an introduction to c++ lecture 03: conditions, loops

Priv. Doz. Dr. Roger Wolf http://ekpwww.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/~rwolf/

INSTITUTE OF EXPERIMENTAL PARTICLE PHYSICS (IEKP) – PHYSICS FACULTY

An Introduction to C++

Lecture 03: Conditions, loops & containers

Roger Wolf22. June 2021

Part 1:

Conditional statements

The if-directive

● We have sneaked-in conditional statements already in several places throughout the course. Now it is time formally to introduce them:

The if-directive

Each if/else statement opens a command block

The if-directive

else if requires that preceding conditional statements failed

The if-directive

else is the alternative to everything else…

The if-directive

● Note: in case that if/else is followed by only one single statement the braces “{}” may be omitted.

else is the alternative to everything else…

Examples for conditional statements

● Logical operators that are usually used in conditional statements are: •&&•, •||•, !•, •<•, •>•, •<=•, •>=•, •==•, …

● Logical operator bindings follow the rules of mathematics. In case of doubt use braces “()” to enforce the evaluation order.

Examples for conditional statements

● Note: C(++) performs “lazy evaluation”, i.e. the first failing part in a more complex conditional statement breaks the evaluation.

● Logical operator bindings follow the rules of mathematics. In case of doubt use braces “()” to enforce the evaluation order.

a<MAXIMUM immediately breaks the condition

● Logical operators that are usually used in conditional statements are: •&&•, •||•, !•, •<•, •>•, •<=•, •>=•, •==•, …

The switch-directive

● There is a “more convenient” possibility to fulfill relay tasks:

The switch-directive

● There is a “more convenient” possibility to fulfill relay tasks:

● value is interpreted as int (it can be a char though).

● case 1: corresponds to value==1, more complex logical statements are not supported.

● break exits the command block, w/o break it will be continued!

● Note: case 3 and default implement a logical OR.

Part 2:

What you need to know about loops

Groundhog day

● One of the main arguments to write (scientific) code is to repeat certain processes (most of the time really often… )

● Examples:

● C(++) offers several ways to do this…

● Numerical integration

● Statistical ensemble tests

● Characterization of large data sets

● Manipulation of large lists

● …

Method-01: while(...)

● The first method that we will discuss is the while(…) loop:

Conditional (break) statement

i is first incremented and then printed

● The conditional statement in while(…) is accessed first. If it fails the command block will not be entered.

● In this example we count from 1 to 10 (→ try it yourself).

i is first incremented and then printed

● The conditional statement in while(…) is accessed first. If it fails the command block will not be entered.

● In this example we count from 10 to 1 (→ try it yourself).

i is first printed and then decremented

Method-02: do(...)

● You can also use a loop that accesses the command block first:

● Here the command block will be accessed before the conditional statement will be evaluated.

Method-02: do(...)

● Note: the command block will be accessed at least once!

Method-02: do(...)

Does this make a difference for our example?

● Note: the command block will be accessed at least once!

Method-02: do(...)

● Note that the command block will be accessed at least once!

What happens in this example?

Method-02: do(...)

● Note that the command block will be accessed at least once!

This is equivalent to i!=0 (i.e. this asks whether the pointer points to a valid element in memory or not)

What happens in this example?

Endless loops

● Note: if you pass a trivially true break statement your loop will run for ever:

This is a trivially fulfilled statement.

Endless loops

If you missed the ++ operator here by incidence you would also create an endless loop.

Endless loops

If you missed the ++ operator here by incidence you would also create an endless loop.

A very popular mistake is a break statement like this:

while(i=0){ … }

Will the loop break in this case?

Endless loops

● An endless loop can also be intended. Usually you then break it explicitly by the keyword break in the command block.

Endless loops

● An endless loop can also be intended. Usually you then break it explicitly by the keyword break in the command block.

std::cin is an input stream. It is declared in iostream.h. It expects an input from your keyboard, interprets it as short int and writes it into number.

A question of style

● The given example is perfectly fine, but it is usually not good style to implement it like this: breaking conditions are not clear from the break statement of the loop. This complicates reading your code.

A question of style

This is the better solution: the code is shorter and clearer at the same time.

● The given example is perfectly fine, but it is usually not good style to implement it like this: breaking conditions are not clear from the break statement of the loop. This complicates reading your code.

Method-03: for(...)

● The standard way to iterate something is the for(…) loop:

Method-03: for(...)

Initializing statement (before loop starts).

Method-03: for(...)

Breaking statement.

Method-03: for(...)

Operation that can alter the condition of the break statement.

Breaking statement.

Method-03: for(...)

You can have multiple initializations/ operations in for(…).

Method-03: for(...)

You can have multiple initializations/ operations in your for loop.

You can leave statements blank.

Method-03: for(...)

You can have multiple initializations/ operations in your for loop.

You can leave statements blank.

And of course you can nest all kinds of loop statements.

Range-based for loop

● Another very convenient way to loop standard C++ containers is provided since the formulation of the C++11 standard:

In this example: loop the elements of inputs.

Read-only loop.

If you want to change the elements of inputs.

And if you don’t want to care what types should be iterated declare idx as auto.

Keywords: break and continue

● C(++) has several keywords to communicate special cases to the compiler. A few first examples are given in the following. More will occur during the course.

● For all loop statements that we have discussed the keyword break will break the loop. When using continue, the loop will jump to the next iteration (here shown for the for(…) loop).

Keywords: break and continue

● C(++) has several keywords to communicate special cases to the compiler. A few first examples are given in the following. More will occur during the course.

Note: You may achieve the same result without the use of the keywords. This might also be the cleaner solution.

● For all loop statements that we have discussed the keyword break will break the loop. When using continue, the loop will jump to the next iteration (here shown for the for(…) loop).

Scopes & variables

● Loop statements are our first example of more than one command block inside a function. The following example has three variable scopes:

Scopes & variables

Global vs. local variables

● A variable inside a command block is often called “local”. The opposite is a variable outside any command block, which is called “global”.

● The local variable will loose its validity once the command block is left. The global variable is accessible everywhere in your TU, or throughout your code.

● In well written/designed C++, usually there is no need for global variables. The difficulty of (esp. mutable) global variables, e.g. in C (or even worse FORTRAN) is, that you never now who altered it and in what way in the course of the program.

Keyword: static

● Loops provide also an occasion to introduce another keyword: static.

static indicates that the variable should be declared only once. It will be initialized with a value by compile time! This happens in the TU before the linking step.

Keyword: static

w/o static

static indicates that the variable should be declared only once. It will be initialized with a value by compile time! This happens in the TU before the linking step.

This is how the output of the program looks like

w/o static

Keyword: static29/38

w/o static

w/o staticw/o static

Keyword: static

Note: also here a potentially better solution can actually be achieved w/o the keyword.

w/o static

w/o staticw/o static

Keyword: static

Note: when used for functions static means that the function is visible only within its TU (→ turned into executable code at compilation time before(!) linking).

Note: also here a potentially better solution can actually be achieved w/o the keyword.

w/o static

Part 3:

Container classes

C++ container classes

● The standard use case for a loop is the iteration of a set of similar elements. C++ provides high performance container classes to hold objects, with varying level of complexity for certain functionalities. E.g.:

● std::array<T> – C++ equivalent to C array, fixed length

● std::vector<T> – dynamically expandable

● std::list<T> – constant time insert/erase operations

● std::stack<T> – FILO adaptation of upper containers

● std::queue<T> – FIFO adaptation of upper containers

● std::set<S, T> – associative array (unique elements only)

● std::map<S, T> – associative array (same elem’s possible)

● A container class is a holder object that stores a collection of other objects.

● All container classes are implemented as class templates (→ see Lecture-08), i.e. whether a std::vector holds int or float (or even a user-defined object) is determined by “argument” during object declaration.

std::vector<T>

● Saves T (T=int, float, …) in normal sequences, can be extended dynamically.

std::vector<T>

Declaration and initialization w/ <int>

std::vector<T>

Add nextValue to end

std::vector<T>

Add nextValue to end

Determine size & access elements

std::vector<T>

A better way to iterate C++ containers

Iterators

● An iterator is an object that serves the access to other objects in a given ensemble. Such an ensemble can be a C++ container object.

● They must fulfill certain criteria, e.g. provide member functions/operators like e.g. ++•, *•, …

● Five classes of iterators are defined in the C++ standards (=grammar book):

Output

Forward Bidirectional Random Access

Iterators

Output

● The simplest iterator is the built-in pointer.

Iterators

Output

● The simplest iterator is the built-in pointer.

● The C++ standard containers have several iterators as data members that can be accessed by member functions like begin(), end() and rbegin(), rend(), …

● Saves S and T as a key-value pair. At the time of insertion key is already sorted. For this purpose std::map requires a definition of the “<” operator for key.

std::map<S,T>36/38

Our map associates a word with another word

std::map<S,T>

Get the value for a given key.

std::map<S,T>

Check if a key exists.

std::map<S,T>36/38

Check if a key exists. Iterator that points to the end of dict.

std::map<S,T>

Assign a value to a given key.

std::map<S,T>

Assign a value to a given key.

How you could use these two functions…

Note: you can learn much more about std::map in one of the next exercises.

std::map<S,T>

Summary

● The while(...), do(...), for(…) loop.

● Endless loops.

● First key words break & continue.

● Variable scopes.

● The key word static.

● C++ containers: std::vector<T> and std::map<S,T>.

● The if-directive.

● The switch-directive.

an introduction to c++ lecture 03: conditions, loops

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