The Ten Most Common C++ Mistakes

By John Paul Mueller and Jeff Cogswell

Part of the C++ All-In-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Although many C++ programmers take measures to prevent bugs, mistakes still slip through. This list of the ten most common mistakes while writing C++ code can help both new and veteran programmers:

1. You forgot to declare the variable.
2. You used the wrong uppercase and lowercase letters; for example, you typed Main when you meant main.
3. You used one equal sign (=) when you were supposed to use two (==), either in an ifstatement or in a for loop.
4. You forgot #include <iostream> or using namespace std;.
5. You dropped the laptop in the swimming pool.
6. You forgot to call new and just started using the pointer anyway.
7. You forgot the word public: in your classes so everything turned up private.
8. You let the dog eat the remote.
9. You forgot to type the parentheses when calling a function that takes no parameters.
10. You forgot a semicolon, probably at the end of a class declaration.