We cover the principles of design and implementation in a progressive fashion. Simple concepts come first and form the foundation for more complex concepts. Simple classes are designed and implemented in the early chapters, then are used extensively for the implementation topics of the later chapters. The most complex file structure tools have simple implementations because they extend the solid foundation of the early chapters. Next comes the use of stream classes for input and output.
Further examples introduce inheritance, then virtual functions, and finally templates.
Each new feature is introduced and explained in the context of a useful file structure application. The book includes a wealth of new analytical and programming exercises. The programming exercises include extensions and enhancements to the file structure tools and the application of those tools. The tools in the book are working software, but some operations have been left as programming problems. The deletion of records from files, for instance, is discussed in the text but not implemented.