Important Features in C++11

So far, we have already learnt most of the commonly used C++ features. Many of them are introduced in C++11 standard. Here we sum up a list of some important features in C++11.

Keywords and Syntax

• auto: A type identifier that can automatically derives the type from the right side of operator =.

• nullptr: A specialized keyword that refers to a NULL pointer.

• For each: Traverse the container. The syntax is for(element: containter). Underlying implementation is iterators.

• Rvalue reference &&: A reference to a Rvalue. It supports move semantics std::move() and perfect forwarding std::forwar().

• ...: Templates with variable number of paramters.

Smart Pointers

shared_ptr: A pointer with reference counting. Multiple pointers can point to a same object.

weak_ptr: A observer pointer which will not change the reference count of the recourse, but can only examine if the object exists or not.

Function Objects and Binders

std::function: A powerful class able to bind a function with a function object.

std::bind(): Binds the parameters in a function, and returns a function object.

Lambda expressions: Anonymous functions that can serve as a function object without being given a name.

Containers

unordered_set: A associative container storing keys. Its underlying implementation is a hash map.

unordered_map: A associative container storing key-value pairs. Its underlying implementation is a hash map.

array: An array container. Unlike vector, the size of the array is immutable.

forward_list: A single linked list. list is a double linked list.

Multithreading

Previous C++ standard doesn't support language-level thread library. Since different operating system has different thread API, there are troubles when writing cross-platform codes. Now C++11 has its own thread support library which is very easy to use. In this chapter we will introduce threads, locks and atomic operations in C++.