FAQ 18.04 What s the difference between the keywords struct and class ?

FAQ 18.04 What's the difference between the keywords struct and class?

The difference is mostly perception.

From a pure language perspective, the major difference between the keywords struct and class is the default access level assigned to members and base classes. The default access level assigned to members and base classes of a struct is public:, while the default access level for members and base classes of a class is private:. Regardless, it is best to put an explicit public, private, or protected in the base class specifications, and it is usually best for the class to start with an explicit public:. With that approach, these defaults are of little consequence in practice.

The perception, however, is very different. A struct is perceived as an open bucket of bits. Most structs have very few member functions (often they have only a constructor), and they are often entirely public:.