Dear C++ experts,
I'm a beginner with C++ and I've programmed my first numerical game for training. Here, a random number was chosen between 1-15 and the gamer has three chances to guess the right number. After each attempts, the program tells you that the guess number is greater or smaller than the goal.
Would you please evaluate my code and tell me about the efficiency of my program.
Avoid goto statements. Reasons are because
it's hard to read and debug. Each goto is
an exit of a block, a label is an entry.
If you've got n gotos and m labels, one
would have to scrutinize n*m potential
paths in order to verify the program or
search a problem.
Regards,
Joachim
Thank you so much for your great tips. I've improved my code and I could eliminate all goto statements but one at the end where I need the program to restart. how can I remove the last one? should I never use goto statement at all?
good suggestions from Joachim Pimiskern & Sayyed Jalil Mahdizadeh for any new programmer! Try avoiding goto and follow modular programming approach for better readability & easy debugging.
Your code mostly shows C with printf replaced by std::cout.
Here are some things to consider:
- ABSOLUTELY READ "Code Complete 2ed" from Steve McConnell ()
- Don't be afraid to write functions, even for small tasks (you only have a main)
- Split your program into multiple source files with specific classes/functionalities;
- Learn about references to pass parameters to functions;
- Learn about const;
- Learn about STL (algorithms and data structures)
- Learn about OO programming.
- Write BAD OO programs.
- Learn about the SOLID design principles from Bob Martin (very important for any non-trivial application/library OO implementation);
- Write better OO programs;
- Read "Effective C++ 3ed" from Scott Meyers.
- Have "The C++ Programming Language, 4th ed" at hand to learn about the C++11,14 new functionalities.
- Look at the code guidelines (see link)
If that seems intimidating, know that C++ is not hardly a "hobbyist" language. It supports multiple paradigms (procedural, object-oriented, generic and in a lesser way functional programming) in order to apply to the most general design problems.
You should also look for a real mentor to which you can turn and ask guidance and really discuss the how/why strength/weakness of a given code/design (much better than posting here for non-trivial designs spawning multiple classes/files).
P.S.: About the "Code Complete" book, I REALLY WISH I had read this book 18 years ago before starting to program for real which means to program in a team of multiple people on software maintained for many years in a commercial product needing to be reliable!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMuno5RZNeE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLID_(object-oriented_design)
https://github.com/isocpp/CppCoreGuidelines
https://sites.google.com/site/unclebobconsultingllc/getting-a-solid-start
Dear Bruno,
It's very kind of you. I strongly needed comments like what you posted. I'll try.
No problem! I hope I have shown you good starting points in your learning of C++ and programming in general.
Best of luck in your projects!
Additionnaly to what The previous collaborators have said,
Inside the case where (guess==x) is true, the goto after break is useless.
To avoid label (s) and goto (s) , and even kreak and continue, just use the while loop with appropriate conditions. You can say for example:
bool has_guess = false;
while (!has_guess && i
Again, most of the suggestions listed here focus on specific micro details which are very well explained in the "Code Complete 2ed" from Steve McConnell... but there is so much more to get from this book that I cannot recommend it strongly enough, even to experienced scientists who haven't work on real software projects requiring software engineering best practices to succeed!
Also, look at the attached paper "What Scientists and Engineers Think They Know About Software Engineering: A Survey". It might give you an idea of other "blind spots" in your understanding of programming and software development, even in the restricted domain of scientific programming. Knowing we don't know is the beginning of wisdom as Aristotle said.
Best of luck!
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