Basic concepts

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Execution support library (C++26)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

C++ language

General topics
Preprocessor Comments	Keywords Escape sequences
Flow control
Conditional execution statements
if	switch
Iteration statements (loops)
for range-for (C++11)	while do-while
Jump statements
continue - break	goto - return
Functions
Function declaration
Lambda function expression
inline specifier
Dynamic exception specifications (until C++17*)
noexcept specifier (C++11)
Exceptions
throw-expression try block	handler
Namespaces
Namespace declaration	Namespace aliases
Types
Fundamental types Enumeration types Function types	Class/struct types Union types
Specifiers
const/volatile decltype (C++11) auto (C++11)	constexpr (C++11) consteval (C++20) constinit (C++20)
Storage duration specifiers
Initialization
Default-initialization Value-initialization Zero-initialization Copy-initialization Direct-initialization	Aggregate initialization List-initialization (C++11)   Constant initialization Reference initialization

Expressions
Value categories Order of evaluation	Operators Operator precedence
Alternative representations
Literals
Boolean - Integer - Floating-point
Character - String - nullptr (C++11)
User-defined (C++11)
Utilities
Attributes (C++11)
Types
typedef declaration
Type alias declaration (C++11)
Casts
Implicit conversions static_cast const_cast	Explicit conversions dynamic_cast reinterpret_cast
Memory allocation
new expression	delete expression
Classes
Class declaration Constructors this pointer	Access specifiers friend specifier
Class-specific function properties
Virtual function override specifier (C++11)   final specifier (C++11)	explicit (C++11) static
Special member functions
Default constructor Copy constructor Move constructor (C++11)	Copy assignment Move assignment (C++11) Destructor
Templates
Class template Function template	Template specialization Parameter packs (C++11)
Miscellaneous
Inline assembly	History of C++

 

Basic Concepts

Comments

ASCII

Punctuation

Names and identifiers

Types

Fundamental types

Objects

Scope

Object lifetime

Storage duration and linkage

Definitions and ODR

Name lookup

Qualified name lookup

Unqualified name lookup

The as-if rule

Undefined behavior

Memory model

Multi-threaded executions and data races (C++11)

Character sets and encodings

Phases of translation

The main function

Modules (C++20)

 

This section provides definitions for the specific terminology and the concepts used when describing the C++ programming language.

A C++ program is a sequence of text files (typically header and source files) that contain declarations. They undergo translation to become an executable program, which is executed when the C++ implementation calls its main function.

Certain words in a C++ program have special meaning, and these are known as keywords. Others can be used as identifiers. Comments are ignored during translation. C++ programs also contain literals, the values of characters inside them are determined by character sets and encodings. Certain characters in the program have to be represented with escape sequences.

The entities of a C++ program are values, objects, references, structured bindings(since C++17), functions, enumerators, types, class members, templates, template specializations, namespaces, and parameter packs. Preprocessor macros are not C++ entities.

Declarations may introduce entities, associate them with names and define their properties. The declarations that define all properties required to use an entity are definitions. A program must contain only one definition of any non-inline function or variable that is odr-used.

Definitions of functions usually include sequences of statements, some of which include expressions, which specify the computations to be performed by the program.

Names encountered in a program are associated with the declarations that introduced them using name lookup. Each name is only valid within a part of the program called its scope. Some names have linkage which makes them refer to the same entities when they appear in different scopes or translation units.

Each object, reference, function, expression in C++ is associated with a type, which may be fundamental, compound, or user-defined, complete or incomplete, etc.

Declared objects and declared references that are not non-static data members are variables.

See also

C documentation for Basic concepts