Compiler optimization flags, Floating-point optimization flags, Linker optimization flags, Architecture flags, Help the compiler to produce better code, Profile guided optimization (PGO), Post-processing binary optimizer
• Compiler Transformation Techniques: Basic transformations, Loop unswitching, Loop fusion, Loop fission, Loop interchange, Loop tiling
• Libraries and Data Structures: External libraries
• Performance Benchmarking: What to test?, Workload/Dataset quality, Cache behavior, Stable CPU performance, Multi-threads considerations, Program memory layout, Measurement overhead, Compiler optimizations, Metric evaluation
• Profiling: gprof, uftrace, callgrind, cachegrind, perf Linux profiler
• Parallel Computing: Concurrency vs. parallelism, Performance scaling, Gustafson’s Law, Parallel programming languages

24. Software Design I - Basic Concepts (DRAFT)

• Books and References

• Basic Concepts: Abstraction, interface, and module, Class Invariant

• Software Design Principles: Separation of concern, Low coupling, high cohesion, Encapsulation and information hiding, Design by contract, Problem decomposition, Code reuse

• Software Complexity: Software entropy, Technical debt

• The SOLID Design Principles

• Member Functions vs. Free Functions

• BLAS GEMM Case Study

• Owning Objects and Views

• Value vs. Reference Semantic

• Global Variables

25. Software Design II - Design Patterns and Idioms (DRAFT)

• C++ Idioms: Rule of Zero, Rule of Three, Rule of Five

• Design Pattern: Singleton, PIMPL, Curiously Recurring Template Pattern (CRTP), Template virtual functions

Roadmap

1. Improve Software Design Chapters
2. Build Aspects Chapter (e.g. reducing build time)

Reporting bugs 🐛 and contributing

If you find any typo, conceptual error, or section to improve, please report them by using the issue panel.

Author

Federico Busato, https://federico-busato.github.io/

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/federico-busato/
• Twitter: twitter.com/fedebusato