C++ Classes

&
Object Oriented Programming

What is it?

Object Oriented Programming 1

 Object Oriented Programming
• One of the first applications of modern
computing was modeling and simulation.
• Scientists soon realized that functions alone
were insufficient to model systems
intuitively
• If we are going to model a planet we would
like to actually create a virtual planet, define
how it behaves in our simulated universe,
and then just observe it.

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 Object Oriented Programming
• Programmers quickly realized that the idea of
creating virtual “things” made software
engineering simpler to think about.
• If we create within our programs agents and
objects then we can assign duties and tasks to
them.
• This is really just another way applying
decomposition to our software.
• Break up the problem to be solved into logical
parts and assign each part to an object.

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 Object Oriented Programming
• Even engineers are social animals - we
evolved to think about the world in terms of
agents and objects (not recursion).
• In many situations we solve large problems
by delegation. That is we have workers who
specialize in solving a particular problem.
• Those specialists have specific skills that
they can apply to a specific class of
problems.

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 Object Oriented Programming
• We can pattern software after a group of
specialists at a company working on a
problem.
• For example, there are two objects we have
used – cin and cout.
• cin is the name of an object who knows all
about reading data from the keyboard and
putting it into a variable.
• It is easier to ask cin to do the work than
write a program to do it ourselves.

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 Object Oriented Programming
• Important: we don’t have to have any idea
how cin does its job. We just trust that it
does.
• Just like we don’t question the US Mail
about how our letter gets from here to
Seattle.
• We only care that it arrives within certain
tolerances – not how it got there.
• This is called abstraction, information-
hiding, and encapsulation and we like it!

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 Object Oriented Programming
• When we mail a letter all we have to worry
about is following the correct protocol to
ensure our letter gets to the right place.
• We have to know where to go, how to pay, the
format expected for the destination address and
return address, etc.
• In software this protocol is called the interface.
• All objects have to have an interface that
clearly defines how we can interact with the
object.
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 Object Oriented Programming
• Almost any problem can be broken up
into objects.
• Objects are defined by three things:
– Their state – this is the information
they contain.
– Their behavior or capabilities – these
are the functions they have access to.
– Their interface – the rules describing
how they interact with other objects in
the system. Object Oriented Programming 8
 Object Oriented Programming
• Programmer thinks about and defines the
attributes and behavior of objects.

• Often the objects are modeled after real-

world entities.

• Very different approach than function-based

programming (like C).
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 Reasons for OOP
Abstraction
Encapsulation
Information hiding
Inheritance
Polymorphism

Software Engineering Issues

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 Class: Object Types
• C++ uses classes and structures to
define objects
• A C++ class is an object type.
• When you create the definition of a
class you are defining the attributes and
behavior of a new type.
– Attributes are data members.
– Behavior is defined by methods.
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 Creating an object
• The interface acts as a contract specifying how the
object will behave – as long as the code fulfills the
contract we don’t care how it works.
• Defining a class does not result in creation of an
object.
• Declaring a variable of a class type creates an
object. You can have many variables of the same
type (class).

This is called instantiation of the class, i.e. we create

an instance of the object.

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 Information Hiding
• The interface to a class is the list of public
data members and methods.
• The interface defines the behavior of the
class to the outside world (to other classes
and functions that may access variables of
your class type).
• The implementation (the code that makes
the class work) doesn't matter outside the
class.

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 Information Hiding (cont.)
• This is good because it allows us to change
the underlying code without forcing
everyone who uses our objects to change
their code.

• You can change the implementation and

nobody cares! (as long as the interface is the
same).

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 Private vs. Public
• Classes define certain parts of the object
they define to be public, private, or
protected.
• Public parts of the object can be used by
anyone who has access to the object.
• The private parts of the object are for the
objects internal use only.
• Protected parts are accessible from outside
the object only under certain circumstances.
• Try to make as much private as possible.
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 Special Member Functions
• Constructors: called when a new object
is created (instantiated).
– can be many constructors, each can take
different arguments
• Destructor: called when an object is
destroyed
– only one, has no arguments.
– The destructor is responsible for cleaning
up after the object
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 Anatomy of a Class
Class Definition (function prototypes)
class Dog

Put all this in Dog.h

{
public:
Dog( char* dog_name = “rover” );
bark();
~Dog();
char* name;
private:
}; Object Oriented Programming 17
Class Implementation (function definitions)
#include “Dog.h”
using namespace std;

Put all this in Dog.cpp

Dog::Dog( char* dog_name)
{
name = dog_name;
}
Dog::bark()
{
cout << “woof”;
}
Dog::~Dog()
{//nothing to do}

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 Using a Class and an Obeject
#include “Dog.h”
int main()
{
char my_dogs_name = “fido”;

// Create object of type “Dog”

Dog mydog( my_dogs_name );
// Access data and call methods in “mydog”
cout << mydog.name << “: “;
mydog.bark();

return 0;
}
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 Accessing Data Members
• Data members are available within each
method (as if they were local variables).

• Public data members can be accessed by

other functions using the member access
operator ".".

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 Accessing class methods
• Within other class methods, a method can
be called just like a function.

• Outside the class, public methods can be

called only when referencing an object of
the class.

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 Classes and Files
• The relationship between C++ class
definitions and files depends on the
compiler.
• In general you can put class definitions
anywhere! Visual C++ wants one class per
file.
• Most people do this:
– class definition is in classname.h
– any methods defined outside of the class
definition are in classname.cpp
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 Classes and Files
• Now that we are working with multiple source
(.cpp) and header files (.h) we need to be more
sophisticated about compiling.
• Each source file is compiled separately into
object files.
• These object files cannot be run independently
they have to be linked into a single executable
program file.
• Unix systems use the make command to
organize compilation and linking.

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