Jesse Liberty is the author of numerous books on software development, including best-selling titles in C++ and .NET. He is the president of Liberty Associates, Inc. (http://www.LibertyAssociates.com) where he provides custom programming, consulting, and training.

Bradley Jones, Microsoft MVP, Visual C++, can be referred to as a webmaster, manager, coding grunt, executive editor, and various other things. His time and focus are on a number of software development sites and channels, including Developer.com, CodeGuru.com, DevX, VBForums, Gamelan, and other Jupitermedia-owned sites. This influence expands over sites delivering content to over 2.5 million unique developers a month.

His expertise is in the area of the big "C"s—C, C++, and C#—however, his experience includes development in PowerBuilder, VB, some Java, ASP, COBOL I/II, and various other technologies too old to even mention now. He has also been a consultant, analyst, project lead, associate publisher for major technical publishers, and author. His recent authoring credits include Sams Teach Yourself the C# Language in 21 Days, a 6th edition of Sams Teach Yourself C in 21 Days, and now this edition of Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days. He is also the cofounder and president of the Indianapolis .NET Developers Association, which is a charter INETA group with membership of over 700. You can often hear his ramblings on the CodeGuru.com or VBForums.com discussion forums, and he also does the weekly CodeGuru newsletter that goes out to tens of thousands of developers.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Introduction

This book is designed to help you teach yourself how to program with C++. No one can learn a serious programming language in just three weeks, but each of the lessons in this book has been designed so that you can read the entire lesson in just a few hours on a single day.

In just 21 days, you'll learn about such fundamentals as managing input and output, loops and arrays, object-oriented programming, templates, and creating C++ applications—all in well-structured and easy-to-follow lessons. Lessons provide sample listings—complete with sample output and an analysis of the code—to illustrate the topics of the day.

To help you become more proficient, each lesson ends with a set of common questions and answers, a quiz, and exercises. You can check your progress by examining the quiz and exercise answers provided in Appendix D, "Answers."

Who Should Read This Book

You don't need any previous experience in programming to learn C++ with this book. This book starts you from the beginning and teaches you both the language and the concepts involved with programming C++. You'll find the numerous examples of syntax and detailed analysis of code an excellent guide as you begin your journey into this rewarding environment. Whether you are just beginning or already have some experience programming, you will find that this book's clear organization makes learning C++ fast and easy.

Conventions Used in This Book

Tip - These boxes highlight information that can make your C++ programming more efficient and effective.

Note - These boxes provide additional information related to material you just read.

FAQ - What do FAQs do?

Answer: These Frequently Asked Questions provide greater insight into the use of the language and clarify potential areas of confusion.

Caution - These focus your attention on problems or side effects that can occur in specific situations.

DO/DON'T

These boxes provide clear definitions of essential terms.

DO use the "Do/Don't" boxes to find a quick summary of a fundamental principle in a lesson.

DON'T overlook the useful information offered in these boxes.

This book uses various typefaces to help you distinguish C++ code from regular English. Actual C++ code is typeset in a special monospace font. Placeholders—words or characters temporarily used to represent the real words or characters you would type in code—are typeset in italic monospace . New or important terms are typeset in italic.

In the listings in this book, each real code line is numbered. If you see an unnumbered line in a listing, you'll know that the unnumbered line is really a continuation of the preceding numbered code line (some code lines are too long for the width of the book). In this case, you should type the two lines as one; do not divide them.

Sample Code for This Book

The sample code described throughout this book and Appendix D, "Answers," are available on the Sams website at http://www.samspublishing.com. Enter this book's ISBN (without the hyphens) in the Search box and click Search. When the book's title is displayed, click the title to go to a page where you can download the code and Appendix D.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.