Classes in C++

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Terms

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Terms

Private

Functions and variables to which only the class member functions (and friends) have access.
Public

Functions, and rarely non-constant variables, that are directly accessible through an object.
Protected

The protected keyword behaves the same as the private keyword, with the exception that protected variables are directly accessible from within subclasses.
Object

An object is an instance of a class; it is a variable with all the functionality specified in the class's definition.
Data Member

A data member is a variable declared in a class definition.
Member Function

Functions that belong to a class and operate on a its data members.
Constructor

The constructor of a class is the function that is called automatically when a new object is created. It should initialize the class's data members and allocate any necessary memory.
Destructor

A destructor is the function called when an object goes out of scope. It should free memory dynamically allocated for the object's data members.
Friend

A friend function is a function that has access to all the class's data members and member functions, including those under the private and protected headings.
Inheritance

Inheritance is the property exhibited when a subclass is derived from a superclass. In particular it refers to the fact that an instance of the subclass has all of the data members and member functions of the superclass (and possibly more).
Base Class

A base class is a class from which another class, called a derived class, inherits components.
Derived Class

A derived class is a class which has inherited the components of another class, called the base class.
Class Template

A class which has one or more data members (and functions) of some unspecified data type. By defining a template, the programmer can create an object using any data type or types.
Composition

Composition is the use of an object as a member variable of another class as an alternative to creating a subclass.
Virtual

A C++ key word used to qualify functions and inheritance.

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