Get started with your first program!


1. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to start your very first C++ program!
If you don’t have the appropriate tools, you can head over to Tutorial on getting started with C++ to get started right away!
2. You will also learn the structure of a C++ program.

Hello World

1. Open up your text editor, or IDE and type this in to an empty file/project.

#include 
using namespace std;

int main()
{

cout << "Hello World!" << endl;
return 0;
}

2. Run it using the appropriate commands found in my Tutorial on getting started with C++ depending on your environment and you should see Hello World in your terminal!

So what just happened?

I’ll explain what the previous code just meant.

   #include 

Includes the library iostream that contains the definitions for the input/output streams

   using namespace std;

using namespace std allows us to use the entities that correspond to std. This is something you’ll usually have in all your programs.

 int main()
{

This is the main function declaration where all programs start executing. in other words, whatever commands you have after this declaration will execute sequentially.

           cout << "Hello World!\n";

This statement “cout” represents the output stream in C++ which outputs a sequences of characters to the stream which is usually the terminal.

“Hello World” is called a string.

\n indicates a newline.

           return 0;
}

This return statement causes the main function to finish executing. The zero simply means that the program finished successfully. There are other codes, but I’ll explain those later.

Structure of a C++ Program

With the basic Hello World program you should follow the following guidelines when creating any program.

header files

using namespace std;

int main()
{

statements to execute your program

return 0;

}

Additional Resources

Getting Started for Programming shows you what you need in order to start programming.


Introduction to what C++ really is

Congratulations! You’ve made your first program! If you are having any trouble feel free to post a comment and I’ll respond promptly!