Classes are user-defined types, defined by class-specifier, which appears in decl-specifier-seq of the declaration syntax.
[edit] SyntaxThe class specifier has the following syntax:
class-key attr (optional) class-head-name class-property-specs (optional) base-clause (optional){
member-specification }
(1) class-key attr (optional) base-clause (optional)
{
member-specification }
(2)
1) Named class definition
2) Unnamed class definition
class-key - one of class, struct and union. The keywords class and struct are identical except for the default member access and the default base class access. If it is union, the declaration introduces a union type. attr - (since C++11) any number of attributes, may includealignas
specifier class-head-name - the name of the class that's being defined, optionally qualified class-property-specs - A list of the following specifiers, each specifier is allowed at most once in each sequence. Specifier Effect final
A declaration of the following form
class-key attr identifier;
Declares a class type which will be defined later in this scope. Until the definition appears, this class name has incomplete type. This allows classes that refer to each other:
class Vector; // forward declaration class Matrix { // ... friend Vector operator*(const Matrix&, const Vector&); }; class Vector { // ... friend Vector operator*(const Matrix&, const Vector&); };
and if a particular source file only uses pointers and references to the class, this makes it possible to reduce #include dependencies:
// In MyStruct.h #include <iosfwd> // contains forward declaration of std::ostream struct MyStruct { int value; friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const S& s); // definition provided in MyStruct.cpp file which uses #include <ostream> };
If forward declaration appears in local scope, it hides previously declared class, variable, function, and all other declarations of the same name that may appear in enclosing scopes:
struct s { int a; }; struct s; // does nothing (s already defined in this scope) void g() { struct s; // forward declaration of a new, local struct "s" // this hides global struct s until the end of this block s* p; // pointer to local struct s struct s { char* p; }; // definitions of the local struct s }
Note that a new class name may also be introduced by an elaborated type specifier which appears as part of another declaration, but only if name lookup can't find a previously declared class with the same name.
class U; namespace ns { class Y f(class T p); // declares function ns::f and declares ns::T and ns::Y class U f(); // U refers to ::U // can use pointers and references to T and Y Y* p; T* q; }[edit] Member specification
The member specification, or the body of a class definition, is a brace-enclosed sequence of any number of the following:
1)Member declarations of the form
attr (optional) decl-specifier-seq (optional) member-declarator-list (optional);
This declaration may declare static and non-static data members and member functions, member typedefs, member enumerations, and nested classes. It may also be a friend declaration.
class S { int d1; // non-static data member int a[10] = {1, 2}; // non-static data member with initializer (C++11) static const int d2 = 1; // static data member with initializer virtual void f1(int) = 0; // pure virtual member function std::string d3, *d4, f2(int); // two data members and a member function enum { NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST }; struct NestedS { std::string s; } d5, *d6; typedef NestedS value_type, *pointer_type; };2)
Function definitions, which both declare and define
member functionsor
friend functions. A semicolon after a member function definition is optional. All functions that are defined inside a class body are automatically
inline, unless they are attached to a named module(since C++20).
3) Access specifierspublic:
,
protected:
, and
private:
class S { public: S(); // public constructor S(const S&); // public copy constructor virtual ~S(); // public virtual destructor private: int* ptr; // private data member };4) Using-declarations
:
class Base { protected: int d; }; class Derived : public Base { public: using Base::d; // make Base's protected member d a public member of Derived using Base::Base; // inherit all bases' constructors (C++11) };(since C++11) (since C++20) [edit] Local classes
A class declaration can appear inside the body of a function, in which case it defines a local class. The name of such a class only exists within the function scope, and is not accessible outside.
#include <algorithm> #include <iostream> #include <vector> int main() { std::vector<int> v{1, 2, 3}; struct Local { bool operator()(int n, int m) { return n > m; } }; std::sort(v.begin(), v.end(), Local()); // since C++11 for (int n : v) std::cout << n << ' '; std::cout << '\n'; }
Output:
[edit] Keywords [edit] Defect reportsThe following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.
DR Applied to Behavior as published Correct behavior CWG 1693 C++98 member declarations could not be empty empty declaration allowed CWG 1930 C++98 member-declarator-list could be empty when decl-specifier-seqRetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
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