Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- About This Book -- Prerequisites -- Chosen Topics -- Programming Style -- Exercises -- Why C++? -- 1: Strategies for Problem Solving -- Classic Puzzles -- The Fox, the Goose, and the Corn -- Problem: How to Cross the River? -- Sliding Tile Puzzles -- Problem: The Sliding Eight -- Problem: The Sliding Five -- Sudoku -- Problem: Completing a Sudoku Square -- The Quarrasi Lock -- Problem: Opening the Alien Lock -- General Problem-Solving Techniques -- Always Have a Plan -- Restate the Problem -- Divide the Problem -- Start with What You Know -- Reduce the Problem -- Look for Analogies -- Experiment -- Don't Get Frustrated -- Exercises -- 2: Pure Puzzles -- Review of C++ Used in This Chapter -- Output Patterns -- Problem: Half of a Square -- Problem: A Square (Half of a Square Reduction) -- Problem: A Line (Half of a Square Further Reduction) -- Problem: Count Down by Counting Up -- Problem: A Sideways Triangle -- Input Processing -- Problem: Luhn Checksum Validation -- Breaking Down the Problem -- Problem: Convert Character Digit to Integer -- Problem: Luhn Checksum Validation, Fixed Length -- Problem: Simple Checksum Validation, Fixed Length -- Problem: Positive or Negative -- Putting the Pieces Together -- Tracking State -- Problem: Decode a Message -- Problem: Reading a Number with Three or Four Digits -- Problem: Reading a Number with Three or Four Digits, Further Simplified -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- 3: Solving Problems with Arrays -- Review of Array Fundamentals -- Store -- Copy -- Retrieval and Search -- Sort -- Compute Statistics -- Solving Problems with Arrays -- Problem: Finding the Mode -- Refactoring -- Arrays of Fixed Data -- Non-scalar Arrays -- Multidimensional Arrays -- Deciding When to Use Arrays -- Exercises -- 4: Solving Problems with Pointers and Dynamic Memory.

Review of Pointer Fundamentals -- Benefits of Pointers -- Runtime-Sized Data Structures -- Resizable Data Structures -- Memory Sharing -- When to Use Pointers -- Memory Matters -- The Stack and the Heap -- Memory Size -- Lifetime -- Solving Pointer Problems -- Variable-Length Strings -- Problem: Variable-Length String Manipulation -- Linked Lists -- Problem: Tracking an Unknown Quantity of Student Records -- Conclusion and Next Steps -- Exercises -- 5: Solving Problems with Classes -- Review of Class Fundamentals -- Goals of Class Use -- Encapsulation -- Code Reuse -- Dividing the Problem -- Information Hiding -- Readability -- Expressiveness -- Building a Simple Class -- Problem: Class Roster -- The Basic Class Framework -- Support Methods -- Classes with Dynamic Data -- Problem: Tracking an Unknown Quantity of Student Records -- Adding a Node -- Rearranging the List -- Destructor -- Deep Copy -- The Big Picture for Classes with Dynamic Memory -- Mistakes to Avoid -- The Fake Class -- Single-Taskers -- Exercises -- 6: Solving Problems with Recursion -- Review of Recursion Fundamentals -- Head and Tail Recursion -- Problem: How Many Parrots? -- Approach 1 -- Approach 2 -- Problem: Who's Our Best Customer? -- Approach 1 -- Approach 2 -- The Big Recursive Idea -- Problem: Computing the Sum of an Array of Integers -- Common Mistakes -- Too Many Parameters -- Global Variables -- Applying Recursion to Dynamic Data Structures -- Recursion and Linked Lists -- Problem: Counting Negative Numbers in a Singly Linked List -- Recursion and Binary Trees -- Problem: Find the Largest Value in a Binary Tree -- Wrapper Functions -- Problem: Find the Number of Leaves in a Binary Tree -- When to Choose Recursion -- Arguments Against Recursion -- Problem: Display a Linked List in Order -- Problem: Display a Linked List in Reverse Order -- Exercises.

7: Solving Problems with Code Reuse -- Good Reuse and Bad Reuse -- Review of Component Fundamentals -- Code Block -- Algorithms -- Patterns -- Abstract Data Types -- Libraries -- Building Component Knowledge -- Exploratory Learning -- Problem: The First Student -- As-Needed Learning -- Problem: Efficient Traversal -- Choosing a Component Type -- Component Choice in Action -- Problem: Sorting Some, Leaving Others Alone -- Comparing the Results -- Exercises -- 8: Thinking Like a Programmer -- Creating Your Own Master Plan -- Playing to Your Strengths and Weaknesses -- Putting the Master Plan Together -- Tackling Any Problem -- Problem: Cheating at Hangman -- Finding a Way to Cheat -- Required Operations for Cheating at Hangman -- Initial Design -- Initial Coding -- Analysis of Initial Results -- The Art of Problem Solving -- Learning New Programming Skills -- New Languages -- New Skills for a Language You Already Know -- New Libraries -- Take a Class -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Index.