• A letter: 'a', 'b', 'X', 'Y', 'Z'
• Or a digit: '0', '1', ... '9'
• Or a special character: '+', '-', ..
• Anything you can type on the keyboard

• You can add, subtract, multiply, divide two characters, but don't do that yet.
• You can compare characters, but more on that later.
• Output: cout << 'x';
• Input: cin >> charVar
  • This will skip white space
  • then read in the next non white space character and store it in the variable.

• This is a misnomer but frequently used
• We actually mean apostrophes

• A name
• How you get access to them
• You need to worry about this.

• This is where the data is actually stored.
• You don't need to worry about this (yet)

• Each should serve a unique purpose.
• But can be reused when it makes sense.
• This is tough, pay attention to how it is done.

• The declaration takes place inside of the code block for the routine in which it will be used.
• It is at the top of the code block.
• It is in one of the following forms
  • datatype identifier;
  • datatype identifier, identifier ...;
  • datatype identifier=value;
  • datatype identifier = value, identifier, identifier=value... ;
• Some Comments
  • I like one variable declaration per line

    int age,
        shoeSize, 
        speedLimit;
    		 

  • I don't like comments following variables

    int age,         // the age
        shoeSize,    // the shoe size
        speedLimit;  // the speed limit
    		 

  • I do like initializing variables at declaration

    int age = 0,
        shoeSize = 5,
        speedLimit = 70;
    		 

  • I would throw a fit at this however

    int age = 0, shoeSize = 5, speedLimit = 70;
    		 

• Identifiers must start with either the underscore _ or a letter
• They may contain only letters, digits or the underscore
• They may not be a reserved word.

• bob
• 4bobs
• _A_WORD_
• c++
• b4TheLoop
• char

• Think speed limit, not speed of light
• Start with a lower case letter
• Each new word starts with an upper case letter
• The identifier should have some meaning.

• aBigWord
• TAX_RATE
• TheFirstInitial
• cars4Sale
• x4b9x
• a

Prompt the user for the first initial
Read in the first initial
Prompt for the second initial
Read the second initial
Prompt for the third initial
Read the third initial
Print some blank lines
Print the monogram
	 

• Will there be any users that don't have three names?
• Will there be any users with names with letters that are not part of the ASCII character set?

• Strings are a collection of characters
• Think enclosed in double quotes
  • This is a misnomer
  • They are actually inside quotation marks.
• Examples: "hello" , "Hello World", "3245", "a", ""
  • By placing a single character inside double quotes, it becomes a string and not a character.
  • Two quotation marks next to each other make an empty string
• An unterminated string will cause a syntax error
• Strings may be longer than a single line
• But may contain a new line character (\n)

• Output: as with characters
• Input: cin >> stringVar
  • Skip all whitespace
  • Read in nonwhitespace characters and add them to the string
  • Stop when a whitespace character is encountered
• Input: getline(stream, string)
  • cin is the only stream you know.
  • Read all characters into the string until a newline is encountered.
• String Concatenation: string1 + string2
  • Appends the contents of string2 to string 1
  • And returns a string
  • We will use this in assignment statements in a bit.
• Comparison, searching and other functions to come.

• Make the program more readable
• Make the program easy to modify.

• const datatype identifier = constant expression
• The datatype (int, string)
• constant identifier conventions
  • Must have meaning
  • ALL_UPPER_CASE
  • With the underscore between words.
• const string DAY = "Monday";

• After using namespace std;
• Before int main() {

Prompt for name
Prompt for Street address 
Prompt for City/State/Zip

Print letter
	

• You probably don't want to enter this data every time you run the program.
• these should be constants.