Difference between a struct and a class [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
What are the differences between struct and class in C++

I've done my homework and had diverse answers on Google. Some say structs do not have inheritance, some say structs do not have access specifiers, while others say they have both.
Could someone clarify then, the differences between a struct and a class in C and C++, and also the difference between a struct in C & C++.

Answer 1

In C++, the only difference between a struct and a class is that struct members are public by default, and class members are private by default.

However, as a matter of style, it's best to use the struct keyword for something that could reasonably be a struct in C (more or less POD types), and the class keyword if it uses C++-specific features such as inheritance and member functions.

C does not have classes.

C structs cannot use C++-specific features.

EDIT:

The C++ FAQ Lite, question 7.9, has this to say:

The members and base classes of a struct are public by default, while in class, they default to private. Note: you should make your base classes explicitly public, private, or protected, rather than relying on the defaults.

struct and class are otherwise functionally equivalent.

OK, enough of that squeaky clean techno talk. Emotionally, most developers make a strong distinction between a class and a struct. A struct simply feels like an open pile of bits with very little in the way of encapsulation or functionality. A class feels like a living and responsible member of society with intelligent services, a strong encapsulation barrier, and a well defined interface. Since that's the connotation most people already have, you should probably use the struct keyword if you have a class that has very few methods and has public data (such things do exist in well designed systems!), but otherwise you should probably use the class keyword.

And quoting Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language", 4th edition, section 16.2.4:

These two definitions of S are interchangeable, though it is usually wise to stick to one style. Which style you use depends on circumstances and taste. I tend to use struct for classes that I think of as "just simple data structures." If I think of a class as "a proper type with an invariant," I use class. Constructors and access functions can be quite useful even for *struct*s, but as a shorthand rather than guarantors of invariants.