"In the strict mathematical sense, C isn't a subset of C++. There are programs that are valid C but not valid C++ and even a few ways of writing code that has a different meaning in C and C++. However, C++ supports every programming technique supported by C. Every C program can be written in essentially the same way in C++ with the same run-time and space efficiency. It is not uncommon to be able to convert tens of thousands of lines of ANSI C to C-style C++ in a few hours. Thus, C++ is as much a superset of ANSI C as ANSI C is a superset of K&R C and much as ISO C++ is a superset of C++ as it existed in 1985.
Well written C tends to be legal C++ also. For example, every example in Kernighan & Ritchie: "The C Programming Language (2nd Edition)" is also a C++ program. "
> For example, every example in Kernighan & Ritchie: "The C Programming Language (2nd Edition)" is also a C++ program. "
That is rather dated, they do things like explicitly cast the void* pointer returned by malloc, but point out in the appendix that ANSI C dropped the cast requirement for pointer conversions involving void, C++ does not allow implicit void conversions to this day.