C++ for Python Programmers The PreTeXt Edition

A question you may have about this little program is “How would I run it on my own machine?” Running a C++ program is not as simple as running a Python program. The first big difference between C++ and Python is that Python is an interpreted language while C++ is a compiled language. We could run our Python programs in the Python interpreter, and we were often quite happy to do that. In C++, running programs is a two step process.

First, we must type the hello world program into a file and save that file using a name like hello.cpp Once we have saved the file we compile it either from the command line or from an integrated development environment (IDE). Only after the program is compiled, can we run it.

Now you may be wondering what good is this extra step? What does compiling do for us? There are a couple of important benefits we get from compiling:

The job of the compiler is to turn your C++ code into language that your machine can understand. We call the code that the computer understands machine code. The computer interprets the machine code much like the Python interpreter interprets your Python. However, since machine code is much closer to the native language of the computer, it can run faster.

When the compiler does the translation it can find many different kinds of errors. For example if you make a typo or forget to declare a variable the compiler will find these and point them out to you before you ever run the program. We will look at some examples of errors that the compiler catches shortly. Chances are you may create some on your own very soon too, but first let’s talk about each of the statements in a C++ program.

Preprocessor directives in C++ appear as statements preceded by the hash sign #. These tell the preprocessor which file, header, or library to make available to the compiler. For example, #include <iostream> will make sure that the iostream library is available at compile time. Here, the term header is used for a type of C++ file that contains definitions of functions and variables, but not the function implementations.

You can think of the #include ... statement in C++ as working a bit like the import ... statement in Python. Python’s import statement directly accesses the code written in another file while the #include statement in C++ copies classes and functions from another file.

In Python, an import statement looks like:

import classname

There are two ways to use #include in C++:

#include <libraryname>
#include "filename"

Here the angle-brackets <> are used to include libraries or headers provided by the implementation, such as the headers in the standard library (iostream, string, etc.). The double quotes " are used for headers and files not provided by the implementation.

Unlike Python, every C++ program must have a main function which begins with int main(). This main function is called implicitly instead of explicitly like we must do in Python when we have a main function. This is why you do not see an explicit function call invoking main.

The int in int main() indicates that the return type of the main function will be an integer. The final line of the main C++ function is typically return 0, so you can see that the program does actually return the integer 0. Here zero is returned to indicate successful completion of the main function. In case you are wondering why an integer is returned, if you do error handling in C++, instead of 0, you can alternatively return an integer error code representing a specific error when and where it occurs.

C++ functions and other C++ code blocks are grouped together using the curly {} brackets. These curly brackets are used much like tabbing is used in Python. Many people also use tabbing in C++ to indicate blocks, but tabs and other whitespace (mostly) have no inherent meaning in C++. Instead, the semi-colon (;) must be used to conclude most statements in C++.

In fact, the following program will run perfectly even though the lack of meaningful spacing is more difficult for humans to read.

As you program in C++, we strongly recommend you continue to use the kind of human-readable formatting you have become used to in Python. You will likely learn to appreciate this when you are debugging.

Without peeking, see if you can put the following code in the correct order.

Python and C++ both support comments that are not processed by the interpreter or compiler.

Python’s single line comment begins with a hash (#). In C++, the equivalent is two forward slashes (//) In each case the rest of the line is treated as a comment and ignored by the interpreter or compiler.

Python supports comments using triple quotes. Like Python, C++ also supports multi-line comments beginning with /* and ending with */.

The triple quoted docstring in Python is often used for automatically processing documentation. There is no equivalent in the C++ standard to the triple-quoted docstring in Python. However, the symbol groups /** and */ are often used to indicate documentation blocks at the beginning of a class, program, or function, which is legal because the second asterisk * is simply treated as part of the multi-line comment. Certain libraries will also automatically process the text between these symbol groups, as a docstring for the documentation.

// The remainder of this line is a C++ comment which is ignored by the compiler

/* This is a multi-line C++ comment that can
span many lines, beginning and ending with the given symbols */

We often have a need to interact with users, either to get data or to provide some sort of result. The C++ <iostream> library provides us with the functionality to get information from the standard input as well as to output information to the standard output. This input and output is handled by what is known as a stream.

A stream is essentially a channel in which data flows from the source to a destination (often called the “sink”.) Output streams send data out, and the standard output stream cout sends character data to the screen. So, cout stands for “character output”. Much like the Python print statement, cout is used to print to the standard output device, which is typically your screen. When cout is used, you will also see << used. When this odd set of symbols are used together, they are called the “output operator”. The output operator is used to direct output to the designated output device or file. The output operator can also be used to concatenate output, much like the “+” can be used to concatenate in Python.

In addition to being able to output to the standard output, we want to be able to take input from the user. The command cin is somewhat similar to cout except, of course, it is used for getting character input. Input streams direct data from a source, such as the keyboard or a file. As you might have guessed, cin stands for “character input” and it makes getting input from the standard input device (usually the keyboard) relatively easy. The input operator in C++ is >>.

Here is an example that uses cin:

The active code below is an example of what getting input from the user might look like. Feel free to change 12.4 to other values!

In this example, you may note the line float num which declares a new variable called num of type float. Just like functions, all variables in C++ must be declared before use, and they cannot change type. This is known as static typing. The line float num essentially tells the compiler to set aside sufficient space for a floating point number, and to name this memory location num. Then whatever the user types in will be stored in the num variable. Using the cout function, we can write instructions that will prompt the user to enter data and then incorporate that data into further processing. For example, in the code above, the floating point number is doubled and then displayed.

We will talk more about type declarations in the section on data types, and we will go into more depth on input and output later when we discuss C++ streams and file handling.

#include <iostream>

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using namespace std;

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int main()
 {

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    cout << "Hello World!\n";

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    return 0;

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}