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Class

A user-defined data type in C++ that holds data and member functions.

Member Function

A function that belongs to a class and operates on its data.

Public Members

Class members accessible from outside the class.

Private Members

Class members accessible only from inside the class.

Encapsulation

Restricting direct access to data by using private members and public functions.

Throttle Class

An example C++ class used to control fuel flow with a position variable.

Constructor

A special member function used to initialize objects of a class.

Constructor Rules

Must have same name as class, no return type, automatically called.

Inline Member Function

A member function defined inside the class definition.

Namespace

A container used to avoid naming conflicts between identifiers.

Header File

Contains class definitions, function prototypes, and documentation.

Implementation File

Contains function implementations for a class.

Macro Guard

Prevents multiple inclusions of a header file using #ifndef/#define.

Value Semantics

Defines how objects are copied using assignment operator and copy constructor.

Assignment Operator

Copies the value of one object to another.

Copy Constructor

Initializes an object as a copy of another object.

Default Argument

A function parameter value used when no argument is supplied.

Value Parameter

A parameter passed by copying its value.

Reference Parameter

A parameter passed by reference, allowing modification.

Const Reference Parameter

A reference parameter that cannot be modified.

Operator Overloading

Defining how operators like + or == work with custom types.

Binary Operator

An operator that takes two operands.

Comparison Operator Overload

Defines operators like == for custom classes.

Arithmetic Operator Overload

Defines operators like + for custom classes.

Stream Insertion Operator

operator<< used for output with cout.

Stream Extraction Operator

operator>> used for input with cin.

Friend Function

A non-member function that can access private class members.

Container Class

A class designed to store and manage collections of data.

Bag

A container class that holds unordered items with duplicates allowed.

Bag Initial State

An empty bag with zero items.

Insert Operation

Adds an item to a bag.

Remove Operation

Deletes one occurrence of an item from a bag.

Occurrences Function

Counts how many times a value appears in a bag.

Static Bag

A bag implemented using a fixed-size array.

Dynamic Bag

A bag implemented using a dynamically allocated array.

Pointer

A variable that stores a memory address.

Dereferencing

Accessing the value a pointer points to using *.

Dynamic Variable

A variable allocated during runtime using new.

Dynamic Array

An array allocated at runtime with a size chosen during execution.

new Operator

Allocates memory dynamically on the heap.

delete Operator

Releases dynamically allocated memory.

delete[]

Used to free dynamically allocated arrays.

Pointer Parameter

A function parameter that receives a memory address.

Array Parameter

Arrays passed to functions are treated as pointers.

Reserve Function

Changes the capacity of a dynamic container.

Destructor

A special function that frees resources when an object is destroyed.

Destructor Rules

Same name as class with ~, no parameters, no return type.

Phases of Software Development

Specification, design, implementation, analysis, testing, maintenance, obsolescence.

Specification Phase

Defines what the program must do.

Design Phase

Plans how the program will solve the problem.

Implementation Phase

Writing the actual code.

Precondition

A condition that must be true before a function runs correctly.

Postcondition

A condition that will be true after a function finishes.

Procedural Abstraction

Focusing on what a function does, not how it works.

assert

Used to enforce preconditions during runtime.

Running Time Analysis

Evaluating how execution time grows with input size.

Input Size

The amount of data processed by a program.

Big-O Notation

Describes algorithm growth rate ignoring constants.

O(log n)

Logarithmic time complexity.

O(n)

Linear time complexity.

O(n²)

Quadratic time complexity.

Best-Case Runtime

Minimum time required for an algorithm.

Worst-Case Runtime

Maximum time required for an algorithm.

Average-Case Runtime

Expected time over all inputs.

Testing

Running programs with known inputs to verify correctness.

Boundary Testing

Testing edge-case input values.

Debugging

Finding and fixing errors in a program.