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
R 4/9	Lab 4 due
W 4/22	Exam 2
M 5/4 (tentative)	Lab 5 due

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

Exam 1 Review

Iterators

• Lecture: 11-iterators
  • For_Each() template function
  • begin() & end()
• 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

Lecture 15: M 3/23

Iterators (continued)

• Lecture: 11-iterators
  • const_iterator
  • iterator and range-for loop
  • Subtleties in For_Each() implementation
    • (b != e) vs. (b < e)
    • ++b vs. b++
  • std::initializer_list<T>
  • Iterator adapters
  • Stream iterators
• Source code: Makefile, iterator1.cpp, iterator2.cpp
• Lecture outline

Lecture 16: W 3/25

Iterators (continued)

• Lecture: 11-iterators
  • Iterator categories
• Lecture outline

Associative containers

• Lecture: 12-associative-containers
  • std::map & std::unordered_map
  • std::multimap & std::unordered_multimap
  • std::set & variants
• Source code: Makefile, words1.cpp, words2.cpp
• Lecture outline

Lecture 17: M 3/30

Template metaprogramming

• Lecture: 13-template-metaprogramming
  • std::distance
  • Tag dispatching
  • SFINAE
• Source code: Makefile, mydistance.cpp
• Lecture outline

Lecture 18: W 4/1

Template metaprogramming (continued)

• Lecture: 13-template-metaprogramming
  • SFINAE (review)
  • if constexpr
  • Concepts
• Source code: Makefile, mydistance.cpp
• Lecture outline

Functional programming in C++

• Lecture: 14-functional-programming
  • Function objects (aka functors)
  • Stateless vs. stateful functors
  • std::bind_front() & std::bind()
• Source code: Makefile, functor.cpp
• Lecture outline

Lecture 19: M 4/6

Functional programming in C++ (continued)

• Lecture: 14-functional-programming
  • Lambda expressions and closures
  • Ranges
• Source code: Makefile, functor.cpp
• Lecture outline

Random number generator

• Lecture: 15-rng
  • Random number generator in C vs. C++
• Source code: Makefile, rand1.cpp, rand2.cpp
• Lecture outline to be posted

Lecture 20: W 4/8

Random number generator (continued)

• Lecture: 15-rng
  • Random number generator in C vs. C++ (review)
  • Mersenne Twister engine
  • Normal distribution
  • Danger of narrowing conversions
  • Stateful functors
  • Very stateful functors
• Source code: Makefile, rand1.cpp, rand2.cpp
• Lecture outline to be posted

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Last updated: 2026-03-31