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Chapter18 Class and Objects

Classes allow you to combine data and functions into a single unit called an object. A class defines the type and members, while an object is a variable of that class type. Classes contain private, protected, and public members that set access levels. Private members can only be accessed within the class, protected within the class and subclasses, and public anywhere. Objects are declared by specifying the class name followed by the object name. Member functions can be defined inside or outside the class.

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57 views3 pages

Chapter18 Class and Objects

Classes allow you to combine data and functions into a single unit called an object. A class defines the type and members, while an object is a variable of that class type. Classes contain private, protected, and public members that set access levels. Private members can only be accessed within the class, protected within the class and subclasses, and public anywhere. Objects are declared by specifying the class name followed by the object name. Member functions can be defined inside or outside the class.

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com

Class & Objects


The mechanism that allows you to combine data and the function in a single
unit is called a class. Once a class is defined, you can declare variables of that
type. A class variable is called object or instance. In other words, a class would
be the data type, and an object would be the variable. Classes are generally
declared using the keyword class, with the following format:
class class_name
{
private:
members1;
protected:
members2;
public:
members3;
};

Where class_name is a valid identifier for the class. The body of the declaration
can contain members, that can be either data or function declarations, The
members of a class are classified into three categories: private, public, and
protected. private, protected, and public are reserved words and are called
member access specifiers. These specifiers modify the access rights that the
members following them acquire.

private members of a class are accessible only from within other members of
the same class. You cannot access it outside of the class.
protected members are accessible from members of their same class and also
from members of their derived classes.
Finally, public members are accessible from anywhere where the object is
visible.

By default, all members of a class declared with the class keyword have private
access for all its members. Therefore, any member that is declared before one
other class specifier automatically has private access.

Here is a complete example :


class Circle
{
private:
double radius;
public:
void setRadius(double r)
{
radius = r;
}
double getArea()
{
return 3.14 * radius * radius;
}
};

Object Declaration
Once a class is defined, you can declare objects of that type. The syntax for
declaring a object is the same as that for declaring any other variable. The
following statements declare two objects of type circle:
Circle c1, c2;

Accessing Class Members


Once an object of a class is declared, it can access the public members of the
class.
c1.setRadius(2.5);

Defining Member function of class


You can define Functions inside the class as shown in above example. Member
functions defined inside a class this way are created as inline functions by
default. It is also possible to declare a function within a class but define it
elsewhere. Functions defined outside the class are not normally inline.
When we define a function outside the class we cannot reference them (directly)
outside of the class. In order to reference these, we use the scope resolution
operator, :: (double colon). In this example, we are defining function setRadius
outside the class:
void Circle :: setRadius(double r)
{
radius = r;
}

The following program demonstrates the general feature of classes. Member


functions setRadius() and getArea() defined outside the class.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Circle //specify a class


{
private :
double radius; //class data members
public:
void setRadius(double r);
double getArea(); //member function to return area
};

void Circle :: setRadius(double r)


{
radius = r;
}

double Circle :: getArea()


{
return 3.14 * radius * radius;
}

int main()
{
Circle c1; //define object of class circle
c1.setRadius(2.5); //call member function to initialize radius
cout << c1.getArea(); //display area of circle object
return 0;
}

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