Fundamentals of Computer Programming

Course Length: 4 days, $119 per book

This hands-on course provides a comprehensive introduction to programming, and builds a solid foundation of programming skills that can be used to master additional programming languages like C, C++, or Java. In this course you will write, compile, and debug programs in C and C++.

Audience: Web developers, system administrators, technical managers, and anyone wanting to develop programming skills.

Prerequisites: No programming experience is required.

Basic Concepts and Definitions

What is a Program?
"Hello, world!"
The Programming Process
Program Files and Program Execution
System Programs vs. Application Programs
Input - Process - Output
Programming Languages
Compiler Errors vs. Runtime Errors
Development Environments

Writing Simple Programs

Reading Input
Performing Numeric Calculations
Formatting Output
Decision Making
Iteration
Commenting Your Source Code
Good Programming Style

Data Types, Constants, and Variables

A Program's Purpose is to Process Data
Computer Memory
Data Can Be of Different Types
Named Data: Variables
Literal Data
Assignment
Printing Variables

Screen Output and Keyboard Input

Writing to the Screen
Characters That Have Special Meaning
Some Simple Formatting
Reading from the Keyboard
Prompting and Validating

Expressions

Expressions: Where the Work Gets Done
Expression Evaluation: The Result
Arithmetic Expressions
Relational Expressions
Where are Relational Expressions Used?
And? . . . Or?
Precedence and Associativity

Decision Making

Sequential Execution
What is Decision Making?
Simple Decisions: if
Two-Way Decisions: else
Code Blocks
Nesting Control Statements
Multi-Way Decisions: switch

Looping

Kinds of Loops
Iterative Loops
Code Blocks and Loops
Nested Loops
Conditional Loops
Infinite Loops
Spaghetti Code: The goto Statement

Subroutines

Programming Without Subroutines
Reusable Code in a Subroutine
The Starting Point
Variable Visibility: Scope
Parameters
Returning a Value
Declaring a Function
Function Stubs
Libraries

Debugging

What is Debugging?
Commenting Out Code
Simple Debugging with Print Statements
Making Debugging Print Statements Conditional
Programs that Help You Debug Programs

Data Collections - Arrays

Scalar Data vs. Data Collections
What is an Array?
Accessing Array Elements
Null-Terminated Strings
Multidimensional Arrays
Array Initialization

Data Collections - Structures

What is a Structure?
Accessing Structure Members
Using Arrays with Structures

Working with Files

Terminal I/O and File I/O
Opening Files
Opening a File for Writing
Opening a File for Reading
Checking for File Open Errors
Closing a File
Text Files vs. Binary Files