starting with c++ before mql.. how much c++ should one learn?

Hi all.. Decided to learn to code mql and make my own scripts.. After reading around on here -- it seemed the best way to learn mql was to learn a bit of c++
first then move on to mql... Which i have done..

My question is this.. How much c++ do you think one should learn before transitioning over to mql.. Do i need to learn classes and constructors and all of that stuff.. Or is a basic understanding of if/then statements passing variables etc enough? Just wondering how far i need to go with c++ before moving over to learn mql..

Thanks all ...

The short answer is none but it depends on your long-term goals and current level of programming experience.

MQL4 and MQL5 are domain specific languages. They look like C++ (many other languages have borrowed the C-style syntax) but MQL has some major differences - primarily due to the differences in goals.

C++ is a general purpose language language it is, as a generalisation, considered to be a superset of C (there are some minor differences). It supports low-level operations direct control of memory allocation, hardware access etc.

In contrast MQL is designed to run in the Metatrader "Sandbox." It needs to be this way so a malicious programmer can't easily write EA's, indicators or scripts to take control of a traders system etc.

MQL is also single threaded e.g. there is only on execution thread available to the entire sandbox for all indicators and EAs being run on all charts. C++ can be multi-threaded it depends on the platform your working on and the if you want the application to be multi-threaded. Threaded applications can be a nightmare to develop if done poorly.

In MQL you cannot directly manipulate memory. The runtime largely takes care of memory management for you (but when you allocate arrays or create pointers you need to explicitly delete them to avoid memory leakage. Noting that pointers in MQL are not like pointers in C or C++.

Pointers are also very different. In MQL pointers are merely "handles" that point to objects and once created and only be changed by assigning a new pointer value or via a delete statement In C++ pointers can be manipulated and create far greater memory leakage issues when you fail to deallocte them from the heap etc. In C++ you 100% on your own when in comes to memory management.

MQL has classes similar to C++. The MQL class model does not support:

1. pure virtual functions (e.g. creating abstract classes like in Java). The documentation does state this functionality exists but its just doesn't work.
2. multiple inheritance. In C++ you can inherit from more than one base/ancestor class. In some circumstances this can be a very handing design idiom.
3. operator overloading support is unreliable/nonexistent when using template classes and "pointers".

Templates functions, methods and class are closer to Java style generics. If you look in the "include" folder in you MetaEditor you will see there is a hierarchy of Array classes with a root class of CObject. The template system does support the same level type resolution and compile time meta-programming you can achieve with C++'s template compiler hence you need a hierarchy of classes rather than just have generic containers like the C++ standard template library's vector, list, map etc.

There are some more subtleties but this should be enough information (probably too much for a beginner - depends on your current level of programming knowledge).

So back to the short answer ... if you are new to programming start with MQL. If you've got some experience learn both.

Also it is worth learning MQL and a language with good data sciences support e.g. Python, Julia or R. After all if you want to bring programming to bear on your trading then 80% of that work will be data manipulation and visualisation, 19% implementing your analysis and 1% spent on the idea.

9047.

If you do not plan to learn for years, chose some other coding language
C (the basic C) has 32 keywords and yet you can count on a couple of hands how many good C coders are out there. Unlike higher level coding languages, you have to take care of everything using C/C++ - and if you are not doing that for years, your results will be anything but what you expect them to be

Use some higher level coding language - start with mql and then, maybe, if you still think you need it, learn C/C++