Every big thing is made up of small-small things. For example, a house is built from walls, ceiling, and doors. Now in terms of C++, we can say that every complex object is built from small or simple object. This process of creating a complex object from simple and small objects is called composition in C++. In other words, whenever there is “has-a” relationship, then composition comes in to picture. E.g., house has four walls, two doors and one ceiling. Let us try to understand the concept of composition with…
Category: Basics
Basics
Explicit conversion constructor
Consider an example below to understand the concept of explicit constructor #include <iostream>using namespace std;class person {private: unsigned int m_age; char m_gender;public: person (unsigned int age = 40, char gender = ‘M’); bool operator==(const person& other) { cout << “Comparison”<< endl; if ((other.m_age == m_age) && (other.m_gender == m_gender)) { return true; } return false; }};person::person(unsigned int age, char gender){ cout << “C’tor” << endl; m_age = age; m_gender = gender;}int main() { person p(40, ‘M’); person p1 = 40; //Implicit conversion if ( p == 40) { //Implicit conversion…
Constructor & Destructor
Constructor :As name suggest, it construct an object. Constructor is used to initialize the data members of a class.Consider a class below: #include <iostream>#include <string> using namespace std;class employeeData { unsigned int m_salary; char* m_name;public: ~ employeeData() { //Destructor if (m_name) { delete []m_name; } } employeeData() { // default constructor cout << “employeeData default C’tor” << endl; m_salary = 0; m_name = NULL; } employeeData(unsigned int salary, char* name) { //Parameterized constructor cout << “employeeData parameterized C’tor” << endl; m_salary = salary; unsigned int len = strlen(name); m_name =…
Initializer List
Let us understand the concept of initializer list in C++ with the help of an example. Consider a class viz. person, which has data members like age, name and employee dataExample #include <iostream>#include <string>using namespace std;class employeeData { unsigned int m_salary;public: employeeData() { cout << “employeeData default C’tor” << endl; m_salary = 0; } employeeData(unsigned int salary) { cout << “employeeData parameterized C’tor” << endl; m_salary = salary; } employeeData(const employeeData& data) { cout << “employeeData Copy C’tor” << endl; m_salary = data. m_salary; } employeeData& operator=(const employeeData& data) {…
this pointer
Let us understand with an example how and where this pointer is used. class employee { unsigned int m_age; unsigned int m_salary; employee(unsigned int age, unsigned int salary) { m_age = age; // same as this->m_age = age; m_salary = salary; //same as this->m_salary = salary }void update(unsigned int age, unsigned int salary) { m_age = age; // same as this->m_age = age; m_salary = salary; //same as this->m_salary = salary }}; int main() { employee emp(40, 45000); emp.update(40, 50000); return 0; } In the above example, employee object viz.…
Assignment Operator
Let us understand assignment operator with the help of an example of employeeData class. #include <iostream>#include <string>using namespace std;class employeeData { unsigned int m_salary; char* m_name;public: ~ employeeData() { if (m_name) { delete []m_name; } } employeeData() { cout << “employeeData default C’tor” << endl; m_salary = 0; m_name = NULL; } employeeData(unsigned int salary, char* name) { cout << “employeeData parameterized C’tor” << endl; m_salary = salary; unsigned int len = strlen(name); m_name = new char[len +1]; strncpy(m_name, name, len); m_name[len+1] = ‘\0’; } //Overloaded Assignment Operator employeeData& operator=(const…
Copy Constructor
Prototype of copy constructor <classname>(const <classname>& ); Let say class name is foo. Then the copy constructor prototype will look like: foo(const foo& ); Scenarios:Below are the scenarios where copy constructor is called. 1) When an object is passed by value as function argument. 2) When function returns object by value. 3) When new object is created from an already existing/created object. Need:Compiler provides default copy constructor for each class. However, there are scenarios where we need to define the copy constructor explicitly. Consider a class below: #include <iostream>using namespace…
inline function
inline function is a function which is expanded inline i.e. function definition is copied to a place where it is called.When a function called in program, CPU does following: a) Stores the address of instruction following the function call. b) Push function arguments on the stack c) Transfer the control to the function definition. d) Execute the function e) Transfer the control to the address stored at step a. When execution time of function is less than the switching time from calling to called function, then this becomes overhead. To…
Mutable storage class specifier
mutable is the one of the storage specifier in C++. In general, const function does not allow to modify data members of an object who called it. However, with the help of mutable specifier, we can achieve it.Simple example shows use of mutable specifier. #include <iostream>using namespace std;class base { unsigned int m_int; mutable unsigned int m_mutableInt;public: base(unsigned int x, unsigned int y) { m_int = x; m_mutableInt = y; } void read() const { //const function m_int = 40; // Error: This is not allowed. m_mutableInt = 10; //…