Is C++ Hard to Learn?

In the field of programming, from browsers to robots, the C language is the core part of all the software and modern languages. That is a technique if you want to learn the C programming language. C is ascended from a language called C programming language, a famous low-level language. It was established by multiple users. Low-level programming language means a language that is very near and familiar to the computer’s hardware but difficult to understand for humans. Also, this is abstract from the assembly language.

C was founded in 1979; at that time, it was called C with classes, and the goal was to merge the low-level features of C with the object-oriented high-level programming language. The replacement of C was called C , with the incremental operator established in C. From that time, C has advanced into an important language for the development of applications that depend on speed processing power, such as autonomous devices, the internet of things, and video games.

Is C Hard To Learn?

Of course, there is no universal answer to this question. It may depend on many factors such as our motivation and background and also what type of work we want from this language. We can say that our tactic of learning code is a similar method as we learn to speak a new language.

Indeed, many individuals generally say that C is very difficult as compared to other languages. The reason behind this is the programming model of C . Like other high-level programming languages like java, COBOL and python are much easier than C but only by definition because there is so much complexity hidden in these languages from the end-user. That is why this makes these languages less flexible as compared to Low-level languages.

Coding in high-level is like living in a house having domestic workers. We might have a cook, a gardener and a cleaning person. Consequently, we think less about everyday issues and easily dedicate all our time to our hobbies and jobs. With the low-level language, every feather has its function. While C does not have low-level programming language features just like C.

Although the syntax of C itself isn’t difficult to learn, especially if we already know about C. However, the versatility of C that makes it such a powerful and attractive language. Let’s look at some reasons that confuse many people to find C hard to learn.

Memory Management

Whenever we create a new data structure in our program, i.e., string or an array, it has to be physically allocated an address in the memory. We hardly ever think about this key point in high-level programming languages. Recycling of any memory location would not be done by the memory manager for us! But we have to think about our memory resources in the C language and use them professionally.

If a variable is frequently occupying space, although it is no longer required in the program. This is referred to as a memory leak and when a code is continuously running for a while with the memory leak.

Pointers

Pointer is famous as a base of misunderstanding for many C newcomers. These are just like variables but contain the location of the other variables. The main advantage of the pointer is that we can operate a pointer without raising the variable itself. This makes more efficient and faster code, and C is all about efficiency. Handling the pointer in the wrong way can lead to memory leaks. For example, when we do not remember our variable even if we know the pointer.

Classes

The whole point of C was to have C with classes. You will have no issue understanding the concept if we come from another object-oriented programming language. Classes are the blueprints for complex data-type known as an object. These objects come with all types of functions and attributes. When we take a class parallel, we write the objects having all the functionality. Classes are created for great and modular code.

Compiling

As we discussed the compiler earlier. The compiler is just like a translator whose main aim is to translate the complete code into an understandable computer language, i.e., zero and one. There are different types of compilers so that we can select rendering to our operating system. Whenever we want to write code in C , there are many interactive development environments such as DEV C , Eclipse, and Visual Studio, which will already include a C compiler.

Typing

Let’s come from low-level type languages like java or python. We are not familiar with the concept that these languages like C and C are strongly typed. When we create a new variable, we declare its type as well, whether a character, a vector, or a floating-point number, and it cannot be anything else. On the other hand, java and python use duck-typing, where types are declared implicitly, and we can change them at any time.

Compare with python

Here is the simple print statement. As you can see, python doesn’t need any additional library, no main function, and no return value. You just write the line and run the code. On the other hand, we must fill all the requirements like libraries, namespace, and the main function for C also declared data type of variable, but in Python, all variables are integers by default.

Here just look at the example to see the difference in implementation of programs in C and other languages:

Python

The example to check the simplicity of the python language is:

<img alt="" data-lazy- data-lazy-src="https://kirelos.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/echo/learn-Cpp-01.png" data-lazy- height="140" src="data:image/svg xml,” width=”676″>

The output can be seen here.

<img alt="" data-lazy- data-lazy-src="https://kirelos.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/echo/learn-Cpp-02.png" data-lazy- height="136" src="data:image/svg xml,” width=”724″>

C

For C Language, check out the attached code:

<img alt="" data-lazy- data-lazy-src="https://kirelos.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/echo/learn-Cpp-03.png" data-lazy- height="280" src="data:image/svg xml,” width=”716″>

The output is here.

<img alt="" data-lazy- data-lazy-src="https://kirelos.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/echo/learn-Cpp-04.png" data-lazy- height="134" src="data:image/svg xml,” width=”802″>

For Loop in python is a very simple use word for taking variable and set range, and in the loop, no need for parentheses; just print, but indentation is a must. But the syntax of for loop in C is a long statement initializing the variable then checking the condition. The script of C is long enough as compared with Python.

Conclusion

This article describes what C is and how long it takes to learn C and how much benefit C will give you. You can develop more low-level languages using C . There is nothing difficult in learning C if we have basic knowledge of programming as well as an object-oriented language. We have mentioned all the basic things above; if we can handle them, we can easily learn C .