Classes and Objects: Building Blueprints

Snippet

Classes and Objects: Building Blueprints

A class is a blueprint for creating objects. Think of it as a cookie cutter - the class defines the shape, and each object is an actual cookie made from that cutter. In this example, Dog is a class with properties (name, age) and behaviors (bark()). We create an object myDog from this blueprint and can access its members using the dot operator.

snippet.cpp

cpp

class Dog {
public:
    string name;
    int age;
    
    void bark() {
        cout << name << " says: Woof!" << endl;
    }
};
 
int main() {
    Dog myDog;
    myDog.name = "Buddy";
    myDog.age = 3;
    myDog.bark();
    return 0;
}

Breakdown

class Dog {

Keyword to define a new class named Dog

public:

Access modifier allowing members to be accessed from outside the class

string name;

Member variable to store the dog's name

void bark() {

Member function that outputs a bark sound

Dog myDog;

Creates an object (instance) of the Dog class

myDog.name = "Buddy";

Assigns a value to the object's name property

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