Effective C++

Effective C++

55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs

CHAPTER 1: Accustoming Yourself to C++

Item 1: View C++ as a federation of languages

• C
• Object-Oriented C++
• Template C++
• The STL

Item 2: Prefer consts, enums, and inlines to #defines

prefer the compiler to the preprocessor

• For simple constants, prefer const objects or enums to #defines.
• For function-like macros, prefer inline functions to #defines.

Note: inline is just a suggestion for compiler, whether the funtions are finally inlined depends on compiler, so I’m not sure whether we should use inline nowadays.

Item 3: Use const whenever possible

Example:

char greeting[] = "Hello"; char *p = greeting;
// non-const pointer, non-const data

const char *p = greeting;
// non-const pointer, const data

char * const p = greeting;
// const pointer, non-const data

const char * const p = greeting;
// const pointer, const data

• If the word const appears to the left of the asterisk, what’s pointed to is constant
• If the word const appears to the right of the asterisk, the pointer itself is constant
• If const appears on both sides, both are constant.