CSC241: Object Oriented Programming

Lecture No 02

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 Previous lecture
• A simple analogy
– A class is a blue print e.g. car engineering drawing
– An object has existence e.g. my car
• Each object has its attributes (variables) and
behavior (functions)
• To perform a task describe by class, an object of
that class must be created
• Class definition begins with keyword class
• Class name begins with capital letter
• Class definition is enclosed in pair of braces { }
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 Cont.
• Member function that appear after the access
specifier public can be called by other function
and member functions of that class
• Access specifier are always followed by :
• Each message sent to an object is a member-
function call that tells the object to perform a
task
• Member function can be access by object of class
using dot operator

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Defining a class with member function

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 Today’s Lecture
• Simple C++ program using cin and cout
• Member function with parameters
• Set functions and get functions
• Constructor

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Member function with parameter

Write a program 6
A book class

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 Class data
• The class Book contain three data items
– char name[15];
– int pages;
– float price;
• There can be any number of data members in a class
just as in structure
• Data member are after the keyword private, so they
can be accessed from within the class, but not
outside

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 Member function
• These functions are included in a class
• There are four member functions in class Book
– setName(char *n)
– setPages(int p)
– setPrice(float p)
– display()
• These functions are followed by a keyword public,
so they can be accessed outside the class

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 Class data and member function
• Access specifier label public and private
• Function are public and data is private
• Data is hidden so that it can be safe from
accidental manipulation
• Functions operates on data are public so they
can be accessed from outside the class

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 Defining Objects

b1
name Operating system
pages 500
price 150.56
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 Cont.

• Defining an object is similar to defining a

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 Calling Member Functions
• The next four statements in main() call the member
function
– b1.setName("Operating System");
– b1.setPages(500);
– b1.setPrice(150.56);
– b1.display();
• don’t look like normal function calls
• This syntax is used to call a member function that is
associated with a specific object
• It doesn’t make sense to say
– changeName("Operating System");
because a member function is always called to act on a
specific object, not on the class in general 13
 Cont.
• To use a member function, the dot operator
(the period) connects the object name and the
member function.
• The syntax is similar to the way we refer to
structure members, but the parentheses
signal that we’re executing a member function
rather than referring to a data item.
• The dot operator is also called the class
member access operator.
Go to program 14
Data members, set and get functions

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 Example program – Distance class
• Data members
– Feet
– Inches
• Member functions
– void setdist(int ft, float in);
– void getdist();
– void initialize();
– void showdist();
Go to program
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 Distance class – data member initialization
• Distance class shows two ways to initialize the data
items in an object
– void initialize();
– void setdist(int ft, float in);
• Can an object be initialized whenever it is created,
without requiring a separate call to a member
function?
• Automatic initialization is carried out using a special
member function called a constructor.
• A constructor is a member function that is executed
automatically whenever an object is created.
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 Constructors
• C++ requires a construct call for each object it
has created
• This ensure that object is initialized properly
before it is used
• If there is no constructor, the compiler
provides a default constructor that is, a
constructor with no parameters
• Name of constructor function is same as name
of class
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 A counter example
• Data member
– Count
• Member function
– Constructor
– void inc_count()
– int get_count()

Go to program

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 Automatic initialization
• An object of type Counter is first created, we
want its count to be initialized to 0
• Options are
– set_count() function (call it with an argument of 0)
– zero_count() function, to set count to 0.
• Such functions would need to be executed
every time we created a Counter object

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 Cont.
• A programmer may forget to initialize the object
after creating it
• It’s more reliable and convenient to cause each
object to initialize implicitly when it is created
• In the Counter class, the constructor Counter() is
called automatically whenever a new object of type
Counter is created
• Counter c1, c2;
creates two objects. Constructor is called with each
object separately
Go to program
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 Constructor Name
• First, constructor name must be same as the
name of class
– This is one way the compiler knows they are
constructors
• Second, no return type is used for constructors
– Why not? Since the constructor is called automatically
by the system, there’s no program for it to return
anything to; a return value wouldn’t make sense
– This is the second way the compiler knows they are
constructors

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 Initializer List
• One of the most common tasks a constructor carries
out is initializing data members
• In the Counter class the constructor must initialize
the count member to 0
• The initialization takes place following the member
function declarator but before the function body.
• Initialization in constructor’s function body
Counter()
{ count = 0; }
this is not the preferred approach

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 Cont.
• It’s preceded by a colon. The value is placed in
parentheses following the member data.
Counter() : count(0)
{ }
• If multiple members must be initialized,
they’re separated by commas.
– someClass() : m1(7), m2(33), m2(4) ←initializer list
{ }

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 Placing a Class in a Separate File
• Header file (.h)
– Contain definition of class
– Not an executable file
– Included in .cpp file
• main () file (.cpp)
– Include .h file containing class definition
– Executable file

Go to program
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 Destructors
• Destructor is a function called automatically
when an object is destroyed
• The most common use of destructors is to
deallocate memory that was allocated for the
object by the constructor

See the code Go to Game

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 Validating Data with set Functions
• A set function should validate the value before
assigning to private data member
• Set function can return a value or may display
a message if invalid data is assign to object

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