Wrox Press C++ Tutorial

Chapter 6 - Structuring Your Data Using Classes

This chapter is all about creating your own data types to suit your particular problem. We'll learn how to create objects - the building blocks of object-oriented programming. An object can seem a bit mysterious to the uninitiated but, as we shall see in this chapter, an object is just an instance of one of your own data types.

In this chapter you will learn about:

• Classes and how they are used
  
  
• The basic components of a class and how a class is declared
  
  
• Creating and using objects of a class
  
  
• Controlling access to members of a class
  
  
• Constructors and how to create them
  
  
• The default constructor
  
  
• References in the context of classes
  
  
• The copy constructor and how it is implemented