Class Scope and Accessing Class Members

• Class scope
  • Data members, member functions
  • Within class scope
    • Class members; Immediately accessible by all member functions, Referenced by name
  • Outside class scope
    • Referenced through handles; Object name, reference to object, pointer to object
• File scope
  • Nonmember functions
• Function scope
  • Variables declared in member function
  • Only known to function
  • Variables with same name as class-scope variables
    • Class-scope variable hidden; Access with scope resolution operator (::)

      ClassName::classVariableName
      

  • Variables only known to function they are defined in
  • Variables are destroyed after function completion
• Operators to access class members
  • Identical to those for structs
  • Dot member selection operator (.)
    • Object
    • Reference to object
  • Arrow member selection operator ($->$)
    • pointers

  Figure 7: Demonstrating the class member access operators$.$ and $->$