--- title: I accidentally deleted my C++ project… so I rebuilt it... description: A developer accidentally deleted their C++ class project (a Simple Budget Tracker) and chose to rebuild it from scratch in one day rather than recover it. The... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-accidentally-deleted-my-c-project-so-i-rebuilt-it-in-a-day-mvrmobuow twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I accidentally deleted my C++ project… so I rebuilt it in a day | daily.dev og:description: A developer accidentally deleted their C++ class project (a Simple Budget Tracker) and chose to rebuild it from scratch in one day rather than recover it. The... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-accidentally-deleted-my-c-project-so-i-rebuilt-it-in-a-day-mvrmobuow og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/MvRmOBUoW.png og:image:alt: I accidentally deleted my C++ project… so I rebuilt it in a day og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I accidentally deleted my C++ project… so I rebuilt it in a day **[Dev World](https://daily.dev/sources/dev_world)** · [@jliter85](https://daily.dev/jliter85) · 1 min read · 3 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A developer accidentally deleted their C++ class project (a Simple Budget Tracker) and chose to rebuild it from scratch in one day rather than recover it. The experience led to a cleaner, better-understood second version with improved data structure, input flow, and code organization. The post reflects on how rebuilding from memory forces genuine understanding over copy-paste coding. ## Content I’m not even going to sugarcoat it, I deleted my class project by accident. My Simple Budget Tracker in C++… gone. At first, it was just frustration. But instead of trying to recover it, I decided to rebuild the whole thing from scratch in one day. And that changed everything. The first time I built it, I was just trying to make it work. This time, I actually understood what I was doing. No copy/paste. No guessing. No “this works, don’t touch it.” Just logic. Rebuilding forced me to think through: - how I structured my data - how input flows through the program - where my original code was messy or unnecessary What surprised me the most was how much cleaner the second version was. Less code, better flow, and way more confidence behind it. Losing the project sucked. Rebuilding it made me better. I still have a long way to go with it, but if you want to check it out and provide me some thoughts I would be grateful for the feedback. [https://budgettracker.johnliter.blog/auth/login.php](https://budgettracker.johnliter.blog/auth/login.php) **Real question:** Have you ever rebuilt something from scratch and realized you didn’t actually understand it the first time? --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-accidentally-deleted-my-c-project-so-i-rebuilt-it-in-a-day-mvrmobuow) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-accidentally-deleted-my-c-project-so-i-rebuilt-it-in-a-day-mvrmobuow","headline":"I accidentally deleted my C++ project… so I rebuilt it in a day","text":"A developer accidentally deleted their C++ class project (a Simple Budget Tracker) and chose to rebuild it from scratch in one day rather than recover it. 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