Programming Tutorials - C, C++, OpenGL, STL

Welcome! If you're new to C++, learn C++ with our C++ tutorial, starting at C++ Made Easy, Lesson 1 (all lessons)

If you want to learn C instead, check out our C tutorial C Made Easy, Lesson 1 (all lessons)

Want more advanced material on C, C++ graphics, game programming or algorithms? We've got that too.

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C++ Tutorial, C++ Made Easy: Learning to Program in C++

Learn C++ with this tutorial, designed for beginners and containing lots of examples, tips and simple explanations.

• Intro to C++ (Quiz)
• If statements (Quiz)
• Loops in C++ (Quiz)
• Functions in C++ (Quiz)
• Switch case (Quiz)
• Accessing Memory with Pointers (Quiz)
• Structures in C++ (Quiz)
• Storing data with Arrays (Quiz)
• Character Strings in C++ (Quiz)
• File I/O (Quiz)
• Typecasting (Quiz)
• Classes and introduction to object-oriented programming (Quiz)
• Inline functions (Quiz)
• Command line arguments (Quiz)
• Linked Lists
• Recursion
• Variable argument lists for functions
• Binary Trees
• Overview of Inheritance
• Inheritance Syntax and Examples
• C++ Class Design
• Enumerated types
• Formatted Output in C++ using iomanip
• Templates in C++
• Initialization Lists and Inheritance
• Templated functions
• Template specialization and partial specialization
• Understanding the C Preprocessor -- Constants, Macros, and other Tricks
• Generating random Numbers
• Using Modulus to get remainders

C Tutorial - C Made Easy

This tutorial is based on the above tutorial, but uses only standard C language features.

• Intro to C (Quiz)
• If statements (Quiz)
• Loops in C (Quiz)
• Functions and Program Organization (Quiz)
• Switch case (Quiz)
• Pointers (Quiz)
• Structures
• Arrays (Quiz)
• C-style Strings (Quiz)
• C File I/O
• Typecasting (Quiz)
• Command line arguments (Quiz)
• Linked Lists
• Recursion
• Variable argument lists
• Binary Trees

More Advanced C and C++ Language Feature Tutorials

• Bitwise Operators in C and C++
• File I/O in C
• Print format strings for beautiful output
• What's the difference between declaring and defining something in C and C++?
  Learn about the distinction between declaring a variable, class or function--and defining it--and why it matters when you have trouble compiling your code
• Removing the Mystery of Function Pointers
• Functors: Function Objects in C++
• References in C++
• Const Correctness--Why bother?
• How and When to Use Private Inheritance
• When To Use Goto: A Partial Defense of the goto Statement
• Using Exceptions for Error Handling in C++
• Organizing programs with Namespaces in C++
• Understanding the Static Keyword in C and C++
  A multipurpose keywords, static can be used globally, locally, and on class variables, with different meanings in each context
• Templated Classes in C++
• Using auto_ptr to avoid memory leaks in C++
• Understanding std::string (C++ strings)
• The friend keyword and data encapsulation
• Secure Coding - Preventing Buffer Overflows and other attacks
• Unicode: What you Can Do About it Today
• Multiple Inheritance in C++
• Solving the Diamond Problem with Virtual Inheritance
• Operator overloading
• Understanding Constructors, Destructors and Object Lifetime
• A gentle introduction to C++ IO streams

C++11 - the new C++ standard

C++11 is the new C++ standard, and it's chock full of goodness for C++ programmers, old and new.

• What is C++11? - Get introduced to the new C++ standard, C++11 (previously known as C++0x)
• Auto, Decltype and return values after functions in C++11
• Lambda Functions in C++11 - the definitive guide
• Range-Based For Loops in C++11
• Generalized Constant Expressions in C++11 with constexpr
• Rvalue References and Move Semantics in C++11
• Enum classes and nullptr in C++11

C++ Standard Template Library (STL) tutorials

The STL is a powerful library that comes as part of standard C++, and should be a tool used and understood by all C++ programmers.

• An Introduction to the Standard Template Library (STL)
• The STL Vector Container
• STL Iterators
• STL Map Container
• STL List Container

Understanding Floating Point Numbers

by Jeff Bezanson

Every programmer should understand enough about floating point numbers to avoid the pitfalls of assuming perfect precision.

• Background: Accuracy vs. Precision
• Floating Point Representation
• Bonus: Printing Floating Point Numbers Cleanly

Using Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)

by Jeff Bezanson

• Background and Using the RPC compiler
• Writing the Server Code
• Writing the Client and Putting it All Together
• Get the code

Same Game - A Simple Game from Start to Finish

By Ben Marchant

Do you want to learn how to create a game? This series will teach you how to create a game, starting from the very beginning and ending with a fully playable game.

• Same Game - Part 1: Introduction to technologies and drawing the game board
• Same Game - Part 2: Creating a real, playable game
• Same Game - Part 3: Adding difficulty levels and other menu options
• Same Game - Part 4: Changing the game board size and the block count
• Same Game - Part 5: Adding undo/redo functionality and keyboard accelerators

Object-Oriented Animation

Learn how to design a framework for doing animation--a foundation for many games and graphics engines.

• An Introduction to Object Oriented Animation
• Frames, Layers and Layer Folders
• The design of the animation engine

Using Microsoft ADO with SQL Databases in C++

by Patrick Mancier

• Overview of this tutorial
• Part 1: Introduction to SQL
• Part 2: Introduction to ADO
• Part 3: ADO Wrapper Classes
• Part 4: Creating the ADO Manager Class
• Part 5: Using the CADOManager in Practice

SDL Tutorials

The SDL is a simple library for doing graphics in C and C++

• Setting up SDL

OpenGL Tutorials

By RoD

• Intro to OpenGL
• OpenGL vs DirectX
• OpenGL and Windows
• The WinMain procedure
• Windows Programming
• Intro to WGL, the Windows Graphics Layer
• Your first OpenGL Program
• Projections in OpenGL

Rotations in Three Dimensions

By Confuted and Silvercord

This series of tutorials describes the math required for performing three dimensional rotations.

• The Basics of 3D rotations
• Rotation Matrices
• Rotation about an Arbitrary Axis
• Uses for what you've learned
• Using Quaternions

AI Tutorials

Learn about AI, including how to make game AI using the minimax algorithm.

• Perceptrons, a simple neuron simulator
• MiniMax Game Trees
• Chess Board Representation
• Solving problems with genetic algorithms

Data Structures

All programmers should know something about basic data structures like stacks, queues and heaps. Graphs are a tremendously useful concept, and two-three trees solve a lot of problems inherent in more basic binary trees.

• Stack Data Structure
• The Queue Data Structure
• Heaps
• Hash Tables
• Graphs in computer science
• Two-three trees

Algorithmic Efficiency and Sorting and Searching Algorithms

Learn how to determine the efficiency of your program and all about the various algorithms for sorting and searching--both common problems when programming.

• Algorithmic Efficiency and Big-O notation
• Efficiency and the space-time tradeoff
• Search Algorithms - linear search and binary search
• Comparison of Sorting Algorithms
• Intro to sorting algorithms: bubble sort
• Selection sort and Insertion sort
• Heap Sort
• Merge Sort
• Quicksort
• Radix Sort a special case sorting algorithm

Advanced Algorithms

If you've mastered the basics, perhaps you'd like to move to more advanced, specialized algorithms

• Exclusive-OR (XOR) Encryption
• Dijkstra's Algorithm for finding shortest paths in graphs
• Dynamic Programming with an example of all-pairs shortest paths
• Minimum Spanning Trees and Prim's Algorithm
• Huffman Encoding Compressiong Algorithm

Computer Science Theory

If you've moved on from the advanced algorithms, perhaps you'd like to learn more about the fundamental nature of computation--a deep and rewarding topic.

• An introduction to the topic of computer science
• Base Systems - Binary, Hex and Octal
• The Halting Problem 
  Not for the faint of heart (or beginners), this tutorial covers an advanced topic in computer science: the nature of what can and cannot be computed -- what types of problems computers simply cannot solve
• What We Cannot Know: Consequences of the Halting Problem

Coding Style

• Programming Style, Part 1: Whitespace
• Programming Style, Part 2: Naming Conventions
• Programming Style, Part 3: How you can write readable code, and why you should
• How -- and Why -- to Comment

Compilers and Makefiles

• Unravelling the mysteries of makefiles
• Advanced makefile tricks
• Dealing with the compilation process
• Why you should fix compiler warnings

Memory Management

• Using auto_ptr to manage memory
• Dynamic Memory Allocation, Part 1: new, delete and multidimensional array allocation
• Dynamic Memory Allocation, Part 2: Virtual Memory
• Dynamic Memory Allocation, Part 3: Overloading Operator New and Delete
• Dynamic Memory Allocation, Part 4: Common Memory Management Problems

Once you're done with these tutorials, take the  C++ Memory Management Quiz  

Other Programming Languages

Interested in other programming languages, go beyond C and C++ to learn about Java, C# and more!

• C and C++ for Java Programmers
• Java for C++ Programmers: A Syntax Cheat Sheet
• A Summary of C#
• A Programming Language Comparison

Miscellaneous Programming Articles

• Test Driven Development, The Philosophy
• Where C and C++ Differ
• So you want write a game?
• How do you tell how large an object is?
• How to Start Writing a Program
• Module Development for Game Design
• Debugging binary search: the difficulty of getting your code right the first time
• New Year's Resolutions for C/C++ Programmers
• 5 New Year's Resolutions for Programmers, updated for 2011
• Thinking about Programming
• Common Coding Mistakes
• The 5 Most Common Problems New Programmers Face--And How You Can Solve Them
• The Secret to Learning Anything
• 5 Ways You can Learn Programming Faster