Is it true that there is no need to learn C because C++ contains everything? [closed]

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Overview:

It is almost true that C++ is a superset of C, and your professor is correct in that there is no need to learn C separately.

C++ adds the whole object oriented aspect, generic programming aspect, as well as having less strict rules (like variables needing to be declared at the top of each function). C++ does change the definition of some terms in C such as structs, although still in a superset way.

Examples of why it is not a strict superset:

This Wikipedia article has a couple good examples of such a differences:

One commonly encountered difference is
that C allows implicit conversion from
void* to other pointer types, but C++
does not. So, the following is valid C
code:

int *i = malloc(sizeof(int) * 5);

… but to make it work in both C and
C++ one would need to use an explicit
cast:

int *i = (int *) malloc(sizeof(int) * 5)

Another common portability issue is
that C++ defines many new keywords,
such as new and class, that may be
used as identifiers (e.g. variable
names) in a C program.

This wikipedia article has further differences as well:

C++ compilers prohibit goto from crossing an initialization, as in the following C99 code:

 void fn(void)
 {
  goto flack;
  int i = 1;
 flack:
   ;
 }

What should you learn first?

You should learn C++ first, not because learning C first will hurt you, not because you will have to unlearn anything (you won’t), but because there is no benefit in learning C first. You will eventually learn just about everything about C anyway because it is more or less contained in C++.

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