What are the differences between struct and class

Question

This question was already asked in the context of C#/.Net.

Now I'd like to learn the differences between a struct and a class in C++. Please discuss the technical differences as well as reasons for choosing one or the other in OO design.

I'll start with an obvious difference:

• If you don't specify public: or private:, members of a struct are public by default; members of a class are private by default.

I'm sure there are other differences to be found in the obscure corners of the C++ specification.

Answer 1

ISO IEC 14882-2003

9 Classes

§3

A structure is a class defined with the class-key struct; its members and base classes (clause 10) are public by default (clause 11).

Answer 2

You might consider this for guidelines on when to go for struct or class, https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229017%28v=vs.110%29.aspx .

√ CONSIDER defining a struct instead of a class if instances of the type are small and commonly short-lived or are commonly embedded in other objects.

X AVOID defining a struct unless the type has all of the following characteristics:

It logically represents a single value, similar to primitive types (int, double, etc.).

It has an instance size under 16 bytes.

It is immutable.

It will not have to be boxed frequently.

Answer 3

1. Member of a class defined with the keyword class are private by default. Members of a class defined with the keywords struct (or union) are public by default.

2. In absence of an access-specifier for a base class, public is assumed when the derived class is declared struct and private is assumed when the class is declared class.

3. You can declare an enum class but not an enum struct.

4. You can use template<class T> but not template<struct T>.

Note also that the C++ standard allows you to forward-declare a type as a struct, and then use class when declaring the type and vice-versa. Also, std::is_class<Y>::value is true for Y being a struct and a class, but is false for an enum class.

Answer 4

According to Stroustrup in the C++ Programming Language:

Which style you use depends on circumstances and taste. I usually prefer to use struct for classes that have all data public. I think of such classes as "not quite proper types, just data structures."

Functionally, there is no difference other than the public / private

Answer 5

Here is a good explanation: http://carcino.gen.nz/tech/cpp/struct_vs_class.php

So, one more time: in C++, a struct is identical to a class except that the members of a struct have public visibility by default, but the members of a class have private visibility by default.

Answer 6

The main difference between struct and class is that in struct you can only declare data variables of different data types while in class you can declare data variables,member functions and thus you can manipulate data variables through functions.

-> another handy thing that i find in class vs struct is that while implementing files in a program if you want to make some operations of a struct again and again on every new set of operations you need to make a separate function and you need to pass object of struct after reading it from the file so as to make some operations on it . while in class if you make a function that does some operations on the data needed everytime..its easy you just have to read object from file and call the function..

But it depennds on the programmer which way he/she finds suitable...according to me i prefer class everytime just because it supports OOPs and thats the reason it is implemented in almost every languages and its the wonderful feature of all time programming ;-)

And yeah the most unforgotten difference i forgot to mention is that class supports data hiding and also supports operations that are performed on built in data types while struct doesnt !