EffectiveC55SpecificWaystoImproveYourProgramsandDesign.pptVIP

Effective C++55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Design Chapters 5-7 Chapter 5 Implementations Item #26 Postpone variable definitions as long as possible There’s a cost associated with unused variables (construction + destruction) Example continued And it becomes clear here… What about loops? Widget w; for (int i=0; in; ++i){ w=value depends on i; … } 1 constructor 1 destructor n assignments Preferred if assignment less expensive than constructor+destructor w available in larger scope for (int i=0; in; ++i){ Widget w(value from i); … } n constructors n destructors Default to this unless you know assignment is less expensive (or w is needed) Item #27 Minimize casting Rules of C++ designed to guarantee that type errors are impossible Guards against unsafe/nonsense operations on any objects Don’t forego lightly! Casts in C, Java and C# are more necessary and less dangerous than in C++ Cast Syntax C-style casts (T) expression (double) j Function-style casts T (expression) int (j*2) C++ -style casts const_castT(expression) dynamic_castT(expression) reinterpret_castT(expression) static_castT(expression) C++ Casts const_cast: cast away the constness of objects dyamic_cast: “safe downcasting” – determine whether an object is of a particular type in a hierarchy. Impossible with old-style syntax, has significant runtime cost. Avoid if possible! reinterpret_cast: for low-level casts that yield implementation-dependent results (e.g., cast pointer as int). Rare outside low-level code. static_cast: force implicit conversions (e.g., non-const to const, int to double) Can perform reverse (e.g., void* to typed pointers) Casts take time Type conversions of any kind often lead to code that is executed at runtime Calling Base Class Function Remember to use scope resolution to call a base class function. Don’t try to convert *this to a base class object (it won’t work). Polymorphism avoids dynamic_cast class Window { public: virtual void blink() {} //