Hello, C++!

Your First C++ Program

C++ is one of the most powerful and widely used programming languages ever created. Bjarne Stroustrup designed it at Bell Labs starting in 1979 as "C with Classes" — an extension of C that added object-oriented features. The name C++ came in 1983: applying the increment operator to C.

C++ vs C

C++ is a superset of C. Almost every valid C program is also valid C++. But C++ adds:

• Classes and objects — bundle data and behavior together
• Inheritance — share code between related classes
• Templates — write code that works for any type
• The Standard Library — vector, string, map, algorithms, and more

Output with cout

In C, you use printf to print. C++ introduces a stream-based I/O system:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
    cout << "Hello, World!" << endl;
    return 0;
}

• #include <iostream> — includes the input/output stream library
• using namespace std; — lets you write cout instead of std::cout
• cout — the standard output stream (like stdout in C)
• << — the insertion operator (feeds data into the stream)
• endl — inserts a newline and flushes the stream. You can also use "\n" for just a newline without flushing, which is faster in performance-sensitive code. For most learning exercises, either works fine

Chaining Output

You can chain multiple << operators:

cout << "Value: " << 42 << endl;
cout << "Pi is " << 3.14 << " approximately" << endl;

Your Task

Print Hello, C++! followed by a newline.