C++ is a high-level, statically typed, compiled, and general-purposed, and open-source programming language. It is an extension of C programming language which supports procedural, generic as well as object-oriented programming.
C++ often considered as low-level programming language because of its close relation to the system hardware and memory management. Does not matter whether it supports some concept of low-level programming still C++ is a high-level programming language.
C++ was introduced in 1979 and it was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs, New Jersey USA. The only purpose of developing C++ to introduce the concept of Object-Oriented Programming in C. As C++ is an extension of C, so C++ contains all the properties of C, plus the concept of OOP’s.
Features of C++
1. Statically Typed Programming
C++ is a statically typed programming language which means, when we declare a variable in C++ we also define its data type along with it. So the type checking in C++ occurred at compile time instead of run time.
2. Object-Oriented Programming:
C++ was introduced as the extension of C programming language with Object-Oriented Programming if we remove the concept of OOP’s from C++ it becomes C. C programming was not able to solve the real-world problems, because most of the problems required OOP’s concepts, that why Bjarne Stroustrup introduce C++ in which he introduced OOP’s concepts such as:
- Class
- Object
- Encapsulation
- Inheritance
- Polymorphism
3. Standard Libraries(STL)
A library is a collection of pre-written code that we can use in our program to increase the functionality of our program. Mostly all the libraries of C++ contain predefined functions that we can use so we do not have to write all the code from scratch. C++ also contains many standard libraries, and many of them directly imported from the C programming language.
All those libraries which are imported in C++ are not a part of any class, and as we know that C++ is an Object-Oriented programming language so it also contains some extra libraries which are defined in a class.
Some of the C++ library category:
- I/O
- Strings
- Math
- Time, and date
- Dynamic Allocation
- Wide Character Function
- STL Algorithms
- STL Iterators
- STL Allocators
- Exception Handling Class
4. C++ ANSI Standard
ANSI stand for American National Standard Institute, this organization set standard for the C++ use, it also makes sure that C++ becomes a cross-platform programming language, which means the code written in one system can be run on another without making any changes.
Why learn C++?
As in the previous tutorial we have discussed some of the reasons why you should choose C++ as your first programming language.
No matter which programming language you choose, your main focus should be on the concepts which bind all the programming languages, with C++ you can clear all the concepts of programming in computer science.
Once you are done with C++ basic concept, with some of the advanced topics, you can easily switch to any other programming language and after that, you would feel like all the programming languages are a mere syntax but shear the same concepts.
Use of C++
- Yet many big-tech companies hire C++ developers to build desktop applications and software.
- C++ is used to write code for device drivers because C++ is close to the hardware system.
- Many famous browsers and software such as chrome, Firefox, etc. are built on C++, so they require a C++ developer for further development such as software.
Conclusion
This article is all about C++ overview, here we also have mentioned some of the major features of C++ so you get a brief idea about C++.
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