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Possible Duplicate:
Where do I find the current C or C++ standard documents?

Where can I find the full C++11 standard? I know features of it are floating around the internet but I can't seem to find the document itself.

Community
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Daniel
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5 Answers5

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You can get the full, final standard directly from the ISO, or some national bodies.

You probably don't want to get in a hurry though. The ANSI (for one) normally re-publishes an official version with identical technical material -- basically the only change is saying "ANSI/ISO" on the the title page instead of just "ISO". At least for past versions, however, the price has been much more reasonable (~$30US instead of ~$400US).

Edit: As expected, the standard is now available for $30US.

Jerry Coffin
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    Good suggestion to wait for the ANSI or other publisher's "version". In the meantime, you may make do with the latest draft standard: N3242 http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2011/n3242.pdf – mjv Oct 12 '11 at 22:02
  • @mjv : The latest _freely available_ draft standard -- N3290 is the actual latest. – ildjarn Oct 12 '11 at 22:09
  • @ildjarn: Except that it isn't freely available. – Nicol Bolas Oct 12 '11 at 22:17
  • @mjv: ANSI already has [the spec available for purchase](http://webstore.ansi.org/RecordDetail.aspx?sku=ISO%2fIEC+14882%3a2011), but even they charge $400 for it. – Nicol Bolas Oct 12 '11 at 22:20
  • @ildjarn: Sorry; I misread what you said. – Nicol Bolas Oct 12 '11 at 22:20
  • @ildjarn: better yet, thanks! N3290's gotta be darn close to the "real thing"... – mjv Oct 12 '11 at 22:21
  • @mjv : Sorry, I wasn't clear. N3290 is the latest, but isn't freely available any more; I just meant to say that N3242 isn't the latest, but is the latest that is freely available. – ildjarn Oct 12 '11 at 22:22
  • @ildjarn: thank you for clarifying. I was right in directing users who seek to save a bit of money till prices come down, towards N3242 which is the latest _freely_ available draft. They should however be aware that this is _not_ the latest draft, as N3290 came after but isn't free. – mjv Oct 12 '11 at 22:44
  • @mjv: N3290 came after, and was free when it was available, but they've since removed (at least the links to) it from the committee web site, so I don't believe it's (legally) available at all any more. – Jerry Coffin Oct 12 '11 at 22:46
  • The linked ANSI page is very confusing. The title of the page is "INCITS/ISO/IEC 14882-2012" but the title of the document is "ISO/IEC 14882:2011." – James McNellis Apr 03 '12 at 19:27
  • @JamesMcNellis: It was adopted as an ISO standard in late 2011. The ISO standard was then adopted (without changes, even to the title page) as an INCITS standard in early 2012. Though the relationship between INCITS and ANSI is hard to nail down, I believe that means it's also basically adopted as an ANSI standard. – Jerry Coffin Apr 03 '12 at 19:41
  • One difference is the drafts include an index with links that you can click on, while the $30 ANSI PDF does not. Extremely irritating. – pabigot Nov 18 '13 at 13:27
  • I think it's absolutely atrocious that one has to shell out that much money to be able to read the standard of a language that claims to be open-standard. – antred Sep 03 '14 at 12:06
  • @antred: IMO, it's utterly irrelevant. Even though I own a legal copy of the standard, I almost never use it. I almost always use the first draft that followed the standard, because it has some typos and such fixed, most internal references are clickable links (which they aren't in the real standard). You also seem to misunderstand what "open" means. It's not about the cost of the standard. It's about anybody being able to join the committee and shape the standard (unlike, say, Java, where Oracle is in complete control, so if you disagree with them, you just lose). – Jerry Coffin Sep 03 '14 at 13:34
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If you don't really need and can't afford to shell out the money for the real thing, you can make do with the latest publicly available draft: N3242.

R. Martinho Fernandes
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  • are there any knows differences between this and the real version? – Daniel Oct 12 '11 at 21:59
  • @Dani any differences should be minor. – R. Martinho Fernandes Oct 12 '11 at 22:06
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    @Dani The c++ chat insisted it was a 400 Euro front page. – Captain Giraffe Oct 12 '11 at 22:42
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    @Dani noexcept is mostly missing in N3242. – mirk Oct 27 '11 at 14:26
  • It seems that N3485 is also available and downloadable by poor who can't pay (I have not verified the quality). – Öö Tiib Feb 20 '13 at 19:30
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    @sircolinton the most recent version of what? That document is dated 2013-05-15; it's clearly a C++14 draft. The latest publicly available C++11 draft is N3242, as I mentioned. The latest C++11 draft is N3290, which is not publicly available, as it became the final standard document (N3291). The latest draft with C++11-only changes is N3337, which has the same contents as the standard plus editorial changes. Everything after is a C++14 draft. – R. Martinho Fernandes Apr 04 '18 at 12:22
  • @R.MartinhoFernandes ah right, you're right. Deleted my comment so as not to mislead. – sircolinton Apr 05 '18 at 15:25
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IMO cppreference.com can be a free alternative to buying the actual standard.

rsjethani
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The standard is available from the ISO website for ~$400 or so.

Nicol Bolas
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    All the people that work on gcc payed $400? – Daniel Oct 12 '11 at 21:57
  • @Dani: Doubtful. Many have probably worked from (freely available) drafts, at least for the last few years. Many will probably continue to work from one of the last drafts (e.g., N3242 or N3290). – Jerry Coffin Oct 12 '11 at 22:07
  • @Dani - the final standard was only published 2 weeks ago or so, compiler writers have been working against published drafts (available on open-std as linked by mjv in a comment to Jerry Coffin's answer). For C++03, the standard was (and is) available for $30 from ANSI, but the C++11 standard is still super expensive. – wkl Oct 12 '11 at 22:09
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It's an ISO standard, which you can purchase here: http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=50372

Foo Bah
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