CO1401

Programming

Week 1
Module Introduction
Module Overview

• A second semester module

– Includes the first two weeks after Easter
• One hour lecture and two hour lab each week
– Drop in support sessions available every week.

• Second lecture with Laurent.

• Introduction to C++
• More advanced programming concepts

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Module Overview

• Assessments
• An assignment to do in your own time
• Handed out during week beginning of February
• Hand back middle of March

• Module tutor
– Gareth Bellaby, CM232, gjbellaby@uclan.ac.uk

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Module Overview

• Module resources (lectures, lab material) are all held

on eLearn. There will be some updates.
• Programming is a practical subject.
• You can only learn to program by doing!
• It can't be learnt by just attending lectures or reading
notes.
• You need to practice if you want to learn to program!
• Reminder: attendance at all labs / lectures is
compulsory

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Speed and Feedback

• You are from a range of backgrounds.

• You are studying different computing degrees.
• I need to monitor the speed of the module.
• Ask questions in the lecture.
• Ask questions in the lab.
• Let me or the lab tutor know if the module is going
too slow or too fast.

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Recommended books

• Harvey Deitel, Paul Deitel, C++ How to Program

• Siddhartha Rao, Sams Teach Yourself C++ in One Hour
a Day
• Jesse Liberty, Rogers Cadenhead, Sams Teach Yourself
C++ in 24 Hours.
• Walter Savitch, Absolute C++.
• Walter Savitch, Problem Solving with C.
• Stanley B Lippman, Josee Lajoie, Barbara E Moo, C++
Primer

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Recommended websites

• http://www.cplusplus.com/
• https://stackoverflow.com
• Note use of voting system to indicate worthiness of an
answer
• https://www.hackerrank.com/domains/algorithms/war
mup
• Interface is a bit clumsy.
• Compiler is less informative than VS (but can can
code in VS and copy over)
• https://www.lynda.com/
• https://isocpp.org/faq

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C++

• Using C++
• C++ is an important programming language.
• Widely used.
• Efficient, flexible and reasonably comprehensible.
• C++ can be faster than C# because it is translated to
machine code.
• C++ allows access to low level operations.

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C and C++

• C was invented by Dennis Ritchie in the 1970's.

• In 1983 a committee was established to create a
defining standard: the ANSI/ISO standard.
• C++ is an expanded version of C. Invented by Bjarne
Stroustrup in 1979. C++ is an Object Oriented
Language.

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 • C# is a part-compiled language
• C++ is a fully compiled language
• Uses a compiler to convert C++ code into machine
language
• Work of translation done at compile time.
• The compiler translates our C++ programs into
executable programs
• The compiled program can be run without reference
to the original source code or compiler. It's a stand-
alone program.

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Mechanics of C++

source code

COMPILER

object code

library
LINKER
code

executable code
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C++

• Much of C++ is identical to C#

for (int i=0; i<100; i++)

• That example code is valid (and means the same) in:

• C++ and C# (and Java, Javascript, Actionscript, Lua,
etc…)
• Continue to use Visual Studio 2017 to compile C++
• Need to change the default environment to C++.
Details in worksheet

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 • An example C++ program
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

// A simple hello world program

int main()
{
// Output to screen
cout << “Hello World!”;
}
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Anatomy of C++

• All C++ programs must include the function main().

• Program execution begins with main().
• By convention main() appears at the end of the source
code.
• Note that main() starts with a lower case ‘m’

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 • Most of the functionality of C++ comes from the use
of libraries.
• For example, to obtain the input and output
commands you need to include the “iostream” library.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
• C++ also uses namespaces.
• This is a way of expressing scope.
• I’ll come back to this. For the moment just remember
to include the namespace statement after including the
libraries.
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Variables

• C++ uses a number of different data types:

• floating point- a decimal number
float mynumber;
• integer, a whole number
int another_number;
• a single character
char ch;
• Assigning a value to a variable is identical to C#
• Do not have the methods such as TryParse

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Conditionals and Loops

• Can use if, if – else, switch

• Can use for, while, do – while
• Arrays look similar, but a slightly different syntax and
meaning. I’ll come back to these in a later lecture.

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Topic 2

Input, Output and streams

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Cin and Cout

• cin and cout are your input and output statements.

• The direction of the angle brackets is important.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
int i;
cout << "enter a number";
cout << endl;
cin >> i;
cout << "The number you entered was " << i;
system( "pause" );
}
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Comments

• Pause is non-standard, but allows you to pause the

end of the program easily.
system( "pause" );

• C++ uses libraries of pre-written functions and classses.

• In the above example “iostream” is a library.
• The function cout can be found inside iostream.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

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cin & cout

• cin is for input

int size;
cin >> size;
// into the variable

• cout is for output

int size;
cout << size;
// out of the variable

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Input

• Input is directed into a variable.

• cin automatically tries to convert keyboard input into
the data type of the variable.
• For example

int size;
cin >> size;

• cin will assume here that the data coming from the
keyboard is an integer.

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Streams

• C++ uses the metaphor of streams.

cin cout

• Other streams exist, e.g. files i/o is treated as

streams.

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The input stream

• cin reads until it #include <iostream>

#include <string>
reaches a carriage using namespace std;

return or a space. int main()

{
string str;
cin >> str;
cout << str;
system( "pause" );
}

• If you entered the phrase "once upon a time" at

the keyboard then it would only read in the word
"once“. You need another read in order to get the
rest of the phrase.
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Validating input

•No access to the parsing and checking routines of C#.

However, can validate data type.
•The check on the input stream will work with any data type.

int i;
float f;
char ch;
cin >> i >> f >> ch;
if(cin.fail())
{
cout << "an error has occurred";
}

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Flags

• Can be useful to set up your flag and then use it to

monitor all of the different aspects of the input.

bool error = false;

cin >> a >> b >> ch;
error = cin.fail();

if(ch != 'y')
{
error = true;
}

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Validating input

• If a read failure occurs then the input stream is set to

0, i.e. false.
• Each successive read will fail unless you clear the fail
flag.
• (You will be able to use this same method with files!)
• If an error occurs need to clear the fail flag using
clear().
if(cin.fail())
{
cout << "Error\n";
cin.clear();
}

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get: reading a single character

• It can be useful to for input to be read

character by character. In this case use get:

char ch;
ch = cin.get();

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Topic 2

Functions

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Functions

• You have used methods in C#.

• C++ also has methods. They are part of the object
oriented aspect of C++.
• They are declared inside a class in the same way as in
C#.

• However, C++ also has functions.

• Functions are like stand-alone methods. They are
declared outside main() and outside any classes (if
there are any).

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Functions

• Do not use the #include <iostream>

using namespace std;
keyword static.
• Use parameters (as // function outputs double the size
// of the integer sent to it
C#) void doubleSize( int i )
• Can return a value {
cout << i * 2;
or need the cout << endl;
keyword void if }
they do not return
int main()
a value (as C#) {
doubleSize( 2 );
system( "pause" );
}
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Functions

• Functions are building blocks.

• They break programs down into smaller units.
• When a function is invoked then execution passes
over to the function.
• When the function finishes then execution passes
back to the line of code that invoked the function.
• A function can be considered to be a mini-program in
its own right.

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Examples

• skipthree(). Write threes lines to screen.

void skipthree( )
{
cout << endl << endl << endl;
}

int main( )
{
skipthree();
system( "pause" );
}

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Functions

• main() is itself a function.

• main() is the first function executed by the program. All

other functions follow on from main().

• Often written so that main() appears first in the code.

I’ll come back to this later on.

• The compiler needs to know about a function before it

can use it. What if a function is written after it is called?

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Parameters

• Functions with no parameters are of limited use.

Usually they will not return a value but carry out some
operation.
• For example, it would be better if skipthree could skip
a variable number of lines.

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Parameters

• Functions can be void skip( int amount )

customised using {
parameters. for( int i = 0; i < amount
{
• The function cout << endl;
skipthree() is now }
changed to the }
function skip() that
has a parameter int main( )
{
amount indicating skip( 4 );
how many lines system( "pause" );
have to be skipped. }

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Reasons to use functions.

• Decomposition: sub-problems

• Modularisation

• Repetition

• Code re-use

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Decomposition: Sub-problems

• Problems naturally break down into sub-problems.

• Top-down design.

• A large problem is broken down into sub-problems.

• Each sub-problem could be a mini-program in its own

right.

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Modularisation

• Real world software is written by teams.

• Functions allow modularization.

• This supports team work because a module can be written

by one team.

• Error checking.

• Functions can accept parameters to customise each usage.

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Repetition

• Functions allow code to be written once but used

many times in the same program.

• Functions help the programmer to avoid repetition.

• Functions can accept parameters to customise each

usage.

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 • A solution may be useful in more than one program.

• Frequently occurring units can be turned into

functions and re-used in different programs.

• For example, max() is a solution to a common

problem.

• Functions can also be used to build up libraries.

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