Structs vs classes in C++ [duplicate]

Question

Technically, the only difference between the two is that structs are public: by default and classes are private:

Other than that, there is no technical difference.

struct vs class then becomes a purely expressive nuance of the language.

Usually, you avoid putting complicated methods in a struct, and most of the time structs data members will stay public. In a class you want to enforce strong encapsulation.

struct = data is public, with very simple helper methods

class = strongly encapsulated, data is modified / accessed only through methods

I use structs for simple containers of types that provide no constructors or operators.

Classes for everything else.

Use a struct when you simply need a "bucket of stuff" that doesn't have logical invariants that you need to keep. Use a class for anything else.

See also what the C++ FAQ says on the subject.

Use a class if you have methods, a struct if not.

A class should hide all its internals only exposing methods or properties. A struct tends to expose all its internals and has no accessor methods.

Where only one bit of code is accessing some (related) data, a struct may be perfectly reasonable. Where multiple bits of code need to modify the data or if it's anything slightly complicated, a class would be a better bet.

The difference between Classes and Structs are that structs are groups of variables and classes represent objects. Objects have attributes AND methods and be part of a hierarchy.

If you're using C++ to take advantage of the OO capabilities it's best to use classes / objects which are more natural.

I always use class, even for just containers, for consistency. Its purely a choice of style since the difference between the two is negligible.