C++ Primer, Fifth Edition

2.5. Dealing with Types

As our programs get more complicated, we’ll see that the types we use also get more complicated. Complications in using types arise in two different ways. Some types are hard to “spell.” That is, they have forms that are tedious and error-prone to write. Moreover, the form of a complicated type can obscure its purpose or meaning. The other source of complication is that sometimes it is hard to determine the exact type we need. Doing so can require us to look back into the context of the program.