Introduction to C++ Header Files

.h files or "headers" are libraries of code you may insert in your program by including them by reference in the top block.
A simple program
#include< stdio.h >
#include< iostream.h >

int main(){

int x;

x = 5;
cout << x;
return 0;
}

New version using a header file

Create a file called x_file.h and place it in the same folder as the main program.
This is content of x_file.h:
int x;

The following is the new main program, without the integer declaration as it has been moved to our header file.
#include< stdio.h >
#include< iostream.h >
#include "x_file.h"

int main(){

x = 5;
cout << x ;
return 0;
}

The point of header files is to create libraries of code that can be used over and over. Almost all C++ programs require some
header file to be included. #include< stdio.h > is the Standard Input and Output header file. #include< iostream.h > is the Input
and Output Stream header file. When the compiler find a reference to a header file it writes the contents of that header file into
the executable code of your program. This is why compile errors happen when you leave out the header references. If you try to
use cout without including iostream.h you will get an error.

What we have done here is create a header file with our own integer declaration that can be referenced in our program. Other
header files may contain classes or other useful code.
List of include files
Common includes
iostream.h Input/Output, interaction with the program. write, getline.
fstream.h File input/output. open, close, getline
iomanip.h For manipulating text with width, tabs, etc.
stdlib.h Standard library for memory allocation, makes it possible to create integer variables, doubles, floats, etc.
String.h C++ has no built-in string handling. Use this library to copy strings, find string length, etc.
stdio.h Similar to stdlib but also has some file functions. printf, scanf.

More Information
List of header files
Tags for C++ Headers
C Library Overview
What are C++ Headers?
Alphabetical Listing
ACCCTRL.H - ACLAPI.H - ACLCLS.H - ACLSID.H - ACSMGTC.H - ACSSVCC.H - ACTIVECF.H - ACTIVEDS.H -
ACTIVSCP.H - ADDRLKUP.H - ADMEX.H - ADMINEXT.H - ADOID.H - ADOINT.H - ADOMD.H - ADPTIF.H -
ADSDB.H - ADSERR.H - ADSHLP.H - ADSIID.H - ADSNMS.H - ADSSTS.H - ADVPUB.H - AGTCTL.H - AGTERR.H -
AGTSVR.H - ALPHAOPS.H - AMAUDIO.H - AMRTPDMX.H - AMRTPNET.H - AMRTPSS.H - AMRTPUID.H -
AMSTREAM.H - AMVIDEO.H - ANSIAPI.H - APPAVCAP.H - APPCCFG.H - APPC_C.H - APPFFTP.H - ASPTLB.H -
ASSERT.H - ATALKWSH.H - ATTRNAME.H - AUSTREAM.H - AVIFMT.H - AVIRIFF.H -

BASETYPS.H - BDNAPI.H - BH.H - BHERR.H - BHFILTER.H - BHSUPP.H - BHTYPES.H - BHVER.H - BLBERR.H -

BPCPRI.H - BPCREG.H - BPCSUSP.H - BRERROR.H - BRIDGE.H - BRPROP.H - BRTEST.H - BTTNCUR.H - BUFFER.H
-

CDERR.H - CDIALOG.H - CERTADM.H - CERTCLI.H - CERTENC.H - CERTEXIT.H - CERTEXT.H - CERTIF.H -

CERTPOL.H - CERTSRV.H - CGUID.H - CHANMGR.H - CHANNELT.H - CHANSTR.H - CHPROP.H - CIERROR.H -
CLUADMEX.H - CLUSAPI.H - CLUSMSG.H - CMC.H - CMDPROC.H - CODECS.H - COLORDLG.H - COMCAT.H -
COMDEF.H - COMIP.H - COMLITE.H - COMMCTRL.H - COMMDLG.H - COMPOBJ.H - COMUTIL.H - CONIO.H -
CONTROL.H - CONVCLSS.H - CONVCWRP.H - CONVDLL.H - CONVDLLC.H - CONVDLLE.H - CONVENGN.H -
CONVINCL.H - CONVREG.H - CONVREGH.H - CONVSTRC.H - CPL.H - CPLEXT.H - CRTDBG.H - CTL3D.H -
CTYPE.H - CUSTCNTL.H - CUSTOMAW.H - CUTLIST.H - CWINDOW.H - CXQ_CUST.H

D3D.H - D3DCAPS.H - D3DRM.H - D3DRMDEF.H - D3DRMOBJ.H - D3DRMWIN.H - D3DTYPES.H - DANIM.H -

DAOGETRW.H - DAPI.H - DAPIMSG.H - DATA.H - DATAPATH.H - DBCSSTR.H - DBDAO.H - DBDAOERR.H -
DBDAOID.H - DBDAOINT.H - DBSETS.H - DBT.H - DDE.H - DDEML.H - DDKERNEL.H - DDRAW.H - DDRAWEX.H -
DDSTREAM.H - DELAYIMP.H - DEVGUID.H - DEVTYPE.H - DIGITALV.H - DINPUT.H - DIR.H - DIRECT.H -
DISPATCH.H - DISPDIB.H - DISPEX.H - DLCAPI.H - DLGS.H - DOCOBJ.H - DOS.H - DPLAY.H - DPLOBBY.H -
DPRINTF.H - DRIVINIT.H - DSETUP.H - DSKQUOTA.H - DSOUND.H - DSSCLIEN.H - DSSENUM.H - DTCHELP.H -
DV.H - DVDEVCOD.H - DVDMEDIA.H - DVOBJ.H - DVP.H - DXMRTP.H

EDBBACK.H - EDBBCLI.H - EDBMSG.H - EDEVDEFS.H - EDK.H - EDKAFX.H - EDKCFG.H - EDKCODE.H -

EDKDEBUG.H - EDKEVENT.H - EDKGUID.H - EDKMAPI.H - EDKMDB.H - EDKMSG.H - EDKSETUP.H -
EDKTRACK.H - EDKUTCPP.H - EDKUTILS.H - EFFECT.H - EH.H - EMSABTAG.H - EPGDISP.H - EPGDSPID.H -
EPGLDRX.H - EPISODET.H - EPPROP.H - ERRCPP.H - ERRCPPD.H - ERRNO.H - ERROR.H - ERRORS.H - EVCODE.H
- EVENTCPTS.H - EXADMIN.H - EXCHCLI.H - EXCHEXT.H - EXCHFORM.H - EXCHINST.H - EXCPT.H - EXDISP.H -
EXDISPID.H

FASTFILE.H - FCNTL.H - FILTER.H - FILTERR.H - FLOAT.H - FMI.H - FPIEEE.H - FRAME.H - FSTREAM.H -

FTSIFACE.H -

G711UIDS.H - GENRE.H - GIZMOBAR.H - GWMAIN.H - GWREPORT.H -

H
HEADER.H - HLGUIDS.H - HLIFACE.H - HLINK.H - HTMLGUID.H - HTTPEXT.H - HTTPFILT.H -

IACCESS.H - IADMW.H - IADS.H - ICM.H - ICRSINT.H - IDF.H - IDISPIDS.H - IH26XCD.H - IIIS.H - IIMGCTX.H -
IISCNFG.H - IL21DEC.H - ILSGUID.H - IMAGEHLP.H - IME.H - IMESSAGE.H - IMM.H - INETREG.H - INETSDK.H -
INILIB.H - INITGUID.H - INITOID.H - INTSHCUT.H - IO.H - IOMANIP.H - IOS.H - IOSTREAM.H - IPIFCONS.H -
IPINFOID.H - IPMCDEFS.H - IPMCONV.H - IPRTRMIB.H - IPXCONST.H - IPXRIP.H - IPXRTDEF.H - IPXSAP.H -
IPXTFFLT.H - IRTPRPH.H - IRTPSPH.H - ISGUIDS.H - ISO646.H - ISSPER16.H - ISSPERR.H - ISTREAM.H - ITVX.H

JAVAATTR.H - JAVADBG.H - JAVAEXEC.H - JDBGGUID.H

KERBCON.H - KERBEROS.H - KS.H - KSUUIDS.H -

LARGEINT.H - LIMITS.H - LIST.H - LM.H - LMACCESS.H - LMALERT.H - LMAPIBUF.H - LMAT.H - LMAUDIT.H -

LMBROWSR.H - LMCHDEV.H - LMCONFIG.H - LMCONS.H - LMDFS.H - LMERR.H - LMERRLOG.H - LMMSG.H -
LMREMUTL.H - LMREPL.H - LMSERVER.H - LMSHARE.H - LMSNAME.H - LMSTATS.H - LMSVC.H - LMUSE.H -
LMUSEFLG.H - LMWKSTA.H - LOADPERF.H - LOCALE.H - LSAPI.H - LUA_C.H - LZEXPAND.H -

MALLOC.H - MAPI.H - MAPICODE.H - MAPIDBG.H - MAPIDEFS.H - MAPIFORM.H - MAPIGUID.H - MAPIHOOK.H -

MAPINLS.H - MAPIOID.H - MAPISPI.H - MAPITAGS.H - MAPIUTIL.H - MAPIVAL.H - MAPIWIN.H - MAPIWZ.H -
MAPIX.H - MATH.H - MBCTYPE.H - MBLOGON.H - MBSTRING.H - MBXDATA.H - MCIAVI.H - MCX.H -
MDCOMMSG.H - MDDEFW.H - MDMSG.H - MDSI.H - MDSIMSGS.H - MEMORY.H - MGMTAPI.H - MIDLES.H -
MIMEINFO.H - MINMAX.H - MLANG.H - MMC.H - MMREG.H - MMSTREAM.H - MMSYSTEM.H - MONIKER.H -
MONITOR.H - MONSHARE.H - MPCONFIG.H - MPEGTYPE.H - MPRAPI.H - MPRERROR.H - MPRUI.H - MQ.H -
MQOAI.H - MSACM.H - MSACMDLG.H - MSCLUS.H - MSCONF.H - MSCPYDIS.H - MSDADC.H - MSDAGUID.H -
MSDAORA.H - MSDAOSP.H - MSDASC.H - MSDASQL.H - MSDATSRC.H - MSDETECT.H - MSFS.H - MSGEMIT.H -
MSGFILTR.H - MSHTMCID.H - MSHTMDID.H - MSHTMHST.H - MSHTML.H - MSI.H - MSIQUERY.H - MSPAB.H -
MSPST.H - MSREGDB.H - MSSHARED.H - MSSIP.H - MSSTKPPG.H - MSTASK.H - MSTERR.H - MSTV.H -
MSWSOCK.H - MSXML.H - MSXMLDID.H - MTSEVENTS.H - MTSGRP.H - MTX.H - MTXADMIN.H - MTXATTR.H -
MTXDM.H - MTXSPM.H - MULTIMON.H - MULTINFO.H

NAL.H - NALTYPES.H - NATIVCOM.H - NATIVE.H - NB30.H - NDDEAPI.H - NDDESEC.H - NETERR.H -

NETWORK.H - NEW.H - NEWPST.H - NSPAPI.H - NTLMSP.H - NTMSAPI.H - NTMSMLI.H - NTQUERY.H -
NTSDEXTS.H - NTSECAPI.H - NTVERP.H -

OAIDL.H - OBJBASE.H - OBJECTTY.H - OBJERROR.H - OBJIDL.H - OBJSAFE.H - OCIDL.H - ODBCINST.H -

ODBCSS.H - ODBCVER.H - OID.H - OLDPLIB.H - OLE.H - OLE2.H - OLE2VER.H - OLEACC.H - OLEAUTO.H -
OLECTL.H - OLECTLID.H - OLEDB.H - OLEDBERR.H - OLEDLG.H - OLEIDL.H - OLENLS.H - OLESCRPT.H -
OLESTD.H - OLETX2XA.H - OSTREAM.H -
P

PACKET.H - PARSER.H - PBT.H - PCRT32.H - PDH.H - PDHMSG.H - PENWIN.H - PERF.H - PERFSYM.H - PERHIST.H
- PLAN32.H - PLAYLIST.H - POPPACK.H - PROCESS.H - PROPBAG2.H - PROPTAG.H - PROTOCOL.H -
PROXYGEN.H - PROXYINF.H - PRSHT.H - PSHPACK1.H - PSHPACK2.H - PSHPACK4.H - PSHPACK8.H -

QNETWORK.H - QOS.H - QOSNAME.H - QRYCODES.H - QUEUE.H -

RAS.H - RASAUTH.H - RASDLG.H - RASEAPIF.H - RASERROR.H - RASSAPI.H - RASSHOST.H - RATING.H -

RATINGS.H - RATINGSY.H - RCLSID.H - RECGUIDS.H - RECONCIL.H - REGSTR.H - REND.H - RESAPI.H -
RETCODE.H - RICHEDIT.H - RICHOLE.H - RMFACADE.H - RNDERR.H - RNDNOT.H - ROUTPROT.H - RPC.H -
RPCASYNC.H - RPCBAK.H - RPCDCE.H - RPCDCEP.H - RPCNDR.H - RPCNSI.H - RPCNSIP.H - RPCNTERR.H -
RPCPRI.H - RPCPROXY.H - RPCPUB.H - RTFLIB.H - RTINFO.H - RTM.H - RTP.H - RTUTILS.H - RULECLS.H -

SADAPI.H - SCARDDAT.H - SCARDERR.H - SCARDMGR.H - SCARDSRV.H - SCHNLSP.H - SCODE.H -

SCRNSAVE.H - SCRPTIDS.H - SDPBLB.H - SDPERR.H - SEARCH.H - SECEXT.H - SECLINK.H - SECPKG.H -
SECURITY.H - SEHMAP.H - SEMFPERF.H - SERVPROV.H - SESSION.H - SETJMP.H - SETJMPEX.H - SETUPAPI.H -
SETUPDD.H - SGWDATA.H - SHARE.H - SHELLAPI.H - SHLGUID.H - SHLOBJ.H - SHLWAPI.H - SIGNAL.H -
SIMPDATA.H - SIPBASE.H - SMBDATA.H - SMPAB.H - SMPMS.H - SMPXP.H - SMSAPI.H - SMSINFO.H -
SNA_CNST.H - SNA_DLC.H - SNADOS.H - SNANLS.H - SNAPMON.H - SNMP.H - SPORDER.H - SQL.H - SQLDB.H -
SQLEXT.H - SQLFRONT.H - SQLOLE.H - SQLOLEID.H - SQLTYPES.H - SQLUCODE.H - SRV.H - SRVAPI.H -
SRVCONST.H - SRVDBTYP.H - SRVMISC.H - SRVSTRUC.H - SRVTOK.H - SRVTYPES.H - SSPGUID.H - SSPI.H -
SSPSERR.H - SSPSIDL.H - STABLIZE.H - STATION.H - STATS.H - STATTYPE.H - STDARG.H - STDDEF.H -
STDEXCPT.H - STDIO.H - STDIOSTR.H - STDLIB.H - STM.H - STORAGE.H - STREAMB.H - STREAMTY.H -
STRING.H - STRMHELP.H - STRMIF.H - STRSTREA.H - SUBGENRE.H - SUBSMGR.H - SVCGUID.H - SVRAPI.H -
SYNCDTCT.H -

TAGNAMES.H - TAPI.H - TAPI3.H - TCHAR.H - THEME.H - TIME.H - TIMESLOT.H - TLHELP32.H - TNEF.H -

TPSTART.H - TRACE.H - TRANSACT.H - TRKCOM.H - TRNSDT.H - TSPI.H - TSS.H - TSSQSEC.H - TSSUTIL.H -
TVDISP.H - TVDISPID.H - TXCOORD.H - TXCTX.H - TXDTC.H - TYPEINFO.H -

UASTRFNC.H - UNKNWN.H - URLHIST.H - URLHLINK.H - URLMON.H - USE_ANSI.H - USEOLDIO.H -

UTASSERT.H - UTIL.H - UTLIST.H - UTSEM.H - UUIDS.H -

VARARGS.H - VARIANT.H - VCR.H - VDMDBG.H - VER.H - VERINFO.H - VERSION.H - VFW.H - VFWMSGS.H -

VIDTYPES.H - VPCONFIG.H - VPNOTIFY.H - VPTYPE.H - VSOF.H - VSOP.H - VSOPCSID.H -

W32SUT.H - WAB.H - WABAPI.H - WABCODE.H - WABDEFS.H - WABIAB.H - WABMEM.H - WABNOT.H -

WABTAGS.H - WABUTIL.H - WCHAR.H - WCTYPE.H - WDBGEXTS.H - WFEXT.H - WINABLE.H - WINAPPC.H -
WINBASE.H - WINCON.H - WINCPIC.H - WINCRYPT.H - WINCSV.H - WINDEF.H - WINDOWS.H - WINDOWSX.H -
WINERROR.H - WINGDI.H - WININET.H - WINIOCTL.H - WINLDAP.H - WINLUA.H - WINMGT.H - WINNETWK.H -
WINNLS.H - WINNLS32.H - WINNT.H - WINPERF.H - WINREG.H - WINRES.H - WINRESRC.H - WINRUI.H -
WINSCARD.H - WINSLI.H - WINSMCRD.H - WINSNMP.H - WINSOCK.H - WINSOCK2.H - WINSPOOL.H -
WINSVC.H - WINTRUST.H - WINUSER.H - WINVER.H - WINWLX.H - WINWRAP.H - WOWNT16.H - WOWNT32.H -
WPAPI.H - WPAPIMSG.H - WPCRSMSG.H - WPFTPMSG.H - WPGUID.H - WPOBJ.H - WPPSTMSG.H - WPSPI.H -
WPSPIHLP.H - WPTYPES.H - WPWIZMSG.H - WRPGUID.H - WS2ATM.H - WS2DNET.H - WS2SPI.H - WS2TCPIP.H -
WSHISOTP.H - WSIPX.H - WSNETBS.H - WSNWLINK.H - WSVNS.H - WSVV.H - WTYPES.H -

XYZ

XA.H - XACTOMSG.H - XCMC.H - XCMCEXT.H - XCMCMSX2.H - XCMCMSXT.H - XLOCINFO.H - XOLEHLP.H -

YMATH.H - YVALS.H - ZMOUSE.H