What I don't understand is what is the difference between using a pointer to a class and generating a new instance of it. It's just for performance? Here I made a class and made m the pointer to the class and n the instance of the class.
And another question: can i make a pointer the class and use another constructor? like myClass* p(7); p->afis();
?
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
class myClass
{
int a;
public:
myClass(void);
myClass(int);
void afis();
~myClass(void);
};
myClass::myClass(void)
{
a = 5;
}
myClass::myClass(int nr)
{
a = nr;
}
void myClass::afis()
{
cout << a;
}
myClass::~myClass()
{
}
int main()
{
myClass* m; //<--
m->afis();
myClass n(7); //<--
n.afis();
cin.get();
}
So, in Objective-C, if a variable is an instance of the class MyClass, that variable is of type MyClass* — a pointer to a MyClass. In general, in Objective-C, a reference to an instance is a pointer and the name of the data type of what's at the far end of that pointer is the name of the instance's class.
Pointers are used for file handling. Pointers are used to allocate memory dynamically. In C++, a pointer declared to a base class could access the object of a derived class. However, a pointer to a derived class cannot access the object of a base class.
Pointers are used extensively in both C and C++ for three main purposes: to allocate new objects on the heap, to pass functions to other functions. to iterate over elements in arrays or other data structures.
A pointer to a C++ class is done exactly the same way as a pointer to a structure and to access members of a pointer to a class you use the member access operator -> operator, just as you do with pointers to structures. Also as with all pointers, you must initialize the pointer before using it.
myClass* m;
is just an pointer to the type myClass
it does not point to any valid object, dereferecing such a pointer is Undefined Behavior.
An Undefined Behavior means that your program is invalid and it may seem to work or it may crash or it may show any weird behavior, all safe bets are off. So just because your program works does not mean it is safe and it will always work.
To write a valid program you will have to make the pointer point to a valid object.
For example:
myClass obj;
myClass*m = &obj;
In the second case:
myClass n(7);
It creates an object n
of the type myClass
by calling the constructor of myClass
which takes one argument of the type int
.
This is a valid way of creating an object.
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