Chapter 10

Defining Classes

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.

Overview

10.1 Structures

10.2 Classes

10.3 Abstract Data Types

10.4 Introduction to Inheritance

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 2

10.1
Structures

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.

Structures
 A structure can be viewed as an object
 Contains multiple values of possibly different types

 The multiple values are logically related as a single item

 Example: A bank Certificate of Deposit (CD)
has the following values:
a balance
an interest rate
a term (months to maturity)

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 4

The CD Definition
 The Certificate of Deposit structure can be
defined as
struct CDAccount
{
double balance;
double interest_rate;
int term; //months to maturity
}; Remember this semicolon!
 Keyword struct begins a structure definition
 CDAccount is the structure tag or the structure’s type name
 Member names are identifiers declared in the braces

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 5

Using the Structure
 Structure definition is generally placed outside
any function definition
 This makes the structure type available to all code

that follows the structure definition

 To declare two variables of type CDAccount:

CDAccount my_account, your_account;

 My_account and your_account contain distinct

member variables balance, interest_rate, and term

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 6

The Structure Value

 The Structure Value

 Consists of the values of the member variables

 The value of an object of type CDAccount

 Consists of the values of the member variables

balance
interest_rate
term

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 7

Specifying Member Variables
 Member variables are specific to the
structure variable in which they are declared

 Syntax to specify a member variable:

Structure_Variable_Name . Member_Variable_Name

 Given the declaration:

CDAccount my_account, your_account;

 Use the dot operator to specify a member variable

my_account.balance
my_account.interest_rate
my_account.term

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 8

Using Member Variables
 Member variables can be used just as any other
variable of the same type
 my_account.balance = 1000;

your_account.balance = 2500;
 Notice that my_account.balance and your_account.balance
are different variables!
 my_account.balance = my_account.balance + interest;

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 9

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 1- 10
Duplicate Names
 Member variable names duplicated between
structure types are not a problem.
struct FertilizerStock struct CropYield
{ {
double quantity; int quantity;
double nitrogen_content; double size;
}; };

FertilizerStock super_grow; CropYield apples;

 super_grow.quantity and apples.quantity are
different variables stored in different locations

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 11

Structures as Arguments

 Structures can be arguments in function calls

 The formal parameter can be call-by-value

 The formal parameter can be call-by-reference

 Example:
void get_data(CDAccount& the_account);
 Uses the structure type CDAccount we saw

earlier as the type for a call-by-reference

parameter

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 12

Structures as Return Types
 Structures can be the type of a value returned by
a function
 Example:
CDAccount shrink_wrap(double the_balance,
double the_rate,
int the_term)
{
CDAccount temp;
temp.balance = the_balance;
temp.interest_rate = the_rate;
temp.term = the_term;
return temp;
}

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 13

Hierarchical Structures
 Structures can contain member variables that are
also structures
struct PersonInfo
struct Date {
{ double height;
int month; int weight;
int day; Date birthday;
int year; };
};
 struct PersonInfo contains a Date structure

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 14

Using PersonInfo
 A variable of type PersonInfo is declared by

PersonInfo person1;

 To display the birth year of person1, first access the

birthday member of person1

cout << person1.birthday…

 But we want the year, so we now specify the

year member of the birthday member

cout << person1.birthday.year;

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 15
Initializing Classes
 A structure can be initialized when declared
 Example:
struct Date
{
int month;
int day;
int year;
};
 Can be initialized in this way
Date due_date = {12, 31, 2004};

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 16

Section 10.1 Conclusion

 Can you

 Write a definition for a structure type for

records consisting of a person’s wage rate,
accrued vacation (in whole days), and status
(hourly or salaried). Represent the status as
one of the two character values ‘H’ and ‘S’.
Call the type EmployeeRecord.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 17

10.2
Classes

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.

What Is a Class?

 A class is a data type whose variables are objects

 Some pre-defined data types you have used are
 int

 char

 You can define your own classes as well

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 19

Class Definitions

 A class definition includes

 A description of the kinds of values the variable

can hold
 A description of the member functions

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 20

A Class Example
 To create a new type named DayOfYear as
a class definition
 Decide on the values to represent

 This example’s values are dates such as July 4

using an integer for the number of the month

 Member variable month is an int (Jan = 1, Feb = 2, etc.)
 Member variable day is an int
 Decide on the member functions needed
 We use just one member function named output

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 21

Class DayOfYear Definition

 class DayOfYear
{
public:
void output( );
int month;
int day;
};
Member Function Declaration

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 22

Defining a Member Function
 Member functions are declared in the class
declaration
 Member function definitions identify the class
in which the function is a member
 void DayOfYear::output()
{
cout << “month = “ << month
<< “, day = “ << day
<< endl;
}

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 23

Member Function Definition
 Member function definition syntax:
Returned_Type
Class_Name::Function_Name(Parameter_List)
{
Function Body Statements
}
 Example: void DayOfYear::output( )

{
cout << “month = “ << month
<< “, day = “ << day << endl;
}

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 24

The ‘::’ Operator
 ‘::’ is the scope resolution operator
 Tells the class a member function is a member
of

 void DayOfYear::output( ) indicates that

function output is a member of the
DayOfYear class

 The class name that precedes ‘::’ is a type

qualifier

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 25

‘::’ and ‘.’
 ‘::’ used with classes to identify a member
void DayOfYear::output( )
{
// function body
}

 ‘.’used with variables to identify a member

DayOfYear birthday;
birthday.output( );

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 26

Calling Member Functions
 Calling the DayOfYear member function output
is done in this way:
DayOfYear today, birthday;
today.output( );
birthday.output( );

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 27

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 28
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Slide 10- 29