Professional C++, 6th Edition

8Gaining Proficiency with Classes and Objects

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• How to write your own classes with member functions and data members
• How to control access to your member functions and data members
• How to use objects on the stack and on the free store
• What the life cycle of an object is
• How to write code that is executed when an object is created or destroyed
• How to write code to copy or assign objects

WILEY.COM DOWNLOADS FOR THIS CHAPTER

Please note that all the code examples for this chapter are available as part of this chapter's code download on the book's website at www.wiley.com/go/proc++6e on the Download Code tab.

As an object-oriented language, C++ provides facilities for using objects and for writing object blueprints, called classes. You can certainly write programs in C++ without classes and objects, but by doing so, you do not take advantage of the most fundamental and useful aspect of the language; writing a C++ program without classes is like traveling to Paris and eating at McDonald's. To use classes and objects effectively, you must understand their syntax and capabilities.

Chapter 1, “A Crash Course in C++ and the Standard Library,” reviewed the basic syntax of class definitions. Chapter 5, “Designing with Classes,” introduced the object-oriented approach to programming in C++ and presented specific design strategies for classes and objects. This chapter describes the fundamental concepts involved in using classes and objects, including ...