(C++)++ Course

Printing a Text

4/11

New lines are a thing of preference, for the most part. At the basic level, using either '\n' or std::endl interchangeably won't result in any difference. Using std::endl will flush the output stream. If flushing the stream many times is unnecessary or unwanted in your code, using '\n' is just as good as std::endl. Sometimes a code's output stream may be unstable for some reason; using std::endl would be preferable in that case.

Variables

6/11

Variables can also be defined and assigned in other ways than the basic concepts SL's course has shown:

//SL's way
int a, b;
//define and assign multiple in the same line
int a = 2, b = -3;

You might also come across a syntax that looks like this:

int a(2), b(-3);
int sum = a + b;
//sum is now equal to -1

This results in the same way as I showed above

Working with Variables

7/11

Sure, you can define a variable and leave it unassigned. However, if that variable is expected to take a value from input and somehow fails to do so, the computations you make later in the program will end up using a 'garbage' value that the compiler chose. In my own codes, I always try to assign a newly declared variable with some value that makes sense as the default value.

Try the following, and run it several times to see what you get:

int num;
cout << num << endl;

Basic Arithmetic

9/11

This one will be short. When you divide by two whole numbers, like in SL's example,

int a = 10 / 3;

and assign the quotient to an int, it will automatically cut the decimal remainder off.

a is equal to 3, not 3.333

Assignment & Increment Operators

10/11

x += 1;

Is equal to:

x++;

Next Lesson

C++ Course, Basic Concepts