Accessing the private members of a structure .

[Raman009]

Here is my code:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

typedef struct {
    private :
    char name[80] ;
    int age ;
}man;

int main()
{
    man raman ;
    cout << "Enter name ";
    cin >> raman.name ;
    cout << "Enter age ";
    cin >> raman.age ;
    cout << "Details of the person " << endl;
    cout << "Name " << raman.name << " Age " << raman.age << endl;
    return 0;
}

Of course , I cannot access them directly . Is there any other way to access the private members of a structure ?

[firedraco]

Nope. The point of making them private is to prevent direct access.

[Raman009]

thanks for replying.

[o1vk4iN6]

You can make functions and classes "friends" of man. This will let them access the private members.

class Matrix4 {
        friend Vec4        operator*( const Vec4 &, const Matrix4 & );

private:
        float              mat[ 4 * 4 ];
};

Vec4 operator*( const Vec4 & a, const Matrix4 & b ) {
        float m00 = b.mat[ 0 ]; // no access error
}

Of course I wouldn't see you making a function like "main" a friend, doesn't make sense.

[Raman009]

Whenever I have something which contains only data , I put it inside a structure . However as said @xerzi , I could have used class also.

Should we use classes instead of structures in C++ ?

I read somewhere that they are relics of the past and just used for backward compatibility with C .

[zb0S216C]

Raman wrote:

"Should we use classes instead of structures in C++ ? "

It doesn't make a difference, as both struct and class are equal, despite the default access level. And yes, struct is part of the backwards compatibility with C, but is allowed to behave like class.

What I tend to do is used struct for interfaces & PODs, and class for representing a physical object.

_Wazzak

[vlad from moscow]

In C++ structure is a class with class key struct. :)

[Aceix]

_@OP:

Is there any other way to access the private members of a structure ?

Yes, through functions.

[Raman009]

So we can do it like this :

#include<iostream>
using namespace std ;

struct Value1{
    private :
    int a;

    public :
    void setA(int b){
        a = b ;
    }

    int getA(){
        return a ;
    }
};

class Value2{
    private :
    int a ;
    public :
    int getA(){
        return a ;
    }

    void setA(int b){
        a = b ;
    }
};

int main(){
  Value1 value ;
  value.setA(34);
  cout << "The value using structure is " << value.getA() << endl;

  Value2 obj;
  obj.setA(20);
  cout << "The value using class is " << obj.getA() << endl;

  return 0 ;
}

Well , now they seem the same to me .