Should I use structs in C++?

Question

The difference between struct and class is small in C++, basically only that struct members are per default public and class members are per default private.

However, I still use structs whenever I need pure data structures, for instance:

struct Rectangle {
    int width;
    int height;
};

I find that very convenient to work with:

Rectangle r;
r.width = 20;
r.height = 10;

However, data structures are from procedural programming, and I'm doing object oriented programming. Is it a bad idea to introduce this concept into OO?

Answer 1

No. If it makes sense to use a struct somewhere, why would you complicate things using something else that isn't meant to fit the purpose ?

In my projects, I tend to use struct for simple "structures" which just need to hold some trivial data.

If a data structure needs to have some "smartness" and hidden fields/methods, then it becomes a class.

Answer 2

structs are especially useful for POD (plain old data) encapsulation. There is a lot more on this at struct vs class in C++