Object Oriented Programming

[CSE202]

Classes in C++ - Part 1

(Constructors, Destructors and Access Control)
SAURABH SRIVASTAVA
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Creating classes in C++
You can either create a class in the default namespace, or use a specific namespace
◦ Remember, a namespace is like a collection of classes, structures, functions etc.

Do not be confused by the using keyword while defining your class

◦ While reading examples, you may read the following statement often in books or tutorials:
using namespace std;
◦ This does not mean that the code in the file belongs to the namespace std
◦ It means, “make everything from the namespace std visible below”
◦ For example, it allows you to write “cout” instead of “std::cout”

Creating a class is similar to creating a structure template

The functions of a class, also called methods, are usually only declared in the class template
◦ They are defined outside the class, often in a different file

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Example – A Toy Class (1/4)

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Example – A Toy Class (1/4)

Here, we are creating a new class called Toy in the namespace example

The class has four fields, with one of them being static (more on this in the
next lecture)
The class has eight methods, with two of them being special methods, called
a constructor and a destructor (more on this soon)

It is a good practice to provide a class declaration in a header file, with the

definitions for the method provided in a CPP file

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Example – A Toy Class (2/4)

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Example – A Toy Class (2/4)

The methods can be defined (usually in a .CPP file) like

this…
The syntax is:
<return type> <class>::<method>(<arguments>)

The code is written in a code block with the

namespace example (similar to the class declaration)

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Access control over members of a class
You may have noticed that the fields were declared in the private section of the class
All the fields defined in the private section are kind of “invisible” outside the class
◦ So, they cannot be accessed outside the class by simply using <object>.<member> mechanism
◦ Although, it is common to keep the fields of a class private, methods too can be made private

The public members of a class are ”visible” to the outside world

◦ Thus, they can be accessed by using the <object>.<member> mechanism
◦ Although, usually the methods of a class are kept public, you are free to make fields public too

If you do not create these access control sections, by default, all members become private
The definitions of private methods outside the class’s declaration though is valid

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Example – A Toy Class (2/4)

The methods can be defined (usually in a .CPP file) like

this…
The syntax is:
<return type> <class>::<method>(<arguments>)

The code is written in a code block with the

namespace example (similar to the class declaration)

The associated access type (private or public)

doesn’t matter when you define the body of a
method like this

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Constructors and Destructors (1/2)
Constructors are methods which are invoked when a new object of a class is to be initialised
◦ It has the same name as the name of the class, without any return type (not even void)

A default constructor is added by the compiler for you, if you do not define one explicitly
◦ This added constructor does not have any instructions though – you can assume it to have empty body
◦ All the fields of the object are thus, initialised to their respective defaults

A class can have one or more constructors ...

◦ However, in case of multiple constructors, each constructor must have a different argument list

When you create a new object, you can pick any one of the constructors to initialise the fields
◦ For example, the statements, A ob = A(); and A ob = A(5), invoke different constructors
◦ The former invokes one with no arguments, and the latter invokes one with an int argument

If you define even a single constructor, the compiler doesn’t add the default constructor

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Example – A Toy Class (3/4)

This is an example of a constructor

The constructor takes two inputs, and

then assign it to two fields of the newly
created object

It assigns a value to another field (id) via

some other mechanism

Remember that since we have provided a

constructor for the class, the compiler
doesn’t add any default constructor

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Constructors and Destructors (2/2)
A destructor is a method that is called right before an object is “thrown into trash”
◦ It is not literally thrown, it means the memory allocated for the object is reclaimed

Its name is the name of the class, preceded by a tilde (~), without any return type (not even void)
A destructor can be used to perform any “clean-up” before the object becomes inaccessible
◦ For instance, if we allocated any memory dynamically, say via malloc(), it should be freed

A default destructor with empty body is added to a class automatically if it is not defined explicitly
While you can provide multiple constructors in a class, there can only

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Example – A Toy Class (3/4)

This is an example of a destructor

We are just printing a message here, so

that we can know when an object is being
“reclaimed”

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Example – A Toy Class (4/4)

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Example – A Toy Class (4/4)

On executing the code on the left, you will see the above output

The objects t1 and t2 are created before t3, but are destroyed
after it – because the scope of t3 is only within func()

Among the local variables, the objects are destroyed in the reverse
order of their construction

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD
Homework !!
For the class Toy, attempt to create an object without supplying the values for the parameters
◦ What can you infer from your observations?

Comment the supplied constructor in the class, and retry the above
Can you try to guess why the local objects are destroyed in the reverse order of their creation?
◦ Hint: It may have something to do with the use of a Stack frame for execution of a method

SAURABH SRIVASTAVA | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING | IIT (ISM) DHANBAD