C++ For Dummies®, 6th Edition

Chapter 21. Factoring Classes

In This Chapter

• Factoring common properties into a base class

• Using abstract classes to hold factored information

• Declaring abstract classes

• Inheriting from an abstract class

• Dividing a program into multiple modules using a project file

The concept of inheritance allows one class to inherit the properties of a base class. Inheritance has a number of purposes, including paying for my son's college. The main benefit of inheritance is the ability to point out the relationship between classes. This is the so-called IS_A relationship — a MicrowaveOven IS_A Oven and stuff like that.

Factoring is great stuff if you make the correct correlations. For example, the microwave versus conventional oven relationship seems natural. Claim that microwave is a special kind of toaster, and you're headed for trouble. True, they both make things hot, they both use electricity, and they're both found in the kitchen, but the similarity ends there — a microwave can't make toast.

Identifying the classes inherent in a problem and drawing the correct relationships among these classes is a process known as factoring. (The word is related to the arithmetic that you were forced to do in grade school: factoring out the least common denominators, for example, 12 is equal to 2 times 2 times 3.)

Factoring

This section describes how you can use inheritance to simplify your programs using a bank account example. Suppose that you were asked to a write a simple bank program that implemented the concept ...