Final Topics

This is a list of the topics we have covered since the midterm. The final questions can come from any of these. Read over the notes and review the readings mentioned in them.

• Functions
  Functions can be used wherever a variable of the return type can be used. Know the difference between pass by value and pass by reference (reference parameters).
• Pointers
  Declaration, use, dereferencing. How do you get the address of a variable?. Know the difference between the types of pointers and the types of the things they point at. char * p; // p is a character pointer, pointer to character char x; // x is a character p = &x; // p points at x; cout << *p; // *p i of type character
• class/instance
  Classes represent some object or action in the program. Know how to create one. What is the difference between public, private and protected. What is a constructor? What are they for and how are they called? What is the difference between a class and an object or instance? How do you create an object and how do you access the properties and methods.
• methods
  functions attached to a class. Know how to write classes, both inline and outside the class.
• Encapsulation
  Everything we know about an object is included in the object
• Polymorphism
  Overriding methods. Child classes can have methods with the same name as one in the parent class.
• inheritance, is-a
  Child class gets the properties and methods of the parent. Parent constructor called first. Inheritance goes down the list, from parent to child to grandchild and so on. Know how to make one class inherit from another. A function can take parameters of the parent class and can take variables of the child types.
• Other stuff
  Arrays of classes.