The C++03 standard treats temporary types as r-values (types only meant to go on the right hand side of an assignment expression). As such, it is only possible to bind a temporary to a const reference type. This is a somewhat arbitrary and, often, frustrating rule. The original idea was that there would be no good reason to modify a temporary; however, it turns out that there are plenty of good reasons for doing so and this arbitrary restriction was just a nuisance that served no good cause.
Category: Tutorials
The basics of Spam detection
During my numerous years as a software engineer I have spent many an occasion developing solutions to combat Spam. This article introduces the origins of spam and then looks at a number of ways it can be detected.
Building Boost on Windows
In case you’ve never heard of it before, Boost is a set of peer reviewed libraries for C++. They provide a lot of features that are sorely missing from the standard C++ libraries and are probably the closest C++ developers have to a standard development toolkit. In fact, Boost is so useful that a number of the projects were included in the C++11 standard.
Meta Template Programming – where to start?
A good friend of my asked me how to get started in meta-template programming. Of course, the first thing is to know C++ and know it well. Other than that, I think my best advise is to ensure you completely understand how the C++ template generation process works. For example, if you don’t know what SFINAE stands for you’re probably not really to start writing meta-templates (of course, that doesn’t mean you are not ready to start learning).
Continue reading “Meta Template Programming – where to start?”
Set union problem
Today I had the privilege of a job interview with one of the leading companies in the online streaming music space. I’d like to think the interview went well, although I was incredibly nervous and my brain decided it was going to operate in a way that suggested it was wading through treacle; but I digress. During the interview I was asked an algorithmic question and I have to admit I was initially quite flummoxed. This post is about that question. Continue reading “Set union problem”
Thinking about efficiency
This article is going to cover a typical interview test question, which asks you to find the missing number in an array. The array is N elements in size and contains all the numbers 1 to N. The numbers can be in any order but will never repeat. One of the numbers is missing and your task is to find the missing number as efficiently as possible. There are a number of different ways we could tackle this problem, which we’re going to explore. The focus of this article isn’t so much about how to solve this problem and more about the (in)efficiency of different algorithms we might use.
Virtual Function Defaults
Virtual functions and default parameter arguments are a staple of all C++ programmers, but you might get more than you bargained for if you decide to mix and match them. Try this little quiz and see if your coders intuition is correct.
Template syntax mind warp!
Templates are a hugely powerful feature of C++. They allow you to do so many different and cool things. Unfortunately, templates do have a bit of a reputation for having rather nasty syntax and for the most part this reputation is quite well deserved. This little quiz shows an example of some template syntax that you’ll only rarely come across but if you don’t know about it you could literally be left scratching your head in disbelieve, convinced you’ve uncovered a compiler bug.
Reversing a linked list
Linked lists are an interviewers favourite subject matter. Whilst they are pretty easy to understand, at least in principle, they do require a little bit of brain warping to get your head around what’s going on under the hood. Of the common questions about linked lists I’ve come across, this quiz tackles the most common: how to reverse a linked list.
Which STL Container?
Included as part of the C++ Standard Template Library (STL) is a collection of generic containers. Each of these containers serves a different purpose and has different pros and cons. It is often difficult to decide which container to use and when to use it.
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