• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 00:30
CEST 06:30
KST 13:30
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon9[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway13
Community News
SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia7Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues25LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?39Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon What happened to Singapore/Brazil servers?
Tourneys
Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia LANified! 37: Groundswell, BYOC LAN, Nov 28-30 2025
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast
Brood War
General
Pros React To: SoulKey's 5-Peat Challenge ASL20 General Discussion BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group A [ASL20] Ro16 Group B [Megathread] Daily Proleagues SC4ALL $1,500 Open Bracket LAN
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Borderlands 3 Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine The Games Industry And ATVI UK Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3278 users

C++ for dummies question

Blogs > {CC}StealthBlue
Post a Reply
{CC}StealthBlue
Profile Blog Joined January 2003
United States41117 Posts
May 31 2009 18:20 GMT
#1
So I downloaded Dev-C++ from the net but is an further updated version in the book and the new project is different that the one being shown in the book, at the start.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/C-All-in-One-Desk-Reference-for-Dummies/Jeff-Cogswell/e/9780764517952/?itm=2


#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
system("PAUSE");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}


^Is showing when I create a new project but in the book the figure is showing this:

#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}


Is this going to cause trouble or even affect the step by step tutorials in the book?

*****
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules."
VIB
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
Brazil3567 Posts
May 31 2009 18:29 GMT
#2
It could be since you'd call the std library differently. So it would depend on what the book does. But it could eventually become a problem. I would just comment out the namespace line to be safe and go by the book.

But are you aware that devcpp is an abandoned project that isn't updated since 2005? So if your book has an even older version, it must be really really old :p
Great people talk about ideas. Average people talk about things. Small people talk about other people.
Cambium
Profile Blog Joined June 2004
United States16368 Posts
May 31 2009 18:32 GMT
#3
It's been about five years since I did C++, but they look the same to me.

iirc, stdlib.h and cstdlib refer to the same thing, and I think the namespace is declared within the header file.

Also, EXIT_SUCCESS is just a global variable that's defined in cstdlib.

Your book should probably explain these things.
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
Grobyc
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Canada18410 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-05-31 18:48:23
May 31 2009 18:39 GMT
#4
It doesn't look like you need the line
#include <iostream>

Because you aren't inputting or outputting anything.

As for the
return 0;

That ends the program, yes.

EDIT: Oh if you are actually putting more stuff in the program you will need the
#include <iostream>

still.

You should probably still include
using namespace std;

Because that's what I use in programming and the version I have uses
return 0;

There's no harm anyway.
If you watch Godzilla backwards it's about a benevolent lizard who helps rebuild a city and then moonwalks into the ocean.
Random()
Profile Blog Joined August 2004
Kyrgyz Republic1462 Posts
May 31 2009 18:42 GMT
#5
"using namespace" literally means that you are, well, going to use that name space.

The point is that you may have several classes or functions that have same names, but reside in
different namespaces which allows to differentiate between them.

e.g.

namespace A {
class X;
}

namespace B {
class X;
}

Then, when you want to refer to a particular class X from one of the namespaces, you use A::X or B::X. This functionality is mostly used by libraries to avoid name clashes with other libraries while still allowing to have good class names, for example "Vector" instead of "libXYZ_Vector".

However, if you are using only one library and don't expect any clashes, you state "using namespace X", and when resolving symbols (class/function names) the compiler would check not only the default namespace, but also namespace X. This allows not to write A::X each time that you want to use class X, but just X.

To answer your question directly, it will not make any difference unless you define a class or function with the exact same name as one of the classes/functions from the std library, which is unlikely.
Grobyc
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Canada18410 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-05-31 18:53:11
May 31 2009 18:52 GMT
#6
There's no harm in including unused declarations anyway. What I would just put to be safe is
#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}
If you watch Godzilla backwards it's about a benevolent lizard who helps rebuild a city and then moonwalks into the ocean.
cgrinker
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
United States3824 Posts
May 31 2009 19:00 GMT
#7
EXIT_Success is going to be 0, the idea being that there were no errors in exiting.
vAltyR
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
United States581 Posts
May 31 2009 19:01 GMT
#8
cstdlib and stdlib.h are the same thing. I've used them interchangably in my C++ class last semester.
내 호버크라프트는 장어로 가득 차 있어요
Osmoses
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
Sweden5302 Posts
May 31 2009 19:10 GMT
#9
The exit success thing is just a global variable. I'm more curious about why there are arguments in the main function. I've never had any, though admittedly it's been like...6-7 years since I did C++.
Excuse me hun, but what is your name? Vivian? I woke up next to you naked and, uh, did we, um?
b3h47pte
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
United States1317 Posts
May 31 2009 19:20 GMT
#10
you don't really need them there as far as i'm concerned but the IDE's like to put them there for some reason. maybe someone with more knowledge of the subject can expalin more?
araav
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
Armenia1590 Posts
May 31 2009 19:21 GMT
#11
ok, here is the thing (it's a little bit too technical, sorry, but if you want to know what's the deal, here is it).
C++ is based on C and it keeps backward compatibility with C as much as it is possible. C has these fancy libraries exposed through stdio.h, stdlib.h, stdarg.h, etc.

C++ (BS indeed) decided to make these include things to be abstracted from filesystems, etc, so the ".h" psotfix would not make sense right? that's why they changed all those NAMEs to cNAME, like cstdio, cstdarg, etc. now these files expose the old interfaces through the namespace std.

so
#include <stdio.h>

is completely equivalent to
#include <cstdio>
using namespace std;

The latter one is preferable, because it's C++, not C, and it's going to be always supported (though unlikely that the former one will ever be dropped). The C++ thing is preferable also because it does not pollute the global namespace with old C things. So the better way is to do

#include <cstdio>

and use
std::printf("%s", "I'm a good C++ fellow");


lol who asked me to jump in and write all this? :S

oh yeah, btw, cxxx files are mostly implemented like this:
// file cxxx
namespace std {
#include <xxx.h>
}; //namespace std

The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.
jonnyp
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States415 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-05-31 19:26:56
May 31 2009 19:24 GMT
#12
yeah that is weird 0.o

as far as the cstdlib and stdlib.h, if i remember correctly in C you use the library stdlib.h but when you use C++ all the old c libraries were renamed as clibraryname. so stdlib.h became cstdlib, math.h became cmath etc. but i havent c++ed in a while so i might be off

edit: you beat me to it
The number of years it takes for the Internet to move past anything is way, way over 9000.
{CC}StealthBlue
Profile Blog Joined January 2003
United States41117 Posts
May 31 2009 19:36 GMT
#13
holy fuck error(s) when I changed it the way the book was =/

0 errors on this, maybe =/

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
cout << "Hello, I am your computer talking." << endl;
system("PAUSE");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules."
R3condite
Profile Joined August 2008
Korea (South)1541 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-06-01 00:25:13
June 01 2009 00:24 GMT
#14
iono wat
using namespace std;
is but EXIT_SUCCESS is the same thing as returning 0 if i remember correctly... also all it does is turn on some flag saying that the method exited successfully which will keep a handler from catching some kind of error and throwing u an exception
ggyo...
{CC}StealthBlue
Profile Blog Joined January 2003
United States41117 Posts
June 01 2009 01:13 GMT
#15
Chapter 1 finished. 772 pages left to go.
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules."
{CC}StealthBlue
Profile Blog Joined January 2003
United States41117 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-06-03 07:18:04
June 03 2009 07:17 GMT
#16
So there is no difference between, they are both the same thing correct?

system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}


and

system("PAUSE");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}


???
"Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules."
EsX_Raptor
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
United States2801 Posts
June 03 2009 07:25 GMT
#17
On June 03 2009 16:17 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
So there is no difference between, they are both the same thing correct?

Show nested quote +
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}


and

Show nested quote +
system("PAUSE");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}


???

Do you understand what a function is right? main is a function with return value of type int. Whatever this value is, it won't change anything. It can be 0, 1, 2, ... it doesn't matter, however, using 0 is just a convention so as to say "The function returned successfully."

In the above example, EXIT_SUCCESS must be a global variable of type int whose value could be any number (most likely 0), so in the end, it's just the same thing.

I hope this helped.
araav
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
Armenia1590 Posts
June 03 2009 07:50 GMT
#18
#define EXIT_SUCCESS 0
#define EXIT_FAILURE 1

don't use those definitions, don't depend on stdlib.h. do return 0; instead
The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.
DeathSpank
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
United States1029 Posts
June 03 2009 08:00 GMT
#19
On June 01 2009 03:20 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
So I downloaded Dev-C++ from the net but is an further updated version in the book and the new project is different that the one being shown in the book, at the start.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/C-All-in-One-Desk-Reference-for-Dummies/Jeff-Cogswell/e/9780764517952/?itm=2


Show nested quote +
#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
system("PAUSE");
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}


^Is showing when I create a new project but in the book the figure is showing this:

Show nested quote +
#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}


Is this going to cause trouble or even affect the step by step tutorials in the book?

no. you'll learn letter about macros and const variables. EXIT_SUCCESS actually = 0
for learning purposes though go with return 0 unless you have other reasons not to.
yes.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 5h 30m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
NeuroSwarm 171
StarCraft: Brood War
Sea 4260
NaDa 70
sSak 40
Noble 17
Icarus 8
Dota 2
LuMiX1
League of Legends
JimRising 649
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox748
Other Games
summit1g6738
WinterStarcraft433
ViBE171
XaKoH 132
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick2258
BasetradeTV26
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH254
• practicex 32
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• Diggity6
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• Scarra1675
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
5h 30m
Maestros of the Game
12h 30m
BSL Team Wars
14h 30m
Afreeca Starleague
1d 5h
Snow vs Sharp
Jaedong vs Mini
Wardi Open
1d 6h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
Afreeca Starleague
2 days
Light vs Speed
Larva vs Soma
LiuLi Cup
3 days
The PondCast
4 days
Korean StarCraft League
5 days
[ Show More ]
[BSL 2025] Weekly
6 days
BSL Team Wars
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-09-10
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Polish World Championship 2025
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL 21 Team A
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
EC S1
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.