STARTING OUT WITH C++

9th Edition

Chapter 14
More about Classes

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 14.1

Instance and Static Members

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Instance and Static Members

• instance variable: a member variable in a class.

Each object has its own copy.

• static variable: one variable shared among

all objects of a class

• static member function: can be used to

access static member variable; can be called
before any objects are defined

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static member variable
Contents of Tree.h
1 // Tree class Static member declared here.
2 class Tree
3 {
4 private:
5 static int objectCount; // Static member variable.
6 public:
7 // Constructor
8 Tree()
9 { objectCount++; }
10
11 // Accessor function for objectCount
12 int getObjectCount() const
13 { return objectCount; } Static member defined here.
14 };
15
16 // Definition of the static member variable, written
17 // outside the class.
18 int Tree::objectCount = 0;

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Three Instances of the Tree Class, But Only
One objectCount Variable

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static member function

• Declared with static before return type:

static int getObjectCount() const
{ return objectCount; }
• Static member functions can only access static
member data
• Can be called independent of objects:
int num = Tree::getObjectCount();

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Modified Version of Tree.h
1 // Tree class
2 class Tree
3 {
4 private:
5 static int objectCount; // Static member
variable.
6 public:
7 // Constructor
8 Tree()
9 { objectCount++; }
10
11 // Accessor function for objectCount
12 static int getObjectCount() const
13 { return objectCount; }
14 };
15
16 // Definition of the static member variable,
written
17 // outside the class.
18 int Tree::objectCount = 0;

Now we can call the function like this:

cout << "There are " << Tree::getObjectCount()
<< " objects.\n";

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 14.2

Friends of Classes

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Friends of Classes

• Friend: a function or class that is not a member

of a class, but has access to private members
of the class
• A friend function can be a stand-alone function
or a member function of another class
• It is declared a friend of a class with friend
keyword in the function prototype

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friend Function Declarations
• Stand-alone function:
friend void setAVal(intVal&, int);
// declares setAVal function to be
// a friend of this class
• Member function of another class:
friend void SomeClass::setNum(int num)
// setNum function from SomeClass
// class is a friend of this class

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friend Class Declarations
• Class as a friend of a class:
class FriendClass
{
...
};
class NewClass
{
public:
friend class FriendClass; // declares
// entire class FriendClass as a friend
// of this class
…
};
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 14.3

Memberwise Assignment

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Memberwise Assignment

• Can use = to assign one object to another, or to

initialize an object with an object’s data
• Copies member to member. e.g.,
instance2 = instance1; means:
copy all member values from instance1 and assign
to the corresponding member variables of
instance2
• Use at initialization:
Rectangle r2 = r1;

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 14.4

Copy Constructors

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Copy Constructors

• Special constructor used when a newly created

object is initialized to the data of another object
of same class

• Default copy constructor copies field-to-field

• Default copy constructor works fine in many

cases

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Copy Constructors

Problem: what if object contains a pointer?

class SomeClass
{ public:
SomeClass(int val = 0)
{value=new int; *value = val;}
int getVal();
void setVal(int);
private:
int *value;
}

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Copy Constructors

What we get using memberwise copy with

objects containing dynamic memory:
SomeClass object1(5);
SomeClass object2 = object1;
object2.setVal(13);
cout << object1.getVal(); // also 13

13
object1 object2

value value

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Programmer-Defined Copy Constructor

• Allows us to solve problem with objects

containing pointers:
SomeClass::SomeClass(const SomeClass &obj)
{
value = new int;
*value = obj.value;
}
• Copy constructor takes a reference parameter to
an object of the class

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Programmer-Defined Copy Constructor

• Each object now points to separate dynamic

memory:
SomeClass object1(5);
SomeClass object2 = object1;
object2.setVal(13);
cout << object1.getVal(); // still 5

5 13
object1 object2

value value

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Programmer-Defined Copy Constructor

• Since copy constructor has a reference to the

object it is copying from,
SomeClass::SomeClass(SomeClass &obj)
it can modify that object.
• To prevent this from happening, make the
object parameter const:
SomeClass::SomeClass
(const SomeClass
&obj)

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 14.5

Operator Overloading

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Operator Overloading
• Operators such as =, +, and others can be redefined
when used with objects of a class
• The name of the function for the overloaded operator is
operator followed by the operator symbol, e.g.,
operator+ to overload the + operator, and
operator= to overload the = operator
• Prototype for the overloaded operator goes in the
declaration of the class that is overloading it
• Overloaded operator function definition goes with other
member functions

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The this Pointer
• this: predefined pointer available to a class’s
member functions

• Always points to the instance (object) of the

class whose function is being called

• Is passed as a hidden argument to all non-static

member functions

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The this Pointer
• Example, student1 and student2 are both
StudentTestScores objects.

• The following statement causes the getStudentName

member function to operate on student1:

cout << student1.getStudentName() << endl;

• When getStudentName is operating on student1,

the this pointer is pointing to student1.

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The this Pointer
• Likewise, the following statement causes the
getStudentName member function to operate on
student2:

cout << student2.getStudentName() <<

endl;

• When getStudentName is operating on student2,

the this pointer is pointing to student2.

• The this pointer always points to the object that is

being used to call the member function.

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Operator Overloading

• Prototype:
void operator=(const SomeClass &rval)

parameter for
return function object on right
type name side of operator

• Operator is called via object on left side

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Invoking an Overloaded Operator

• Operator can be invoked as a member function:

object1.operator=(object2);
• It can also be used in more conventional
manner:
object1 = object2;

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Returning a Value

• Overloaded operator can return a value

class Point2d
{
private:
int x, y;

...
public:
double operator-(const point2d &right)
{ return sqrt(pow((x-right.x),2)
+ pow((y-right.y),2)); }
};
Point2d point1(2,2), point2(4,4);
// Compute and display distance between 2 points.
cout << point2 – point1 << endl; // displays 2.82843

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Returning a Value

• Return type the same as the left operand

supports notation like:
object1 = object2 = object3;
• Function declared as follows:
const SomeClass operator=(const
someClass &rval)
• In function, include as last statement:
return *this;

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Notes on
Overloaded Operators

• Can change meaning of an operator

• Cannot change the number of operands of the
operator
• Only certain operators can be overloaded.
Cannot overload the following operators:
?: . .* :: sizeof

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Overloading Types of Operators
• ++, -- operators overloaded differently for
prefix vs. postfix notation
• Overloaded relational operators should return a
bool value
• Overloaded stream operators >>, << must
return reference to istream, ostream objects
and take istream, ostream objects as
parameters

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Overloaded [] Operator
• Can create classes that behave like arrays,
provide bounds-checking on subscripts
• Must consider constructor, destructor
• Overloaded [] returns a reference to object,
not an object itself

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 14.6

Object Conversion

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Object Conversion
• Type of an object can be converted to another type
• Automatically done for built-in data types
• Must write an operator function to perform conversion
• To convert an FeetInches object to an int:
FeetInches::operator int()
{return feet;}
• Assuming distance is a FeetInches object, allows
statements like:
int d = distance;

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 14.7

Aggregation

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Aggregation

• Aggregation: a class is a member of a class

• Supports the modeling of ‘has a’ relationship
between classes – enclosing class ‘has a’
enclosed class
• Same notation as for structures within
structures

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Aggregation
class StudentInfo
{
private:
string firstName, LastName;
string address, city, state, zip;
...
};
class Student
{
private:
StudentInfo personalData;
...
};

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See the Instructor, TextBook, and
Course classes in Chapter 14.

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 14.10

Rvalue References and Move Semantics

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Temporary Values
• Consider this code:
int x;
x = 2 * 6;

• When the expression 2 * 6 is evaluated, the value 12

is stored in memory as a temporary value.

• The temporary value is then stored in the x variable.

• Then, the temporary value is discarded.

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Temporary Values
• Consider this: The square function is called,
and the value 5 is passed as an
1 int square(int a) argument.
2 {
3 return a * a; The square function calculates 5
4 }
* 5 and stores the result, 25, as a
5
6 int main() temporary value.
7 {
8 int x = 0; The temporary value is copied
9 (assigned) to the variable x.
10 x = square(5);
11 cout << x << endl; The temporary value is no longer
12 return 0; needed, so the system discards it.
13 }

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Lvalues and Rvalues

• Two types of values stored in memory during

the execution of a program:

– Values that persist beyond the statement that created

them, and have names that make them accessible to
other statements in the program. In C++, these
values are called lvalues.

– Values that are temporary, and cannot be accessed

beyond the statement that created them. In C++,
these values are called rvalues.

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Rvalue References
• Rvalue Reference: a reference variable that can refer only to
temporary objects that would otherwise have no name.

• Rvalue references are used to write move constructors and

move assignment operators (otherwise known as move
semantics).

• Anytime you write a class with a pointer or reference to a

piece of data outside the class, you should implement move
semantics.

• Move semantics increase the performance of these types of

classes.

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Move Assignment vs. Copy Assignment
• From the Person class, in Chapter 14:

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Move Constructor vs. Copy Constructor
• From the Person class, in Chapter 14:

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Copyright

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