Review

Classes
Operator Overloading

S CIENTIFIC C OMPUTING
C LASSES

Dr. Johnson

School of Mathematics

Semester 1 2012

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Classes
Operator Overloading

L AST W EEK ...

Topics:
Initial value problems for ODEs
Euler’s Method for ODEs
Stability
Aims - week 3:
Be able to solve an initial value ODE problem
Understand where truncation errors come from
Be aware of the concept of stability in a numerical method
Convert mathematical algorithms into code

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Classes
Operator Overloading

T HIS W EEK ...

Topics:
Objects, data and functions together;
Constructors and desctructors;
Access qualifiers;
Operator overloading.
Aims - week 4:
Understand concept of data and functions as members of
an object;
Create and use simple objects (Points, Intergrand function);
Overload operators to enable easy code writing.

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

D ECLARING A C LASS
The C++ class is used to define an object.
An object is collection of data, along with functions that act
on that data.
The data and functions may have restricted access.
We declare classes in the following way:
class class_name {
private data and functions
access specifier:
data and functions
.
.
.
access specifier:
data and functions
}object list;

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

E XAMPLE : P OINT

class Point{ // class name

public:
int x,y; // public access data
double distance_to_origin(void)
{return sqrt(x*x + y*y);}
}; // finish a class with a semi-colon

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

E XAMPLE : P OINT

We can declare a new Point in the main code with the

command
Point a,b,c;

and access data or functions with a dot:

a.x = 1;a.y = 1;
cout « " Distance to origin ";
cout « a.distance_to_origin() « endl;

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

U SING CLASSES

In the previous example there is no restrictions on access

to data, everything is declared as public.
There are three types of access-specifiers:
private - no access outside the class;
protected - access inside derived classes;
public - full access outside the class;

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

U SING CLASSES

In the previous example there is no restrictions on access

to data, everything is declared as public.
There are three types of access-specifiers:
private - no access outside the class;
protected - access inside derived classes;
public - full access outside the class;
We can think of this as read and write access to data

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

P ROTECTING YOUR DATA

There are many situations where you will not want your
data to be changed accidentally.
Protecting data can help stop bugs in your code.
class Point{ // class name
int x,y; // private access data
public:
void set_x(int x_){x=x_;} // write to x
void set_y(int y_){y=y_;} // write to y
// const function members read only
int get_x(void) const {return x;}
int get_y(void) const {return y;}
double distance_to_origin(void) const
{return sqrt(x*x + y*y);}
}; // finish a class with a semi-colon
Dr. Johnson MATH49111
 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

C ONSTRUCTING YOUR DATA

When a new peice of data is created, C++ allows for

defaults commands to be carried out.
This allows us to initialise the data default values...
or pass in parameters as arguments...
or run functions to act on the data.

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

C ONSTRUCTING YOUR DATA

When a new peice of data is created, C++ allows for

defaults commands to be carried out.
This allows us to initialise the data default values...
or pass in parameters as arguments...
or run functions to act on the data.
The function run on initialisation is a constructor.
The function run on deletion is a deconstructor.
C ONSTRUCTOR S YNTAX :
class_name(arguments):initialisation list
{ function calls }

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

C ONSTRUCTING YOUR DATA

class Point{ // class name

int x,y; // private access data
public:
void set_x(int x_){x=x_;}
void set_y(int y_){y=y_;}
int get_x(void) const {return x;}
int get_y(void) const {return y;}
Point():x(0),y(0){} // default
constructor
Point(int x_,int y_):x(x_),y(y_){}
∼Point(){}
double distance_to_origin(void) const
{return sqrt(x*x + y*y);}
}; // finish a class with a semi-colon
Dr. Johnson MATH49111
 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

D ECONSTRUCTING YOUR DATA

Deconstructors are used to prevent memory leaks.

This shouldn’t be a problem unless you use pointers for
dynamic storage.
Using std libraries to store data should mean that you
don’t need to use deconstructors.

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Constructing a Class
Classes
Using Classes
Operator Overloading

P OINTING TO AN O BJECT
We can create a pointer to an object in the same way as
standard data types.

Point a(2,5),*ptr_a; // we have a Point and a

pointer to Point

There is special syntax -> to access data via the pointer

ptr_a=&a; // ptr_a is the location of a

ptr_a->get_x(); // access data from a

It is best to always pass an object to a function as a

reference:
a_function(const Point& a,const Point& b)
{ // some function on a and b }

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Classes
Operator Overloading

OVERLOADING A FUNCTION

We use overloading to enable a function with the same

name to act differently in different situations.
One example is a simple add function:
1 Take in two ints and return an int

int add(int a,int b){return (a + b);}

2 Take in two Points and return a Point

Point add(const Point& a,const Point& b){

Point temp;
temp.set_x(a.get_x() + b.get_x());
temp.set_y(a.get_y() + b.get_y());
return (temp); // Note we must return a Point
}

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Classes
Operator Overloading

OVERLOADING AN OPERATOR
For some of your classes, addition, multiplication etc may
mean something.
For instance, we may want to be able to write:
Point a(2,1),b(3,4),c;
c = a + b;

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Classes
Operator Overloading

OVERLOADING AN OPERATOR
For some of your classes, addition, multiplication etc may
mean something.
For instance, we may want to be able to write:
Point a(2,1),b(3,4),c;
c = a + b;
C++ allows us to overload operators.
So for the above to work we must include the function:
Point operator+(const Point& a,const Point&
b){
Point temp;
temp.set_x(a.get_x() + b.get_x());
temp.set_y(a.get_y() + b.get_y());
return (temp); }
Dr. Johnson MATH49111
 Review
Classes
Operator Overloading

OTHER USEFUL OPERATORS

Another useful operator is the () operator

This can be used to make function calls, for example:

class Intergrand{
public:
double operator()(double x) const {
return 1 + x*x;}
};

Can be used like this

double u,v=1.;
Intergrand f;
u = 1. + f(v) + f(10.);

Dr. Johnson MATH49111

 Review
Classes
Operator Overloading

G ENERIC ROUTINES
We saw that there were problems if the arguments to a
function need to be changed
Good codes will provide generic interfaces.
For example, the trapezium rule may be written:
double trapezium(double a,double b,
int n,const Integrand& f){
double h=(b-a)/n;
double sum=f(a)/2.;
for(int i=1;i<n;i++){
x=a+i*h;
sum = sum + f(x);}
sum = sum + f(b)/2.;
return sum*h;
}
Dr. Johnson MATH49111
 Review
Classes
Operator Overloading

S UMMARY

Topics:
Objects, data and functions together;
Constructors and desctructors;
Access qualifiers;
Operator overloading.
Aims - week 4:
Understand concept of data and functions as members of
an object;
Create and use simple objects (Points, Intergrand function);
Overload operators to enable easy code writing.

Dr. Johnson MATH49111