Structs and Classes
The C programming language has structs. C++ offers structs and classes. Here’s a bit of an overview of these constructs.
C
C offers only structs. They are quite different from C++ structs, they are more limited.
Some key points:
- only data members can be used, no methods!
- no constructors or destructors
- no access modifiers, hence no encapsulation
- may be referred to by pointer only, no references
That’s basically it, structs are a way to group related data (not functionality) together.
C++
C++ is an Object-Oriented Programming language (although it could be considered multi-paradigm). It has both structs and classes. There is just one difference between them:
Structs have their members public by default, while classes have their members private by default.
Other than that, structs and classes are pretty much the same. Some features:
- they can hold data
- they can have methods
- they can have constructors/destructors
- they may be referred to by pointer or a reference
- they support access modifiers
You can find opinions that a class is supposed to be used to hold data
and functionality, while a struct is for related data, similarly to C.
Personally, I think that in the ideal world, there would be just one - either a class or a struct. I think the only reason to have both is:
- Structs, with their syntax would be kept compatible with C (assuming we don’t use methods, and other non-C things) where everything is public.
- Classes are supposed to be the “ideal” OOP construct, introduced for those who want to write new programs in an OOP style.