It has been a while since I used C++, and now that I regularly do it at work, I decided to refresh it a bit. I never really dropped it completely in this fortran-filled hiatus, but now that the new Stroustrup book is out, I decided to attack the beast again. I am therefore reading with great interest the latest “C++ programming language”, and here are a few new or semi-new things I found interesting, either because they are new, or because I forgot about them:

New initialization style

Variables can be initialized with a new style, which Stroustrup recommends

int a {3};

Which adds to the old style

int a = 3;

Similar expressions that are also supported are

int a = {3};
int a(3);

I am a bit disappointed with this addition, but apparently it behaves in a stricter way when conversion is required

int main() {
        int a = 40.3; // No error, but truncates
        int a {40.3} // Error
}

However, this backfires horribly if you use another addition to the language: auto types

int main() {
        auto a = 40; // a is now an int
        auto a {40} // a is now an initializer_list
}

So, you should prefer {} over = except when using auto, when the opposite is true. What the hell…

auto variables

Finally, instead of writing

MyClass<MyTemplate, MySecondTemplate<int, string> > *a = MyClass<MyTemplate, MySecondTemplate<int, string> >("string")

We can write

auto *a = MyClass<MyTemplate, MySecondTemplate<int, string> >("string")

The compiler knows the type at compile time, and can use this knowledge to save us some typing. auto is cool.

using instead of typedef

Using, for all purposes, replaces typedef.

typedef MyClass * MyClassPointer
using MyClassPointer = (MyClass *);

Placement new

Albeit not a C++11 feature, I discovered this one only recently. A Placement new is a form of the new operator that does not allocate memory, but calls the constructor on previously allocated memory. It is particularly convenient if you have a memory pool and want to create a new object on it, meaning that it allows you to separate allocation from construction. An example (taken from here):

#include 
using namespace std;
int main() {
        char *buf  = new char[1000];         // pre-allocated buffer
        string *q = new string("hi");        // ordinary heap allocation. Allocates and call constructor
        delete(q);                           // ordinary heap deallocation. Calls destructor and deallocates.
        string *p = new (buf) string("hi");  // placement new. Executes constructor without allocation
        p->~string();                        // executes destructor.
        delete[] buf;                        // free the memory of the buffer
}

The first new allocates memory and executes the constructor. The first one does not allocate any memory: it executes the constructor on the pre-allocated memory provided by the given buffer. Note that the destructor must be called manually, and that the buffer must be freed independently in a separate delete[] on the buf itself.

Placement new can also be used on stack memory (usual scope lifespan warnings apply).

lambda expressions

inline namespaces

Final keyword

With the final keyword, you can now prevent derived classes to reimplement virtual methods of the base class, effectively allowing you to close further reimplementation.

class Base  {
public:
virtual void function() {};

};

class Derived1 : public Base {

public:

void function() final;

}

class Derived2 : public Derived1 {

void function(); // Error. Can't override after final

}

Other little things: nullptr, enum classes, constexpr

The keyword nullptr can now be used in a pointer assignment. This replaces the NULL or 0 frequently used for the same purpose.

Enum classes are a special kind of enum that is much more type strict than a traditional C enum. They are strict in namespacing and don’t cast to an integer implicitly.

constexpr are constant expression that are evaluated at compile time, instead of runtime. They are useful to provide constant values from compile-time defined information through evaluation of the expression, providing potential performance benefits.