Getting Started

C++ Introduction

Discover C++ — the powerful language that adds object-oriented and generic programming to C.

What is C++?

C++ is a general-purpose programming language created by Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of C. It adds:

Object-Oriented Programming: Classes, inheritance, polymorphism
Generic Programming: Templates
Standard Template Library (STL): Containers, algorithms, iterators
Modern features: Smart pointers, lambdas, range-based for, modules (C++20)

Why C++?

Unmatched performance (used in games, trading, browsers, OS)
Full control over hardware resources
Massive ecosystem and community
Used for: game engines (Unreal), browsers (Chrome/Firefox), databases (MySQL), and much more

Hello World in C++

Notice the difference from C:

#include <iostream> instead of #include <stdio.h>
std::cout instead of printf
using namespace std; is commonly used (but not always recommended)

Example

cpp

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main() {
    // Output with cout
    std::cout << "Hello, C++!" << std::endl;

    // Using namespace std for convenience
    using namespace std;
    cout << "Using namespace std" << endl;

    // Variables
    int age = 25;
    double pi = 3.14159;
    string name = "Alice";  // std::string is much better than char[]
    bool isActive = true;

    // Modern string formatting
    cout << "Name: " << name << ", Age: " << age << endl;

    // auto type inference (C++11)
    auto count = 42;      // int
    auto price = 9.99;    // double
    auto msg = string("Hello");

    return 0;  // 0 = success
}

Try it yourself — CPP