COMS W4995 C++ Deep Dive for C Programmers

Spring 2026

COMS 4995-005: Mon & Wed 5:40-6:55pm, 402 Chandler
Two synchronous and in-person exams:
- Exam 1: Wednesday March 11
- Exam 2: Wednesday April 22
- No final exam
There are no make-up or alternate exams. If you cannot make any of those exams, please take the course next time.
Instructor: Jae Woo Lee
Office hours:
- Jae’s office hours
- TA office hours
Anonymous feedback form
Attendance 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
W 1/21	HW0 Part A due
F 1/23	HW0 Part B due
R 2/5	Lab 1 due
Su 2/22	Lab 2 due
Sa 3/7	Lab 3 due
W 3/11	Exam 1

Course Schedule

Lecture 1: W 1/21

Course overview and logistics

Slides: OVERVIEW AND LOGISTICS

C to C++

Lecture: 01-c2cpp
- Introduction to string, iostream, namespace
Source code:
- Makefile, hello.cpp

Lecture 2: M 1/26

C to C++ (continued)

Lecture: 01-c2cpp
- Compiling & linking C++ code with Makefile
Source code:
- Makefile, hello.cpp

Basic-4 in C++

Lecture: 02-basic4
- Member functions
- Constructors and destructors
- Stack allocations and heap allocations
Source code: Makefile, basic4.cpp

Lecture 3: W 1/28

Basic-4 in C++ (continued)

Lecture: 02-basic4
- heap allocation of arrays
- passing by value vs. passing by reference
- const member function
- three cases of copy construction
Source code: Makefile, basic4.cpp

Lecture 4: M 2/2

Basic-4 in C++ (continued)

Lecture: 02-basic4
- three cases of copy construction (continued)
- copy elision
- copy assignment
- compiler-generated basic4
Source code: Makefile, basic4.cpp

MyString class

Lecture: 03-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 2/4

MyString class (continued)

Lecture: 03-mystring
- Basic-4 of MyString class
- Inlining member functions
- operator+
Source code: MyString class & test drivers

Lecture 6: M 2/9

MyString class (continued)

Lecture: 03-mystring
- put-to & get-from operators
- operator[]
- Exception handling
Source code: MyString class & test drivers

Function template

Lecture: 04-function-template
- Defining a function template
- Overloading function template with non-template function
- Template compilation model
Source code: Max() function template & test code

Lecture 7: W 2/11

Function template (continued)

Lecture: 04-function-template
- Overloading function template with non-template function
- Template compilation model
Source code: Max() function template & test code

Dynamically growable array

Lecture: 05-dynamically-growable-array
- IntArray class & code walkthrough
- Time complexity of push_back()
- Strong exception guarantee
- Member initializer list
Source code: Makefile, intarray1.cpp
Lecture outline

Lecture 8: M 2/16

Move semantics

Lecture: 06-move-semantics
- Motivation: returning large objects efficiently
- Implementing move constructor
- Copy elision eliminates move constructor calls
- L-value vs. r-value references
- Implementing move assignment
- Casting to rvalue reference
- std::move()
Source code: Makefile, intarray2.cpp, rvalue-test.cpp
Lecture outline

Vec class template

Lecture: 07-vec-class-template
- Turning IntArray into a class template
Source code: Makefile, vec1.cpp,
Lecture outline

Lecture 9: W 2/18

Vec class template (continued)

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

Inheritance and Polymorphism

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

Lecture 10: M 2/23

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 without virtual functions
- static_cast
- Multiple inheritance with virtual functions
Source code: Makefile, inherit1.cpp, inherit2.cpp
Lecture outline

Lecture 11: W 2/25

Inheritance and Polymorphism (continued)

Lecture: 08-inheritance
- Multiple inheritance with virtual functions (review)
- 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
Lecture outline

I/O streams

Lecture: 09-io-streams
- Using I/O streams
- I/O manipulator
- I/O stream class hierarchy
Source code: Makefile, io1.cpp,
Lecture outline

Lecture 12: M 3/2

I/O streams (continued)

Lecture: 09-io-streams
- I/O stream states
- Recovering from I/O failure
- Mixing C and C++ I/O
- I/O of user-defined structure
- String streams
- File streams
Source code: Makefile, io1.cpp, io2.cpp, io3.cpp,
Sample input files: good, malformed
Lecture outline

Lecture 13: W 3/4

STL Sequence Containers

Lecture: 10-sequence-containers
- Arrays in C++
- std::array
- std::vector
- std::deque
- std::list
- std::forward_list
Source code: Makefile, stl.cpp
Lecture outline

Lecture 14: M 3/9

Iterators

Lecture: 11-iterators
- For_Each() template function
- begin() & end()
- const_iterator
- iterator and range-for loop
- Subtleties in For_Each() implementation
  - (b != e) vs. (b < e)
  - ++b vs. b++
Source code: Makefile, iterator1.cpp
Lecture outline

Exam 1: W 3/11

Exam 1

Coverage:
- Labs 1, 2, and 3
- Lecture notes 1-10 (up to and including STL sequence containers)
- Sample exams
- All ANN emails

No Classes on M 3/16 & W 3/18 – Spring Break

Last updated: 2026-03-09