Getting started with C++Templates Metaprogramming Iterators Returning several values from a function std::string Namespaces File I/O Classes/Structures Smart Pointers Function Overloading std::vector Operator Overloading Lambdas Loops std::map Threading Value Categories Preprocessor SFINAE (Substitution Failure Is Not An Error)The Rule of Three, Five, And Zero RAII: Resource Acquisition Is Initialization Exceptions Implementation-defined behavior Special Member Functions Random number generation References Sorting Regular expressions Polymorphism Perfect Forwarding Virtual Member Functions Undefined Behavior Value and Reference Semantics Overload resolution Move Semantics Pointers to members Pimpl Idiom std::function: To wrap any element that is callable const keyword auto std::optional Copy Elision Bit Operators Fold Expressions Unions Unnamed types mutable keyword Bit fields std::array Singleton Design Pattern The ISO C++ Standard User-Defined Literals Enumeration Type Erasure Memory management Bit Manipulation Arrays Pointers Explicit type conversions RTTI: Run-Time Type Information Standard Library Algorithms Friend keyword Expression templates Scopes Atomic Types static_assert operator precedence constexpr Date and time using <chrono> header Trailing return type Function Template Overloading Common compile/linker errors (GCC)Design pattern implementation in C++Optimization in C++Compiling and Building Type Traits std::pair Keywords One Definition Rule (ODR)Unspecified behavior Floating Point Arithmetic Argument Dependent Name Lookup std::variant Attributes Internationalization in C++Profiling Return Type Covariance Non-Static Member Functions Recursion in C++Callable Objects std::iomanip Constant class member functions Side by Side Comparisons of classic C++ examples solved via C++ vs C++11 vs C++14 vs C++17 The This Pointer Inline functions Copying vs Assignment Client server examples Header Files Const Correctness std::atomics Data Structures in C++Refactoring Techniques C++ Streams Parameter packs Literals Flow Control Type Keywords Basic Type Keywords Variable Declaration Keywords Iteration type deduction std::any C++11 Memory Model Build Systems Concurrency With OpenMP Type Inference std::integer_sequence Resource Management std::set and std::multiset Storage class specifiers Alignment Inline variables Linkage specifications Curiously Recurring Template Pattern (CRTP)Using declaration Typedef and type aliases Layout of object types C incompatibilities std::forward_list Optimization Semaphore Thread synchronization structures C++ Debugging and Debug-prevention Tools & Techniques Futures and Promises More undefined behaviors in C++Mutexes Unit Testing in C++Recursive Mutex decltype Using std::unordered_map Digit separators C++ function "call by value" vs. "call by reference"Basic input/output in c++Stream manipulators C++ Containers Arithmitic Metaprogramming

The ISO C++ Standard

Remarks:

When C++ is mentioned, often a reference is made to "the Standard". But what is exactly that standard?

C++ has a long history. Started as a small project by Bjarne Stroustrup within Bell Labs, by the early 90's it had become quite popular. Multiple companies were creating C++ compilers so that users could run their C++ compilers on a wide range of computers. But in order to facilitate this, all these competing compilers should share a single definition of the language.

At that point, the C language had successfully been standardized. This means that a formal description of the language was written. This was submitted to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which opened up the document for review and subsequently published it in 1989. One year later, the International Organization for Standards (Because it would have different acronyms in different languages they chose one form, ISO, derived from the Greek isos, meaning equal.) adopted the American standard as an International Standard.

For C++, it was clear from the beginning that there was an international interest. A workgroup within ISO was started (known as WG21, within SubCommittee 22). This workgroup drafted a first standard around 1995. But as we programmers know, there's nothing more dangerous to a planned delivery than last minute features, and that happened to C++ as well. In 1995, a cool new library named the STL surfaced, and the people working in WG21 decided to add a slimmed-down version to the C++ draft standard. Naturally, this caused the deadlines to be missed and only 3 years later did the document become final. ISO is a very formal organization, so the C++ Standard was christened with the not very marketable name of ISO/IEC 14882. As standards can be updated, this exact version became known as 14882:1998.

And indeed there was a demand to update the Standard. The Standard is a very thick document, which aims to exactly describe how C++ compilers should work. Even a slight ambiguity can be worth fixing, so by 2003 an update was released as 14882:2003. However, this did not add any feature to C++; the new features were scheduled for the second update.

Informally, this second update was known as C++0x, because it wasn't known whether this would take until 2008 or 2009. Well - that version also got a slight delay, which is why it became 14882:2011.

Luckily, WG21 decided not to let that happen again. C++11 was well-received and let to a renewed interest in C++. So, to keep the momentum, the third update went from planning to publishing in 3 years, to become 14882:2014.

The work didn't stop there, either. The C++17 standard has been proposed and the work for C++20 has been started.

Current Working Drafts

All published ISO standards are available for sale from the ISO store ( http://www.iso.org ). The working drafts of the C++ standards are publicly available for free though.

The different versions of the standard:

Upcoming (Sometimes referred as C++20 or C++2a): Current working draft (HTML-version)
Proposed (Sometimes referred as C++17 or C++1z): March 2017 working draft N4659.
C++14 (Sometimes referred as C++1y): November 2014 working draft N4296
C++11 (Sometimes referred as C++0x): February 2011 working draft N3242
C++03
C++98

C++11

The C++11 standard is a major extension to the C++ standard. Below you can find an overview of the changes as they have been grouped on the isocpp FAQ with links to more detailed documentation.

Language Extensions

General Features

auto
decltype
Range-for statement
Initializer lists
Uniform initialization syntax and semantics
Rvalue references and move semantics
Lambdas
noexcept to prevent exception propagation
constexpr
nullptr – a null pointer literal
Copying and rethrowing exceptions
Inline namespaces
User-defined literals

Classes

=default and =delete
Control of default move and copy
Delegating constructors
In-class member initializers
Inherited constructors
Override controls: override
Override controls: final
Explicit conversion operators

Other Types

enum class
long long – a longer integer
Extended integer types
Generalized unions
Generalized PODs

Templates

Extern templates
Template aliases
Variadic templates
Local types as template arguments

Concurrency

Concurrency memory model
Dynamic initialization and destruction with concurrency
Thread-local storage

Miscellaneous Language Features

What is the value of __cplusplus for C++11?
Suffix return type syntax
Preventing narrowing
Right-angle brackets
static_assert compile-time assertions
Raw string literals
Attributes
Alignment
C99 features

Library Extensions

General

unique_ptr
shared_ptr
weak_ptr
Garbage collection ABI
tuple
Type traits
function and bind
Regular Expressions
Time utilities
Random number generation
Scoped allocators

Containers and Algorithms

Algorithms improvements
Container improvements
unordered_* containers
std::array
forward_list

Concurrency

Threads
Mutual exclusion
Locks
Condition variables
Atomics
Futures and promises
async
Abandoning a process

C++14

The C++14 standard is often referred to as a bugfix for C++11. It contains only a limited list of changes of which most are extensions to the new features in C++11. Below you can find an overview of the changes as they have been grouped on the isocpp FAQ with links to more detailed documentation.

Language Extensions

Binary literals
Generalized return type deduction
decltype(auto)
Generalized lambda captures
Generic lambdas
Variable templates
Extended constexpr
The [[deprecated]] attribute
Digit separators

Library Extensions

Shared locking
User-defined literals for std:: types
std::make_unique
Type transformation _t aliases
Addressing tuples by type (e.g. get<string>(t))
Transparent Operator Functors (e.g. greater<>(x))
std::quoted

Deprecated / Removed

std::gets was deprecated in C++11 and removed from C++14
std::random_shuffle is deprecated

C++17

The C++17 standard is feature complete and has been proposed for standardization. In compilers with experimental support for these features, it is usually referred to as C++1z.

Language Extensions

Fold Expressions
declaring non-type template arguments with auto
Guaranteed copy elision
Template parameter deduction for constructors
Structured bindings
Compact nested namespaces
New attributes: [[fallthrough]], [[nodiscard]], [[maybe_unused]]
Default message for static_assert
Initializers in if and switch
Inline variables
if constexpr
Order of expression evaluation guarantees
Dynamic memory allocation for over-aligned data

Library Extensions

std::optional
std::variant
std::string_view
merge() and extract() for associative containers
A file system library with the <filesystem> header.
Parallel versions of most of the standard algorithms (in the <algorithm> header).
Addition of mathematical special functions in the <cmath> header.
Moving nodes between map<>, unordered_map<>, set<>, and unordered_set<>

C++03

The C++03 standard mainly addresses defect reports of the C++98 standard. Apart from these defects, it only adds one new feature.

Language Extensions

Value initalization

C++98

C++98 is the first standardized version of C++. As it was developed as an extension to C, many of the features which set apart C++ from C are added.

Language Extensions (in respect to C89/C90)

Classes, Derived classes, virtual member functions, const member functions
Function overloading, Operator overloading
Single line comments (Has been introduced in the C-languague with C99 standard)
References
new and delete
boolean type (Has been introduced in the C-languague with C99 standard)
templates
namespaces
exceptions
specific casts

Library Extensions

The Standard Template Library

C++20

C++20 is the upcoming standard of C++, currently in development, based upon the C++17 standard. It's progress can be tracked on the official ISO cpp website.

The following features are simply what has been accepted for the next release of the C++ standard, targeted for 2020.