Features of C++ – Introduction

C++ is object-oriented and a general-purpose programming language which is said to be intermediate-language (a combination of both high and low-level language features and C++ language is considered as an enhanced version of C programming language for having an added feature added to this C is an object-oriented paradigm which makes it C++. Therefore we can say C++ is an updated version of the C language. In general, C++ also has some other added up gradations to C language are operator overloading, error & exception handling, namespace feature, etc which can help the developer to create a program that includes classes and objects, therefore, C++ language is said to be an object-oriented language.

How programmers use C++ in different ways.

In this article, let us see a few features of the C++ programming language that the programmers make use of the most. They are listed below:

1. C++ is machine-independent or Language portability.

C++ programming language is a platform-independent language unlike other languages as the programs written in C++ can be run and compiled in many operating systems with slight or no change in the code. Hence it makes it the developers easy to write once and run anywhere (portability) feature very important. But we should note that the executable file of C++ is cannot be run on the different operating system.

2. C++ is an Intermediate language:

C++ is a mid-level programming language because C++ is a combination of both low and high-level languages. Where C++ develop programs in low-level programming in system applications such as driver, kernel, etc and it also works well with high-level programming as it helps the developers to work great with human-comprehensible languages (English).

 

3. C++ is Object-oriented language.

This is one of the most helpful and popular features of C++ for the developers as C++ came into existence when this feature up gradation was done to C language. This feature allows the developers to know the concepts like creating or destroying objects which is an instance of a class, encapsulation, inheritance, abstraction, polymorphism, etc. Therefore the class concept is considered as a blueprint in which the objects are created.

4. Simple ad popular language:

C++ is a simple language as it will make the developers simple & easy to learn C++ language who already knows C language as there are very minute changes in C++. This language is simple as it also provides the ability to divide the programs into small logical parts along with which also supports a rich set of libraries that is it provides many different inbuilt functions for better program development along with a variety of data types. In C++, it also provides another new concept with the “auto” keyword which also makes C++ language easier ad simpler for the developers. Therefore it is considered a popular language among C and C++.

5. Case-sensitive:

This is another feature where the programmer should always pay attention to. C++ programming language is case-sensitive which means when the developers are writing the programs they should write the program in small case only not no other case or sentence case would be supported. Example: if we want to display the output using “cout” only and not “Cout” unlike other programming languages.

6. Dynamic memory allocation

C++ also has a feature where it can allocate memory dynamically unlike statically. This feature is an added feature due to the concept of pointers in C++. In C++, the memory allocation can be freed at any time and to do this C++ library provides a free() function that frees up the memory that is allocated.

7. Rich set of libraries

C++ provides a huge set of libraries that are used within the programs which can be used for developing or supporting the logical code or the entire program. There are many libraries which are also classified accordingly and a few of them are: <ctime> which provides data and time utilities, <typeinfo> provides runtime type information, <memory> for memory allocation and it contains high-level management utilities, <climits> which give the limits of integral types, <cfloat> which gives the limits of floating-point types, <iostream> which provides standard input and output functions, <exception> which contains functions for error handling or exception handling utilities and many more.

8. Compiler based language.

C++ is a compiler-based programming language unlike other languages that are interpreter based languages such as Python and Java and there is no program executed without compilation and due to this the compilation and execution time of the C++ program is less which makes C++ faster than other interpreter based languages.

9. The Pointer concept

C++ provides this pointer concept as it allocates memory dynamically and also it is one of the solutions to problems related to memory allocation. Pointers in C++ are variables that store the address of another variable which in turn means that it points to the memory location of that variable which helps in increase the C++ program performance.

10. Syntax based language

C++ strictly follows rules and regulations when it comes to writing the programs because it is a must for the developers to follow the proper syntax else it will throw certain syntax errors. Hence C++ is also a syntax-based language.

Advantages of Features of C++

1. Portability

As C++ provides a selection of platforms or devices for running the programs which means the C++ programs can be run or executed in many different machines and hence it can be said as platform-independent language.

C++ is faster when compared to other languages as it is a compiled based language and others are interpreter based language.

3. Scalability and compatibility

2. Faster language

As C++ is a statically typed language it is much better in performance as it checks code before it is executed and hence all the apps are also very resource intensive which makes this language more scalable. C++ is compatible with C as both programs are almost the same.

4. Multiple paradigms 

C++ is a multiple paradigm language because it usually follows the different styles of programming such as object-oriented, imperative, generic, etc which are many dependent on using concepts like encapsulation, polymorphism, logics, the structure of the program, etc.

5. Memory management

C++ provides control over managing memory where it makes the user’s responsibility more to manage memory which is usually managed by the garbage collector as this language uses dynamic memory allocation.

Conclusion:

In this article, we conclude that C++ is an extension language of the C programming language. In this article, we saw the features that are supported in C++ which makes the new generation learn and implement this language easily. As in many industries, C++ is used for different real-time applications this language makes it at the highest position.