The Differences Between Structures Classes

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The Differences Between Structures & Classes

The differences between structures and classes are summarized in table 10.1.

Table 10-1: Differences Between Structures and Classes

Feature	Structures	Classes
Keyword	struct	class
Default member access	public	private
Used in object-oriented thinking	No	Yes

Pretty big table! If structures are used at all by C++ programmers it is to reinforce the notion that the type they are creating is a simple aggregation. Using structs in this manner does not go against the grain of object-oriented programming per se, but, as I said earlier, anything you can do with a struct can be done with a class.

Quick Summary

The syntactic and semantic differences between structures and classes lies in their keywords and default member accessibility. How you think about programming with each makes all the difference in the world. To say more about their differences would belabor the point!

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