Recursion A recursive function calls itself, either directly or indirectly. A recursive function knows how to solve only the simplest case(s), or so-called base case(s). If the function is called with a base case, the function simply returns a result. If the function is called with a more complex problem, the function typically divides the problem into two conceptual pieces–a piece that the function knows how to do, and a piece that it does not know how to do. To make recursion feasible, the latter piece must resemble the original problem, but be a slightly simpler or slightly smaller version of it. For recursion, to terminate, the sequence of recursive…

Function Templates Overloaded functions typically perform similar operations that involve different program logic on different data types. If the program logic & operations are identical for each data type, overloading may be performed more compactly & conveniently using function templates. Given the argument types provided in calls to a function template, C++ automatically generates separate function template specializations to handle each type of call appropriately. All function template definitions begin with the ‘template‘ keyword followed by a template parameter list to the function template enclosed in angle brackets ( <> ). The formal type parameters are placeholders for fundamental types or user-defined types. These placeholders are used to specify the…

Function Overloading C++ enables several functions fo the same name to be defined, as long as these functions have different sets of parameters (a.k.a.–different signatures). This capability is called function overloading. When an overloaded function is called, the C++ compiler selects the proper function by examining the number, types, and order of the arguments in the call. Overloaded functions are distinguished by their signatures (function name & parameter types). The compiler encodes each function identifier with the number & types of its parameters to enable type-safe linkage. Type-safe linage ensures that the proper overloaded function is called and that the types of the arguments conform to the types of the…

Unary Scope Resolution Operator C++ provides the unary scope resolution operator ( :: ) to access a global variable when a local variable of the same name is in scope. This makes it possible to declare local & global variables of the same name. The unary scope resolution operator cannot be used to access a local variable of the same name in an outer block. A global variable can be accessed directly without the unary scope resolution operator if the name of the global variable is NOT the same as that of a local variable in scope. Tip: Always using the unary scope resolution operator ( :: ) to refer…