FAQs Index

<h3>C++ FAQ sections</h3>

• <a href="#cpp_general">General</a>
• <a href="#cpp_preprocessor">Preprocessor</a>
• <a href="#cpp_classes">Classes</a>
• <a href="#cpp_memory_management">Memory Management</a>
• <a href="#cpp_operator">Operator</a>
• <a href="#cpp_exception">Exception Handling</a>
• <a href="#cpp_structure">Structure</a>
• <a href="#cpp_casting">Casting</a>
• <a href="#cpp_callback">Callback</a>
• <a href="#cpp_template">Template</a>
• <a href="#cpp_polymorphism">Polymorphism</a>
• <a href="#cpp_design_pattern">Design Pattern</a>
• <a href="#cpp_profiling">Profiling</a>
• <a href="#cpp_random_number">Random Number</a>
• <a href="#cpp_string">String</a>

<br><hr noshade size="4">
<a name="cpp_general"><h3>General</h3></a>

1. What are good books about C++?
2. How do I convert between big-endian and little-endian values?
3. What do 'ntohl()' and 'htonl()' actually do?
4. How to declare and use two-dimensional arrays?
5. What are different number representations?
6. How is floating point representated?
7. How to deal with references?
8. What are the principles of Object-Oriented Design?
9. What are the differences between inline functions and macros?
10. What is the 'this' pointer?
11. What are different methods to pass parameters to functions?
12. What are C++ Headers?
13. How to minimise mutual dependencies?
14. What are different methods to access identifiers from a namespace?

<br><a name="cpp_preprocessor"><h3>Preprocessor</h3></a>

1. How to avoid problems with include files?
2. What are '__FILE__' and '__LINE__'?
3. What is the purpose of include guards?

<br><a name="cpp_classes"><h3>Classes</h3></a>

1. What is the initialization list and why should I use it?
2. What members of a class are implicitly defined?
3. What are the differences between classes and structs?
4. Does implicitly-defined copy constructor bitwise copy?
5. Which are the differences between 'struct' and 'class'?

<br><a name="cpp_memory_management"><h3>Memory Management</h3></a>

1. What is the difference between 'delete' and 'delete[]'?
2. How to release memory for an array of pointers?
3. Why does deleting a pointer cause my program to crash?
4. Why does declaring an array cause my program to crash?
5. What is the difference between 'const char*' and 'char*const'?
6. What are the differences between constant objects?
7. What is the purpose of a constant reference?
8. What is the difference between malloc/free and new/delete?

<br><a name="cpp_operator"><h3>Operator</h3></a>

1. How to overload postfix increment and decrement operators?
2. Why should I use '++i' instead of 'i++'?
3. How to deal with operator overloading?

<br><a name="cpp_exception"><h3>Exception Handling</h3></a>

1. The wrong catch statement catches an exception! Why?

<br><a name="cpp_structure"><h3>Structure</h3></a>

1. How do I write a structure to a file?
2. Why returns 'sizeof()' a bigger size than the members actually need?

<br><a name="cpp_casting"><h3>Casting</h3></a>

1. What are the C++ casting operators?

<br><a name="cpp_callback"><h3>Callback</h3></a>

1. How to use class member functions as callbacks?

<br><a name="cpp_template"><h3>Template</h3></a>

1. Why do I get unresolved externals with my template code?

<br><a name="cpp_polymorphism"><h3>Polymorphism</h3></a>

1. What is polymorphism?
2. How to use virtual functions?

<br><a name="cpp_design_pattern"><h3>Design Pattern</h3></a>

1. What is a Design Pattern?
2. What is a Singleton class?

<br><a name="cpp_profiling"><h3>Profiling</h3></a>

1. How do I determine the speed of a particular function or operation?
2. Which is faster: <...> or [...]?
3. How can I optimize my code?

<br><a name="cpp_random_number"><h3>Random Number</h3></a>

1. Why does my random number generator always return the same set?
2. What are good random number generators?

<br><a name="cpp_string"><h3>String</h3></a>

1. What types of strings are there?
2. What is the difference between '\n' and '\r\n'?
3. How to use 'CString' in non-MFC applications?
4. How to assign or compare strings?
5. What is the difference between 'CString' and 'std::string'?
6. How to convert between 'CString' and 'std::string'?
7. How to convert a numeric type to a string?
8. How to convert a string into a numeric type?

<br><br>

<h3>STL FAQ sections</h3>

• <a href="#stl_general">General</a>
• <a href="#stl_allocator">Allocator</a>
• <a href="#stl_sorting">Sorting</a>
• <a href="#stl_visual_c">Visual C++</a>
• <a href="#stl_mfc">MFC</a>

<br><hr noshade size="4">
<a name="stl_general"><h3>General</h3></a>

1. How to declare and use two-dimensional array?
2. How to remove elements of a particular value from a container?

<br><a name="stl_allocator"><h3>Allocator</h3></a>

1. What is the meaning of the 'Alloc' template parameter in 'vector'?
2. How do I define my own allocator for use in STL containers?

<br><a name="stl_sorting"><h3>Sorting</h3></a>

1. How to sort a 'std::vector' containing classes/structures?
2. How to sort a 'std::list' containing classes/structures?

<br><a name="stl_visual_c"><h3>Visual C++</h3></a>

1. How to remove compilation warning C4786 in Visual C++?
2. How do I use hash maps with Visual C++?

<br><a name="stl_mfc"><h3>MFC</h3></a>

1. How can I sort a 'CArray' (or 'CStringArray', 'CIntArray', etc.)?

<br><br>

<h3>Windows SDK FAQ sections</h3>

• <a href="#sdk_general">General</a>
• <a href="#sdk_window_types">Window Types</a>
• <a href="#sdk_application">Application</a>
• <a href="#sdk_file_system">File System</a>
• <a href="#sdk_process">Processes</a>
• <a href="#sdk_thread">Threads</a>
• <a href="#sdk_debugging">Debugging</a>
• <a href="#sdk_registry">Registry</a>
• <a href="#sdk_string">String</a>
• <a href="#sdk_printing">Printing</a>
• <a href="#sdk_user_interface">User interface</a>
• <a href="#sdk_gdi">GDI</a>
• <a href="#sdk_edit_control">Edit Control</a>

<br><hr noshade size="4">
<a name="sdk_general"><h3>General</h3></a>

1. How to get the processor frequency?
2. How to correctly use GetLastError?
3. How to get the reason for a failure of a SDK function?
4. What is the difference between 'BOOL' and 'bool'?
5. How to register Windows Common Controls in a Win32 application?
6. Which Windows API functions are faster, ANSI or UNICODE?

<br><a name="sdk_window_types"><h3>Window Types</h3></a>

1. What is a child window?
2. What is a top-level window?
3. What is an owned window?
4. Which are the differences between child and owned windows?
5. What is an overlapped window?
6. What is a pop-up window?

<br><a name="sdk_application"><h3>Application</h3></a>

1. How to get the application name?
2. How to set the current working directory?
3. How to get the current working directory?
4. How to get the application directory?
5. How to retrieve the version information of my application?
6. How to get the system directory?
7. How to get the windows directory?

<br><a name="sdk_file_system"><h3>File System</h3></a>

1. How to check for the existance of a directory/file?
2. How to count files within a directory and subdirectories?
3. How to search for files in a directory and subdirectories?
4. How to delete a directory and subdirectories?
5. How to get information about a partition?
6. How to get the available logical partitions on my PC?
7. How can I check the free space on a partition?

<br><a name="sdk_process"><h3>Processes</h3></a>

1. How can I start a process?
2. How can I kill a process?
3. How can I wait until a process ends?

<br><a name="sdk_thread"><h3>Threads</h3></a>

1. Where can I find references on Multithreading?
2. How to create a worker thread?
3. How to end a thread?
4. How to use member functions as thread functions?
5. How to check if a thread is still active?

<br><a name="sdk_dll"><h3>DLL</h3></a>

1. How to build a resource-only DLL?

<br><a name="sdk_debugging"><h3>Debugging</h3></a>

1. How to manage memory leaks?
2. How to use 'ASSERT' and deal with assertion failures?
3. How to I find the source of memory leaks?

<br><a name="sdk_registry"><h3>Registry</h3></a>

1. How can I access the registry?
2. How can I read data from the registry?
3. How can I write data to the registry?

<br><a name="sdk_string"><h3>String</h3></a>

1. How to convert between ANSI and UNICODE strings?
2. How to use 'CString' in non-MFC applications?
3. How to convert between a 'CString' and a 'BSTR'?
4. How to convert a numeric type to a string?
5. How to convert a string into a numeric type?
6. What are the rules for BSTR allocation and deallocation?

<br><a name="sdk_printing"><h3>Printing</h3></a>

1. Why does printer not print bitmap?

<br><a name="sdk_user_interface"><h3>User Interface</h3></a>

1. How can I emulate keyboard events in an application?
2. How can I emulate mouse events in an application?

<br><a name="sdk_gdi"><h3>GDI</h3></a>

1. How do I fill rectangles, regions and texts in graded colours?
2. How do I choose a font size to exactly fit a string in a given rectangle?
3. How do I display text filled and in shape of a region?
4. How do I display a bitmap rotated?
5. How do I calculate the area of a window exposed?
6. How do I drag an image?
7. How to capture layered windows?

<br><a name="sdk_edit_control"><h3>Edit Control</h3></a>

1. How to append text to an edit control?

<br><br>

<h3>Visual C++ FAQ sections</h3>

• <a href="#vcpp_general">General</a>
• <a href="#vcpp_application">Application</a>
• <a href="#vcpp_dll">DLL</a>
• <a href="#vcpp_network">Network</a>
• <a href="#vcpp_debugging">Debugging</a>
• <a href="#vcpp_profiling">Profiling</a>
• <a href="#vcpp_string">String</a>
• <a href="#vcpp_stl">STL</a>
• <a href="#vcpp_random_number">Random Number</a>

<br><hr noshade size="4">
<a name="vcpp_general"><h3>General</h3></a>

1. Where can I find Visual C++ code samples?
2. Can you help me with my homework assignment?
3. Posting tips: minimal, yet complete
4. What is the difference between 'BOOL' and 'bool'?
5. How to show all messages in ClassWizard list?
6. How to use different character sets?
7. How to avoid making an assignment when the intention is a comparison?
8. Questions about the VC++ 2005 Express Edition
9. How to get user details from Active Directory
10. Where can I get the VC++ redistributable packages?
11. How to make an ANSI build for Windows CE target?
12. Why Watch window shows 'unused' for a HWND variable?

<br><a name="vcpp_application"><h3>Application</h3></a>

1. How to get the application name?
2. How to use manifests and re-distributable assemblies?

<br><a name="vcpp_dll"><h3>DLL</h3></a>

1. How to make a "Message DLL"?
2. How to build a DLL to be used from another programming language?
3. How to a DLL and have the exported functions called via 'LoadLibrary()' and 'GetProcAddress()'?
4. How to build a resource-only DLL?

<br><a name="vcpp_network"><h3>Network</h3></a>

1. Where can I find examples of socket programs?
2. How to get the local hostname?
3. How to get the local IP address(es)?
4. How to set a socket option?
5. Does one call to 'send()' result in one call to 'recv()'?
6. When does 'send()' return?
7. When does 'recv()' return?
8. How do I transfer a structure?
9. How do I impose a packet scheme?
10. How do I use a timeout for 'connect()'?
11. Why does my machine send a 'RST' packet in reply to a 'SYN'/'ACK' package?
12. How do I terminate a TCP connection?
13. How does a TCP connection close?

<br><a name="vcpp_debugging"><h3>Debugging</h3></a>

1. Step by Step Introduction
2. Why does program work in debug mode, but fail in release mode?
3. How to manage memory leaks?
4. How to use 'ASSERT' and deal with assertion failures?
5. How do I debug my ActiveX/COM component?
6. How to display UNICODE strings in the Watch/QuickWatch window?
7. How do I evaluate the time difference between two events?
8. How to show Windows API errors in the Watch window?

<br><a name="vcpp_profiling"><h3>Profiling</h3></a>

1. Why can't I enable profiling in Visual Studio 6.0?

<br><a name="vcpp_string"><h3>String</h3></a>

1. What types of strings are there?
2. What is the difference between '\n' and '\r\n'?
3. How to convert between ANSI and UNICODE strings?
4. How to use 'CString' in non-MFC applications?
5. How to convert a numeric type to a string?
6. How to convert a string into a numeric type?

<br><a name="vcpp_stl"><h3>STL</h3></a>

1. How to remove compilation warning C4786 in Visual C++?
2. How do I use hash maps with Visual C++?

<br><a name="vcpp_random_number"><h3>Random Number</h3></a>

1. How do I generate random numbers of specified frequency distribution?

<br><br>

<h3>MFC FAQ sections</h3>

• <a href="#mfc_general">General</a>
• <a href="#mfc_doc_view">Doc/View</a>
• <a href="#mfc_sdi">SDI</a>
• <a href="#mfc_mdi">MDI</a>
• <a href="#mfc_dialog">Dialog</a>
• <a href="#mfc_application">Application</a>
• <a href="#mfc_file_system">File System</a>
• <a href="#mfc_thread">Threads</a>
• <a href="#mfc_dll">DLL</a>
• <a href="#mfc_debugging">Debugging</a>
• <a href="#mfc_registry">Registry</a>
• <a href="#mfc_string">String</a>
• <a href="#mfc_printing">Printing</a>
• <a href="#mfc_stl">STL</a>
• <a href="#mfc_edit_control">Edit Control</a>
• <a href="#mfc_listview_control">ListView Control</a>
• <a href="#mfc_listbox_control">ListBox Control</a>
• <a href="#mfc_tree_control">Tree Control</a>
• <a href="#mfc_date_time">Date and Time</a>

<br><hr noshade size="4">
<a name="mfc_general"><h3>General</h3></a>

1. How to prevent a resizable window to be smaller than...?
2. How do I create full screen applications?
3. How to change the font of a control?
4. What is the difference between 'BOOL' and 'bool'?
5. How to change frame and caption window styles at run-time?
6. How to make a simple text editor?
7. How to make a simple Web Browser?
8. How to process command line arguments in a MFC application?

<br><a name="mfc_doc_view"><h3>Doc/View</h3></a>

1. How to obtain a pointer to various objects?
2. How to modify the default 'Open' dialog?

<br><a name="mfc_sdi"><h3>SDI</h3></a>

1. How do I create transparent SDI views?

<br><a name="mfc_mdi"><h3>MDI</h3></a>

1. How to change the background of the MDI main frame?

<br><a name="mfc_dialog"><h3>Dialog</h3></a>

1. How to show modeless dialogs behind the main window?
2. How to hide/show/maximize/minimize a dialog?
3. How to add a minimize/maximize button into your dialog?
4. How to enable/disable the 'Close' button of your dialog at run-time?
5. How to set/get the values of various controls?
6. How to start your dialog application in hidden mode?
7. How to set the dialog window always on top?
8. How to create a non-rectangular dialog box?
9. How to drag a dialog by grabbing any point?
10. How to disable/change the behaviour of the <...> key in a dialog?
11. How to enhance a dialog-based application with Menu, Toolbar...?
12. How to handle notifications for dinamically created controls?
13. How to set the initial position of a modal dialog?
14. How to add tooltips to controls in a dialog?
15. How to disable a dialog from being moved?

<br><a name="mfc_application"><h3>Application</h3></a>

1. How can I limit my application to one instance?
2. How to get the application name?
3. How to set the current working directory?
4. How to get the current working directory?
5. How to get the application directory?
6. How to retrieve the version information of my application?
7. How to get the system directory?
8. How to get the windows directory?
9. How to show a message box in ExitInstance of a dialog-based application?

<br><a name="mfc_file_system"><h3>File System</h3></a>

1. How to search for files in a directory and subdirectories?

<br><a name="mfc_thread"><h3>Threads</h3></a>

1. Where can I find references on Multithreading?
2. How to create a worker thread?
3. How to end a thread?
4. How to use member functions as thread functions?
5. How to access UI elements from a thread in MFC?

<br><a name="mfc_dll"><h3>DLL</h3></a>

1. How to build a resource-only DLL?

<br><a name="mfc_debugging"><h3>Debugging</h3></a>

1. How to detect memory leaks in MFC?
2. How to manage memory leaks?
3. How to use 'ASSERT' and deal with assertion failures?

<br><a name="mfc_registry"><h3>Registry</h3></a>

1. How can I access the registry?
2. How can I read data from the registry?
3. How can I write data to the registry?
4. How to store the application settings in registry?

<br><a name="mfc_string"><h3>String</h3></a>

1. How to pass CString to Windows API functions?
2. How to use 'CString' in non-MFC applications?
3. How to assign or compare strings?
4. What is the difference between 'CString' and 'std::string'?
5. How to get the hexadecimal representation of a ... into a 'CString'?
6. How to convert between a 'CString' and a 'BSTR'?
7. How to convert between 'CString' and 'std::string'?
8. How to convert a 'char*' to 'CString'?
9. How to convert a 'CString' to a 'char*'?
10. How to convert a numeric type to a string?
11. How to convert a string into a numeric type?
12. What are the rules for BSTR allocation and deallocation?

<br><a name="mfc_printing"><h3>Printing</h3></a>

1. Why does printer not print bitmap?

<br><a name="mfc_stl"><h3>STL</h3></a>

1. How can I sort a 'CArray' (or 'CStringArray', 'CIntArray', etc.)?

<br><a name="mfc_edit_control"><h3>Edit Control</h3></a>

1. How to append text to an edit control?
2. How to know when text is pasted from clipboard to 'CEdit' control?
3. How to replace a line in a multi-line edit control?
4. How do I introduce insert/overwrite mode to 'CEdit' derived edit control?

<br><a name="mfc_listview_control"><h3>ListView Control</h3></a>

1. How to select a full row in a list control?
2. How to add a subitem in a list control?
3. How to change the colors in a list control?
4. How to get selected items in a list control?
5. How to use a context menu in a list control?
6. How to correctly delete items from a CListCtrl?
7. How CListCtrl notifies "checkbox status changed"?

<br><a name="mfc_listbox_control"><h3>ListBox Control</h3></a>

1. How CCheckListBox notifies "checkbox status changed"?

<br><a name="mfc_tree_control"><h3>Tree Control</h3></a>

1. How to disable an item?
2. How to detect which part of an item the user clicked on?
3. How to add icons to a tree control?
4. How to add checkboxes to a tree control?
5. How to expand/collapse a branch?
6. How to use 'SetItemData()' and 'GetItemData()'?

<br><a name="mfc_date_time"><h3>Date and Time</h3></a>

1. COleDateTime vs. CTime. Which one is better?

<br><br>

<h3>ATL FAQ sections</h3>

• <a href="#atl_registry">Registry</a>
• <a href="#atl_string">String</a>

<br><hr noshade size="4">
<a name="atl_registry"><h3>Registry</h3></a>

1. How can I access the registry?
2. How can I read data from the registry?
3. How can I write data to the registry?

<br><a name="atl_string"><h3>String</h3></a>

1. What's wrong with the USES_CONVERSION macros? How to avoid using them?

<br><br>

<h3>.NET Framework FAQ sections</h3>

• <a href="#netframe_general">General</a>
• <a href="#netframe_clr">Common Language Runtime</a>
• <a href="#netframe_clr_tools">Common Language Runtime Tools</a>
• <a href="#netframe_il">Intermediate Language</a>

<br><hr noshade size="4">
<a name="netframe_general"><h3>General</h3></a>

1. What is the .NET Framework?
2. What is the .NET Compact Framework?
3. What are .NET data types?
4. What is the global assembly cache?
5. What is the Garbage Collection?
6. What is the difference between managed and unmanaged code?
7. What are exceptions?

<br><a name="netframe_clr"><h3>Common Language Runtime</h3></a>

1. What is the Common Language Runtime?
2. What is the Common Language Infrastructure?
3. What is the Common Type System?
4. What is the Common Language Specification?

<br><a name="netframe_clr_tools"><h3>Common Language Runtime Tools</h3></a>

1. How do I use the License Compiler?
2. How do I use the Microsoft CLR Debugger?
3. How do I use the CLR Minidump tool?
4. How do I use the Resource File Generator?
5. How do I use the Runtime Debugger?

<br><a name="netframe_il"><h3>Intermediate Language</h3></a>

1. What is Language Interoperability?
2. What is Metadata?
3. How can I extend Metadata using attributes?
4. What is Obfuscation?

<br><br>