Exercise 0-3

The string literal “\t” represents a tab character; different C++ implementations display tabs in different ways. Experiment with your implementation to learn how it treats tabs.

Experiments

I shall be running a number of experiment C++ programs to test out the tab behaviour. I am running this using the Code::Block IDE (Integrated Development Environment) on Window Vista platform. (According to a number of online forums the tab property differs depending on the platform (e.g. tab length).

Experiment 1

In this experiment I will add various number of tabs at the start of a line.

<h1>include <iostream></h1>

<p>int main()
{
    std::cout << "Start the following line with tabs" << std::endl;
    std::cout << "\tStart this line with 1 tab." << std::endl;
    std::cout << "\t\tStart this line with 2 tabs." << std::endl;
    std::cout << "\t\t\tStart this line with 3 tabs." << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

Result (experiment 1)

Submitting the program produces the following in the console output window.

Start the following line with tabs
         Start this line with 1 tab.
                 Start this line with 2 tabs.
                         Start this line with 3 tabs.

Process returned 0 (0x0)   execution time : 0.235 s
Press any key to continue.

Observations:

• Should the line begins with 1 tab, the tab length is 8 spaces.
• With 2 (consecutive) tabs, the second tab adds 8 spaces. i.e. total indentation is 8 + 8 = 16 spaces.
• With 3 (consecutive) tabs, the third tab is adds spaces. i.e. total indentation is 8 + 8 + 8 = 24 spaces.

From this it appears that each tab corresponds to 8 spaces.

Experiment 2

In this experiment I will add various number of tabs within a line.

#include <iostream>
int main()
{
    std::cout << "Add tabs within the line" << std::endl;
    std::cout << "I will add 1 tabs\twithin this line line." << std::endl;
    std::cout << "I will add 2 tabs\t\twithin this line." << std::endl;
    std::cout << "I will add 3 tabs\t\t\twithin this line." << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

Result

Submitting the program produces the following in the console output window.

Add tabs within the line
I will add 1 tabs       within this line line.
I will add 2 tabs               within this line.
I will add 3 tabs                       within this line.

Process returned 0 (0x0)   execution time : 0.159 s
Press any key to continue.

Observations:

• Should the line contains 1 tab, the tab length is 7 spaces.
• With 2 (consecutive) tabs, the second tab adds 8 spaces. i.e. total tab length is 7 + 8 = 15 spaces.
• With 3 (consecutive) tabs, the third tab is 8 spaces. i.e. total indentation is 7 + 8 + 8 = 23 spaces.

From this it appears that each tab is of 8 spaces, except the first tab which is of 7. (I’m not entirely sure why though.)

Conclusion

Merging experiment 1 and 2, it appears that each tab in general takes up a fix length of 8 spaces. The only exception is the first tab that is placed within a line (as seen in experiment 2), which takes up only 7 spaces (i.e. 1 space less). I am not entirely sure why at this stage.

This reminds of a message that the authors mention in chapter 0:

… string literal, … a mysterious type that we shall not even discuss until section 10.2 / page 176…

So is it something that is hidden that require deeper understanding?I hope to find out more in later chapter(s).

Reference

Koenig, Andrew & Moo, Barbara E., Accelerated C++, Addison-Wesley, 2000

Exercise 0-0

Compile and run the Hello World program.

Solution

The classic Hello World code looks like this.

// a small C++ program</p>

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
    ( (std::cout << "Hello, world!") << std::endl);
    return 0;
}

In detail

// a small C++ program

• The double forward slashes indicates comment. Comments are ignored by the program during implementation.

<br />#include <iostream>

• The #include directive ensures the <iostream> (input-output stream) facility is made available to the program.

int main()
{
}

• We declare that the main function would yield an integer (int) type result. (i.e. result = 0 if success. Otherwise non-zero). The main function is the first function that is run when we implement a C++ program – so we must define one.
• We define the main function within the two curly braces { }.

    ( (std::cout << "Hello, world!") << std::endl);

• The expression statement create a result of type std::ostream (standard output stream), defined by its first operand std::cout (standard console output). The utility cout (console output) is in the (namespace) scope std (standard library).
• The first (left associative) output operator << writes the string literal “Hello, world” to the std::cout. This causes a side-effect of displaying the string literal on the console command window.
• The second (left associative) output operator << allows the manipulator std::endl (standard end line) to manipulate the standard output stream, which in this case, ends the current line of output.
• Note that the brackets are not strictly required. I’ve included the brackets here purely to help visualising the logics associating with the left-associative output operator << .
• The entire expression statement yields std::cout as a value (a result) which is of type std::ostream (standard output stream), and as a side effect writes the string literal (Hello, World!) onto this standard output stream (as displayed in the output command window). The std::endl manipulator ends the output line. Once it’s displayed (which is what we wanted), the semi-colon at the end of the expression statement discards the std::cout value (which is appropriate as we don’t need to keep hold of this value any more).

    return 0;

• The return statement explicitly return an integer (int) value of 0 at the end of the main function to imply job run success. The semi-colon explicitly states that this is the end of this return statement.

Result

Once submitted the program, the following text appears in command window as expected.

Hello, world! 

Process returned 0 (0x0) execution time : 0.268 s 
Press any key to continue.

Reference

Koenig, Andrew & Moo, Barbara E., Accelerated C++, Addison-Wesley, 2000