More Effective C++

Basics

Ah, the basics. Pointers, references, casts, arrays, constructors — you can't get much more basic than that. All but the simplest C++ programs use most of these features, and many programs use them all.

In spite of our familiarity with these parts of the language, sometimes they can still surprise us. This is especially true for programmers making the transition from C to C++, because the concepts behind references, dynamic casts, default constructors, and other non-C features are usually a little murky.

This chapter describes the differences between pointers and references and offers guidance on when to use each. It introduces the new C++ syntax for casts and explains why the new casts are superior to the C-style casts they replace. It ...