Contents

Part 0: Getting a compiler to obey

  1. 0Installing a Compiler Without Losing Your Mind

Part 1: Writing programs

  1. 1Hello, World, and What Actually Happened
  2. 2Your First Error Message
  3. 3Variables, and the Types They Insist On
  4. 4Strings: Text That Doesn't Fight Back
  5. 5Input: Letting the Reader Talk Back
  6. 6Arithmetic, and Where It Betrays You
  7. 7Deciding Things: if, else, and Booleans
  8. 8Loops: Doing It Again Until It's Done
  9. 9Functions: Giving Work a Name
  10. 10std::vector: A List That Grows
  11. 11Printing, Poking, and Proving It Works
  12. 12Copies, References, and Not Wasting Work
  13. 13Sorting and Searching Without Writing Either
  14. 14struct: Things That Belong Together
  15. 15Files: Making Your Program Remember
  16. 16Maps: Looking Things Up by Name
  17. 17Validation: Assuming the Worst
  18. 18Classes: Types You Design Yourself
  19. 19Constructors, and Types That Can't Be Broken
  20. 20Splitting a Program Across Files
  21. 21Interlude: Build Something Real

Part 2: Lifting the floor

  1. 22What a Variable Really Is
  2. 23Pointers, Finally
  3. 24What std::string Was Hiding
  4. 25Raw Arrays, and Why vector Exists
  5. 26The Heap, new, delete, and What Goes Wrong
  6. 27Ownership, Destructors Doing the Work
  7. 28Templates, One Function, Any Type
  8. 29Iterators, and What range-for Becomes
  9. 30Borrowing Without Owning
  10. 31Undefined Behaviour, When C++ Stops Promising
  11. 32Where to Go Next
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Chapter 24

What std::string Was Hiding

char arrays and the zero byte you never saw.

Part 2

This chapter needs a key

A std::string is 24 bytes whether it holds one letter or a thousand. This chapter explains how that can possibly be true, and what text looked like before anyone made it comfortable.

You'll build: Walk a string by hand. Print text one character at a time, then overwrite the terminator and watch it grow.

I have a key →Part 2 goes on sale soon

Part 1, chapters 0 to 21, is free and always will be.