Introduction to strings

Variables that can store non-numerical values that are longer than one single character are known as strings.
The C++ language library provides support for strings through the standard string class. This is not a
fundamental type, but it behaves in a similar way as fundamental types do in its most basic usage.
A first difference with fundamental data types is that in order to declare and use objects (variables) of this type we
need to include an additional header file in our source code: <string> and have access to the std namespace

// my first string
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
//using namespace std;
int main ()
{
string mystring = "This is a string";
cout << mystring;
return 0;
}
//This is a string
As you may see in the previous example, strings can be initialized with any valid string literal just like numerical
type variables can be initialized to any valid numerical literal. Both initialization formats are valid with strings:
string mystring = "This is a string";
string mystring ("This is a string");
Strings can also perform all the other basic operations that fundamental data types can, like being declared without
an initial value and being assigned values during execution:
// my first string
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
//using namespace std;
int main ()
{
string mystring;
mystring = "This is the initial string content";
cout << mystring << endl;
mystring = "This is a different string content";
cout << mystring << endl;
return 0;
}
//This is the initial string content
//This is a different string content
For more details on C++ strings, you can have a look at the string class reference.

Initialization of variables

When declaring a regular local variable, its value is by default undetermined. But you may want a variable to store
a concrete value at the same moment that it is declared. In order to do that, you can initialize the variable. There
are two ways to do this in C++:
The first one, known as c-like, is done by appending an equal sign followed by the value to which the variable will
be initialized:
type identifier = initial_value ;
For example, if we want to declare an int variable called a initialized with a value of 0 at the moment in which it is
declared, we could write:
int a = 0;
The other way to initialize variables, known as constructor initialization, is done by enclosing the initial value
between parentheses (()):
type identifier (initial_value) ;
For example:
int a (0);
Both ways of initializing variables are valid and equivalent in C++.
// initialization of variables
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main ()
{
int a=5; // initial value = 5
int b(2); // initial value = 2
int result; // initial value
undetermined
a = a + 3;
result = a - b;
cout << result;
return 0;
}

Scope of variables

All the variables that we intend to use in a program must have been declared with its type specifier in an earlier
point in the code, like we did in the previous code at the beginning of the body of the function main when we
declared that a, b, and result were of type int.
A variable can be either of global or local scope. A global variable is a variable declared in the main body of the
source code, outside all functions, while a local variable is one declared within the body of a function or a block.

Global variables can be referred from anywhere in the code, even inside functions, whenever it is after its
declaration.
The scope of local variables is limited to the block enclosed in braces ({}) where they are declared. For example, if
they are declared at the beginning of the body of a function (like in function main) their scope is between its
declaration point and the end of that function. In the example above, this means that if another function existed in
addition to main, the local variables declared in main could not be accessed from the other function and vice versa.

Declaration of variables

In order to use a variable in C++, we must first declare it specifying which data type we want it to be. The syntax
to declare a new variable is to write the specifier of the desired data type (like int, bool, float...) followed by a valid
variable identifier. For example:
int a;
float mynumber;
These are two valid declarations of variables. The first one declares a variable of type int with the identifier a. The
second one declares a variable of type float with the identifier mynumber. Once declared, the variables a and
mynumber can be used within the rest of their scope in the program.
If you are going to declare more than one variable of the same type, you can declare all of them in a single
statement by separating their identifiers with commas. For example:
int a, b, c;
This declares three variables (a, b and c), all of them of type int, and has exactly the same meaning as:
int a;
int b;
int c;
The integer data types char, short, long and int can be either signed or unsigned depending on the range of
numbers needed to be represented. Signed types can represent both positive and negative values, whereas
unsigned types can only represent positive values (and zero). This can be specified by using either the specifier
signed or the specifier unsigned before the type name. For example:
unsigned short int NumberOfSisters;
signed int MyAccountBalance;
By default, if we do not specify either signed or unsigned most compiler settings will assume the type to be
signed, therefore instead of the second declaration above we could have written:
int MyAccountBalance;
with exactly the same meaning (with or without the keyword signed)
An exception to this general rule is the char type, which exists by itself and is considered a different fundamental
data type from signed char and unsigned char, thought to store characters. You should use either signed or
unsigned if you intend to store numerical values in a char-sized variable.
short and long can be used alone as type specifiers. In this case, they refer to their respective integer
fundamental types: short is equivalent to short int and long is equivalent to long int. The following two
variable declarations are equivalent:
short Year;
short int Year;
Finally, signed and unsigned may also be used as standalone type specifiers, meaning the same as signed int
and unsigned int respectively. The following two declarations are equivalent:
unsigned NextYear;
unsigned int NextYear;
To see what variable declarations look like in action within a program, we are going to see the C++ code of the
example about your mental memory proposed at the beginning of this section:
// operating with variables
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main ()
{
// declaring variables:
int a, b;
int result;
// process:
a = 5;
b = 2;
a = a + 1;
result = a - b;
// print out the result:
cout << result;
// terminate the program:
return 0;
}
4
Do not worry if something else than the variable declarations themselves looks a bit strange to you. You will see
the rest in detail in coming sections.

Fundamental data types

When programming, we store the variables in our computer's memory, but the computer has to know what kind of
data we want to store in them, since it is not going to occupy the same amount of memory to store a simple
number than to store a single letter or a large number, and they are not going to be interpreted the same way.
The memory in our computers is organized in bytes. A byte is the minimum amount of memory that we can
manage in C++. A byte can store a relatively small amount of data: one single character or a small integer
(generally an integer between 0 and 255). In addition, the computer can manipulate more complex data types that
come from grouping several bytes, such as long numbers or non-integer numbers.
Next you have a summary of the basic fundamental data types in C++, as well as the range of values that can be
represented with each one:

* The values of the columns Size and Range depend on the system the program is compiled for. The values
shown above are those found on most 32-bit systems. But for other systems, the general specification is that int
has the natural size suggested by the system architecture (one "word") and the four integer types char, short,
int and long must each one be at least as large as the one preceding it, with char being always 1 byte in size.
The same applies to the floating point types float, double and long double, where each one must provide at
least as much precision as the preceding one.

Identifiers In Language

• A valid identifier is a sequence of one or more letters, digits or underscore characters (_). Neither spaces nor punctuation marks or symbols can be part of an identifier. 

• Only letters, digits and single underscore characters are valid. In addition, variable identifiers always have to begin with a letter. 

• They can also begin with an underline character (_), but in some cases these may be reserved for compiler specific keywords or external identifiers, as well as identifiers containing two successive underscore characters anywhere. In no case they can begin with a digit.

• Another rule that you have to consider when inventing your own identifiers is that they cannot match any keyword of the C++ language nor your compiler's specific ones, which are reserved keywords.

• The standard reserved keywords are: asm, auto, bool, break, case, catch, char, class, const, const_cast, continue, default, delete, do, double, dynamic_cast, else, enum, explicit, export, extern, false, float, for, friend, goto, if, inline, int, long, mutable, namespace, new, operator, private, protected, public, register,reinterpret_cast, return, short, signed, sizeof, static, static_cast, struct, switch, template, this, throw, true, try, typedef, typeid, typename, union, unsigned, using, virtual, void, volatile, wchar_t, while Additionally, alternative representations for some operators cannot be used as identifiers since they are reserved words under some circumstances: and, and_eq, bitand, bitor, compl, not, not_eq, or, or_eq, xor, xor_eq Your compiler may also include some additional specific reserved keywords.

• Very important: The C++ language is a "case sensitive" language. 

• That means that an identifier written in capital letters is not equivalent to another one with the same name but written in small letters. 

• Thus, for example, the RESULT variable is not the same as the result variable or the Result variable. These are three different variable identifiers.

Variables and Data Types.

The usefulness of the "Hello World" programs shown in the previous section is quite questionable. We had to write
several lines of code, compile them, and then execute the resulting program just to obtain a simple sentence
written on the screen as result. It certainly would have been much faster to type the output sentence by ourselves.
However, programming is not limited only to printing simple texts on the screen. In order to go a little further on
and to become able to write programs that perform useful tasks that really save us work we need to introduce the
concept of variable.
Let us think that I ask you to retain the number 5 in your mental memory, and then I ask you to memorize also
the number 2 at the same time. You have just stored two different values in your memory. Now, if I ask you to add
1 to the first number I said, you should be retaining the numbers 6 (that is 5+1) and 2 in your memory. Values
that we could now for example subtract and obtain 4 as result.
The whole process that you have just done with your mental memory is a simile of what a computer can do with
two variables. The same process can be expressed in C++ with the following instruction set:
a = 5;
b = 2;
a = a + 1;
result = a - b;
Obviously, this is a very simple example since we have only used two small integer values, but consider that your
computer can store millions of numbers like these at the same time and conduct sophisticated mathematical
operations with them.
Therefore, we can define a variable as a portion of memory to store a determined value.
Each variable needs an identifier that distinguishes it from the others, for example, in the previous code the
variable identifiers were a, b and result, but we could have called the variables any names we wanted to invent,
as long as they were valid identifiers.