Introduction to C++ Programming

Lesson 1

Your First C++ Program

In your first lesson, you'll learn what a computer program is. What's the best way to learn programming? You have to write programs, of course! Your first step toward writing your first program is to install VisualStudio. In this lesson, you'll learn how to install Visual Studio on your computer and create your first program.

Understanding Your C++ Code and How to Fix Errors

You've created a working C++ application. In this lesson, you'll find out what each line of C++ code means in your "Hello World!" program. You'll also learn how this C++ code is translated to machine language that the computer understands and can execute as a running program. Finally, you'll learn how to see and fix errors in your code.

Data Types and Computer Memory

In this lesson, you'll learn about the different areas of computer memory. You'll find out about data types, which correspond to the different types of information a program uses, and then write a program that can determine the amount of computer memory used by different data types. This lesson also lays the foundation for variables, a very important concept in programming.

Storing Data in Variables

In this lesson, you'll learn how to create variables of different data types to store information. You'll find out how to declare variables, which is the first step to using them. You'll then learn how to assign values to variables, using both the assignment operator and cin. You'll also access and output a variable's value.

Letting the Computer Do the Math

Computers can't think for themselves—not yet anyway. But computers can calculate faster and more accurately than humans can. In this lesson, you'll learn how to harness the computer's calculating power with the C++ arithmetic operators.

Letting the User Choose

Life involves choices, and so do computer programs. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the different C++ comparison operators and control structures so different blocks of code execute depending on the user's choice.

Combining Choices

Choices can be complicated. For example, you may want code to execute only if two choices are made, or if either of two choices are made. In this lesson, you'll how to use nested control structures and the different C++ logical operators when more than one choice determines which block of code executes.

Repeating Code With Loops

Your parents may have told you not to repeat yourself, but code often needs to repeat. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use loops to make code repeat until a condition is met.

Using Arrays

Often, you may need to store more than one item of information, such as multiple test scores. In this lesson, you'll find out how to use arrays to store multiple items of information. Sure, you could also just use multiple variables, but with arrays, you also can harness the power of loops, which you learned about in the last lesson.

C Strings for Storing Text

Not all information are numbers. You'll often need to store text, such as names. In this lesson, you'll discover how to use C strings to store non-numeric information in an array.

Functions for Dividing and Organizing Code

What if your favorite textbook was just one very long paragraph with no chapters or sections? The content would be the same, but it would be much more difficult to read and follow, wouldn't it? Similarly, code, as it gets longer and more complicated, needs to be organized. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use functions to divide tasks and organize your code.

Saving and Retrieving Data

Microsoft Word wouldn't be very useful if you couldn't save your work and had to type it all over again each time you ran the program! Being able to save your work is important, but you also need to be able to load that saved work back into your program the next time you run it. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use file input/output to store and retrieve information.