Basic Terms In C++
On this page we are going to check out some very basic terminology for
the beginners of C++. These terms are often used in programming. So here
we go :-)
Variables : As the name suggest, values of a variable may vary from time to time
within a program. These variables are stored in memory of our computer
(RAM) and can be used to store data of any kind we wish to. Lets have a
geek definition of a variable which we can use to impress our teachers:
"A
variable is a way of referring to a memory location used in a computer
program to hold important data comprising of simple numbers, alphabets,
symbols, and numbers with decimal values."
While making a program we can choose any name for our variable just by giving little attention to the following rules:
Well, our first rule has got exception because
the maximum length for name of any variable depend on compiler to
compiler. But still If you follow this rule, it will only help you
because long variables only results in typing efforts and taking away
our precious time. Now lets roll on to our next rules.
For the above rule, there is a little thing
that we need to know. Small letters and capital letters are treated
differently by computer. This is what we call case sensitivity. So the variable names pet, Pet, pEt, peT, PeT and PET all different variables instead of one.
This Stinks!! We cannot use a space!!! What if
we want to use a variable name like "my cute pet"? For the solution of
this question there is a general trend of using an underscore( _ )
instead of a space. So the variable name can be declared as
"my_cute_pet".
I know it feels a little bore to remind all
the rules while declaring any variable and check whether or not its
satisfying all the rule, but trust me once you start programming, you'll
get used to it.
Keywords : These
are some words whose meaning are already known to a compiler (in broad
sense to a computer).So of course its understood that we cannot define a
word which is already defined. And that is what our last rule is trying
to tell.
Comments : These
are the part of the code that make no sense to compiler. That means if
comments are encountered, compiler simply skips them and starts reading
the next part of the code, no matter what is written in it. These are
generally used to tell
which part of code is designed to do what
function to the reader of program and it has nothing to do with
compiler. Comments are also known as code tags or simply tags. There are
two types of tags in C++ :
- Multi line comments: These
comments are also called C style comments. We can cover any number of
lines under their scope. The syntax for using C style comment is as
follows....
/* comments line 1
comment line 2
...........
...........
comment line n */
- Single line comments:
These comments are also called C++ style comments. We can only cover a
single line of code under their scope. They start with double
slashes(//) followed by whatever is to be written in comments. So the
syntax is
//Comment covering only 1 line
We will not discuss a lot about comments as
we will see how they work in our programs later. For now the given
information is sufficient.
Written by T-Rex
