C++17 in Detail
C++17 in Detail
Learn the Exciting Features of The New C++ Standard!
About the Book
If you’ve ever asked “what’s in C++17 and what does it mean for me and my code?” — and I hope you have — then this book is for you.
Herb Sutter, herbsutter.com
Available also as the paperback version @Amazon and the interactive online course @Educative
C++11 was a major update for the language. With all the modern features like lambdas, constexpr, variadic templates, threading, range-based for loops, smart pointers and many more powerful elements, it was enormous progress for the language. Even now, in 2018, lots of teams struggle to modernise their projects to leverage all the modern features. Later there was a minor update - C++14, which improved some things from the previous standard and added a few smaller elements. With C++17 we got a lot of mixed emotions.
Although C++17 is not as big as C++11, it's larger than C++14. Everyone expected modules, co-routines, concepts and other powerful features, but it wasn't possible to prepare everything on time.
Is C++17 weak?
Far from it! And this book will show you why!
I spent hundreds of hours investigating how the new things work in order to make a nice and practical book for you. The book will not only save your time but also will guide you through all the nuances of the language.
The book brings you exclusive content about C++17 and draws from the experience of many articles that have appeared on bfilipek.com (and cppstories.com). The chapters were rewritten from the ground-up and updated with the latest information. All of that equipped with lots of new examples and practical tips. Additionally, the book provides insight into the current implementation status, compiler support, performance issues and other relevant knowledge to boost your current projects.
If you have experience with C++11/14 and you want to move forward into the latest C++ standard, then this book is for you.
Here are the features you'll learn:
Part One: C++17 Language features
- Fixes and deprecation
- Language clarification
- General language features
- Templates
- Attributes
Part Two: C++17 The Standard Library
- std::optional
- std::variant
- std::any
- std::string_view
- String Conversions
- String Matching & Searchers
- Filesystem
- Parallel STL
- Other Changes
Part Three: More Examples and Use Cases
- Refactoring with std::optional
- Using if constexpr
- Using [[nodiscard]] attribute
- How to parallelise applications
Book Mentions:
"C++17 In Detail" appeared in the Visual C++ Team Blog as suggested books for learning C++17!
Have a look: Books on C++17
Review @CppDepend Blog https://cppdepend.com/blog/?p=1180
Review @A Sawicki Blog: http://asawicki.info/news_1715_book_review_c17_in_detail.html
There's also a book page at Goodreads: C++17 In Detail @Goodreads
Other formats:
- The book is also available in print at Amazon: C++17 in Detail Paperback
- And also as an interactive course at Educative: C++17 in Detail: A Deep Dive
Technical details:
I optimized this book for a PDF reading experience, but other ebook formats should also look good. If you have any issues with the copies, let me know and I'll try to update the formatting.
Packages
The Book
Includes:
Code Samples
C++ Code Samples for the book
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
Team Edition, 5 Copies (with 50% discount)
Ideal for your team or a company library!
Includes:
Code Samples
C++ Code Samples for the book
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
Bundles that include this book
About the Contributors

Primary Technical Reviewer
Jacek Galowicz is a Software Engineer with roughly a decade of professional experience in C++. He got his master of science degree in electrical engineering at RWTH Aachen University in Germany.
Jacek co-founded the Cyberus Technology GmbH in early 2017 and works on products around low-level cybersecurity, virtualization, microkernels, and advanced testing infrastructure. At former jobs, he implemented performance- and security-sensitive microkernel operating systems for Intel x86 virtualization at Intel and FireEye in Germany. In general, he gained experience with kernel driver development, 3D graphics programming, databases, network communication, physics simulation, mostly in C or C++.
In his free time, Jacek maintains a little C++ blog, which has seen some lack of love while he wrote the C++17 STL Cookbook. He is a regular visitor of the C++ Usergroups in Hannover and Braunschweig. In order to do meta programming and generic programming better, he also learned and uses Haskell, which in turn sparked his interest to generally bring the advantages of purely functional programming to C++.
Reader Testimonials

Jonathan Boccara (fluentcpp.com)
C++17 in Detail is the ideal guide for C++ programmers who want to leverage on C++17 to write better code. The book shows the new features of the language under a practical angle, with copious details and code examples while still being accessible and easy to read. Bartlomiej Filipek's work is my go-to reference for C++17 features, and C++17 in Detail captures it all in one book.

Arne Mertz (arne-mertz.de)
With a new C++ standard delivering more features to an already complex language every 3 years, it is hard to keep track and easy to get lost. With his articles and this book, Bartek provides the much needed comprehensive view on not only what has changed, but also why it has changed and how we can use it to make our code more expressive. There's nothing left to wish for except that he can keep up with the committee and deliver a C++20 version in three years ;-)
Victor Ciura ( @ciura_victor )
C++17 in Detail is a whirlwind tour of the new and exciting features of the new C++17 ISO standard. Incubated from Bartek's excellent series of articles, his book properly organizes the topics and really goes into details when needed. Whether you're coming to modern C++ just now or you are a seasoned C++ developer and want to learn all the nitty-gritty of the new standard features, you'll find in this book amazing examples (minimalistic, yet practical) and explanations to help you along the way.
Karol Gasiński (@karolgasinski)
It's a very comprehensive guide into the C++17 standard. Detailed but allows easy navigation between described features. Definitely, a good place to start for anybody who wants to catch up with latest C++.
Marco Arena (marcoarena.com)
Bartlomiej Filipek has shaped C++17 in Detail by turning his strong blogging experience into a fundamental book for C++ developers who want to quickly get up and running with C++17 features with a practical approach. The book has a lively style, it clearly integrates feedback and pearls that Bartlomiej has gathered in the last years and it consists in an effective balance among theoretical concepts, references to the standard and official papers, and real examples.
Table of Contents
-
- About the Author
-
Technical Reviewer
- Additional Reviewers & Supporters
- Revision History
- Foreword
- Preface
-
About the Book
- Who This Book is For
- Overall Structure of the Book
- Reader Feedback
- Example Code
-
Part 1 - Language Features
- 1. Quick Start
-
2. Removed or Fixed Language Features
- Removed Elements
- Fixes
- Compiler Support
-
3. Language Clarification
- Stricter Expression Evaluation Order
- Guaranteed Copy Elision
- Dynamic Memory Allocation for Over-Aligned Data
- Exception Specifications in the Type System
- Compiler Support
-
4. General Language Features
- Structured Binding Declarations
-
Init Statement for
if
andswitch
- Inline Variables
-
constexpr
Lambda Expressions -
Capturing
[*this]
in Lambda Expressions - Nested Namespaces
-
__has_include
Preprocessor Expression - Compiler support
-
5. Templates
- Template Argument Deduction for Class Templates
- Fold Expressions
-
if constexpr
-
Declaring Non-Type Template Parameters With
auto
- Other Changes
- Compiler Support
-
6. Standard Attributes
- Why Do We Need Attributes?
- Before C++11
- Attributes in C++11 and C++14
- C++17 Additions
- Section Summary
- Compiler support
-
Part 2 - The Standard Library Changes
-
7.
std::optional
- Introduction
-
std::optional
Creation -
Returning
std::optional
- Accessing The Stored Value
-
std::optional
Operations - Performance & Memory Consideration
-
Migration from
boost::optional
-
Special case:
optional<bool>
andoptional<T*>
-
Examples of
std::optional
- Summary
- Compiler Support
-
8.
std::variant
- The Basics
-
std::variant
Creation - Changing the Values
- Accessing the Stored Value
-
Visitors for
std::variant
-
Other
std::variant
Operations - Exception Safety Guarantees
- Performance & Memory Considerations
-
Migration From
boost::variant
-
Examples of
std::variant
- Wrap Up
- Compiler Support
-
9.
std::any
- The Basics
-
std::any
Creation - Changing the Value
- Accessing The Stored Value
- Performance & Memory Considerations
-
Migration from
boost::any
-
Examples of
std::any
- Wrap Up
- Compiler Support
-
10.
std::string_view
- The Basics
-
The
std::basic_string_view
Type -
std::string_view
Creation - Other Operations
-
Risks Using
string_view
-
Initializing
string
Members fromstring_view
- Handling Non-Null Terminated Strings
- Performance & Memory Considerations
-
Migration from
boost::string_ref
andboost::string_view
- Examples
- Wrap Up
-
11. String Conversions
- Elementary String Conversions
-
Converting From Characters to Numbers:
from_chars
-
Converting Numbers into Characters:
to_chars
- The Benchmark
- Summary
- Compiler support
-
12. Searchers & String Matching
- Overview of String Matching Algorithms
- New Algorithms Available in C++17
- Examples
- Summary
- Compiler support
-
13. Filesystem
- Filesystem Overview
- Demo
- The Path Object
- The Directory Entry & Directory Iteration
- Supporting Functions
- Error Handling & File Races
- Examples
- Chapter Summary
- Compiler Support
-
14. Parallel STL Algorithms
- Introduction
- Overview
- Execution Policies
- Algorithm Update
- New Algorithms
- Performance of Parallel Algorithms
- Examples
- Chapter Summary
- Compiler Support
-
15. Other Changes In The Library
-
std::byte
- Improvements for Maps and Sets
- Return Type of Emplace Methods
- Sampling Algorithms
- New Mathematical Functions
- Shared Pointers and Arrays
-
Non-member
size()
,data()
andempty()
-
constexpr
Additions to the Standard Library -
std::scoped_lock
-
Polymorphic Allocator,
pmr
- Compiler support
-
-
16. Removed And Deprecated Library Features
-
Removing
auto_ptr
-
Removed
std::random_shuffle
- “Removing Old functional Stuff”
-
std::iterator
Is Deprecated - Other Smaller Removed or Deprecated Items
- Compiler support
-
Removing
-
7.
-
Part 3 - More Examples and Use Cases
-
17. Refactoring with
std::optional
andstd::variant
- The Use Case
- The Tuple Version
- A Separate Structure
-
With
std::optional
-
With
std::variant
- Wrap up
-
18. Enforcing Code Contracts With
[[nodiscard]]
- Introduction
- Where Can It Be Used?
-
How to Ignore
[[nodiscard]]
- Before C++17
- Summary
-
19. Replacing
enable_if
withif constexpr
- Factory with Variable Arguments- The Problem
- Before C++17
-
With
if constexpr
- Summary
-
20. How to Parallelise CSV Reader
- Introduction and Requirements
- The Serial Version
- Using Parallel Algorithms
- Tests
- Wrap up & Discussion
-
Appendix A - Compiler Support
- GCC
- Clang
- VisualStudio - MSVC
- Compiler Support of C++17 Features
- Appendix B - Resources and References
- Index
-
17. Refactoring with
- Notes
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