C++ Primer Plus, Fourth Edition

Class Scope

Chapter 9 discusses global, or file, scope and local, or block, scope. You can use a variable with global scope, recall, anywhere in the file that contains its definition, whereas a variable with local scope is local to the block that contains its definition. Function names, too, can have global scope, but they never have local scope. C++ classes introduce a new kind of scope: class scope. Class scope applies to names defined in a class, such as the names of class data members and class member functions. Items that have class scope are known within the class but not outside the class. Thus, you can use the same class member names in different classes without conflict: The shares member of the Stock class is a variable distinct from ...