Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design

2.8. Key Point Summary

• Machine representations of C++ built-in types are machine and compiler dependent. All built-in types may be signed or unsigned except extended precision types (float, double, long double). Single quotation marks (') delimit character constants, and double quotation marks (") delimit character string literals. String literals may be any length and have a terminating NULL byte ('\0').

• Variable definitions allocate memory; variable declarations do not. A variable must be defined or declared before you use it. Variable declarations use the keyword extern, so one module may access a variable definition from another.

• You must initialize const variable definitions. Enumerated types use descriptive words to replace integer constants. ...