COMS W4995 C++ Deep Dive for C Programmers

Fall 2025

• COMS 4995-007: Mon & Wed 5:40-6:55pm, 750 CEPSR (Costa Engineering Commons)

• Two synchronous and in-person exams:

  • Exam 1: Wednesday October 22
  • Exam 2: Wednesday December 17 (to be confirmed)

  There are no make-up or alternate exams. If you cannot make any of those exams, please take the course next time.

• Instructor: Hans J. Montero

• Hans & TA office hours: calendar

• Anonymous feedback form

Course essentials

• OVERVIEW AND LOGISTICS
• REQUIRED READING: ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICIES
• Linux Programming Environment – same as COMS 3157
• Jae’s Git Tutorial – same as COMS 3157
• Lab Workflow
• Helpful Guides

Important Dates

Date	Assignment
F 9/19	Lab 1 due
Su 10/5	Lab 2 due
F 10/17	Lab 3 due

Course Schedule

Lecture 1: W 9/3

Course overview and logistics

• OVERVIEW AND LOGISTICS
  • L00-overview

• Assignments:

  1. Subscribe to c2cpp@lists.cs.columbia.edu – see L00 above

  2. Read the following two documents:
     • http://www.cs.columbia.edu/education/honesty
     • http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~jae/honesty.html

  3. HW0 due Fri 9/5, 11:59pm

     Send an email to Hans and Jae containing:

     • To: hans@cs.columbia.edu, jae@cs.columbia.edu
     • Subject: “[c2cpp] hw0-UNI” – without quotes, sole space before hw0, UNI replaced with your actual UNI in lowercase
     • Your name, major & school program, year – e.g., Hans Montero, Computer Science, Columbia Engineering, class of 2021
     • Your pledge – see http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~jae/honesty.html
     • CS classes taken and/or other programming background
     • Optionally anything else you want to let us know
     • Optionally attach a picture of you, but please reduce image file size to about 100KB

C to C++ (c2cpp)

• Lecture: L01-c2cpp
  • Compiling & linking C++ code with Makefile
  • Introduction to string, iostream, namespace
• Source code:
  • Makefile, hello.cpp

Lecture 2: M 9/8

Basic-4 in C++

• Lecture: L02-basic4
  • Member functions
  • Constructors and destructors
  • Stack allocations and heap allocations
• Source code: Makefile, basic4.cpp

Lecture 3: W 9/10

Basic-4 in C++ (continued)

• Lecture: L02-basic4
  • heap allocation of arrays
  • passing by value vs. passing by reference
  • const member function
  • three cases of copy construction
  • copy elision
• Source code: Makefile, basic4.cpp

Lecture 4: M 9/15

Basic-4 in C++ (continued)

• Lecture: L02-basic4
  • copy assignment
  • compiler-generated basic4
• Source code: Makefile, basic4.cpp

MyString class

• Lecture: L03-mystring
  • Motivation
  • Source code overview
    • mystring.h vs. mystring.cpp
    • Makefile and test drivers
  • MyString constructor
• Source code: MyString class & test drivers

Lecture 5: W 9/17

MyString class (continued)

• Lecture: L03-mystring
  • Basic-4 of MyString class
  • Inlining member functions
  • operator+
• Source code: MyString class & test drivers

Lecture 6: M 9/22

MyString class (continued)

• Lecture: L03-mystring
  • put-to & get-from operators
  • operator[]
  • Exception handling
• Source code: MyString class & test drivers

Function template

• Lecture: L04-function-template
  • Defining a function template
  • Template specialization
  • Template compilation model
• Source code: Max() function template & test code

Lecture 7: W 9/24

Dynamically growable array

• Lecture: L05-dynamically-growable-array
  • IntArray class & code walkthrough
  • Time complexity of push_back()
  • Strong exception guarantee
  • Member initializer list
• Source code: Makefile, intarray1.cpp

Move semantics

• Lecture: L06-move-semantics
  • Motivation: returning large objects efficiently
  • Implementing move constructor
  • Copy elision eliminates move constructor calls
• Source code: Makefile, intarray2.cpp

Lecture 8: M 9/29

Move semantics (continued)

• Lecture: L06-move-semantics
  • Review of move constructor: motivation and implementation
  • L-value vs. r-value references
  • Implementing move assignment
  • Casting to rvalue reference
  • std::move()
• Source code: Makefile, intarray2.cpp, rvalue-test.cpp

Vec class template

• Lecture: 07-vec-class-template
  • Turning IntArray into a class template
  • Value semantics of STL containers
• Source code: Makefile, vec1.cpp,

Lecture 9: W 10/1

Vec class template (continued)

• Lecture: 07-vec-class-template
  • Stack & heap diagram of Vec<MyString>
  • Placement new()
  • Strong exception guarantee revisited
• Source code: Makefile, vec2.cpp, vec3.cpp, mystring.h, mystring.cpp

Inheritance and Polymorphism

• Lecture: 08-inheritance
  • Inheritance basics
  • Memory layout of derived classes
• Source code: Makefile, inherit1.cpp

Lecture 10: M 10/6

Inheritance and Polymorphism (continued)

• Lecture: 08-inheritance
  • Inheritance basics (review)
  • Memory layout of derived classes (review)
  • Static binding vs. dynamic binding
  • Virtual function table (vtable)
  • Multiple inheritance object layout
  • static_cast
• Source code: Makefile, inherit1.cpp, inherit2.cpp

Lecture 11: W 10/8

Inheritance and Polymorphism (continued)

• Lecture: 08-inheritance
  • Multiple inheritance without virtual functions (review)
  • static_cast (review)
  • Multiple inheritance with virtual functions
  • The diamond problem
  • Virtual inheritance
  • Order of construction & destruction
  • Pure virtual functions & abstract class
  • Virtual destructor
• Source code: Makefile, inherit2.cpp inherit3.cpp inherit4.cpp inherit5.cpp

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Last updated: 2025-10-7