Difference between Structure and Class

[firdousahmad]

What is the difference between Class and structure

[ome2012]

classes are declared using the keyword class while structures are declared using the keyword struct

structures are entirely public, while classes are private by default

[mike_2000_17]

The only real difference between a struct and a class is in the default inheritance and access rights. Given a base-class B, you could write:

class C : B {  // inherits B privately, by default, same as ': private B {'.
  void foo();  // private member function, same as 'private: void foo();'.
};

struct D : B {  // inherits B publicly, by default, same as ': public B {'.
  void foo();   // public member function, same as 'public: void foo();'.
};

Generally, it is not recommended to use the default inheritance or access rights, so you should always spell it out (i.e., have the public or private keywords explicitly stated). With regards to the C++ Standard, there is never any distinction made between a struct or a class (except where it specifies the default rights associated to them), they are both referred to as a class.

In common coding practice and popular terminology, C++ programmers will often say a "structure" for something ressembling a C-style struct (meaning a struct that would be valid in C: no inheritance, only public data members, and no member functions). In formal language (as in the ISO standard document), this is called a POD-type (Plain-Old-Data type). Often, C++ programmers will use the keyword struct when building such a simple class (just a container of a few data members, with only simple and public member functions). But this is nothing more than a convention (and a bit of syntax convenience as POD-types usually only contain public members).