In this chapter you’ll:

• Engineer a class to separate its interface from its implementation and encourage reuse.

• Access class members via an object’s name or a reference using the dot (.) operator.

• Access class members via a pointer to an object using the arrow (->) operator.

• Use destructors to perform “termination housekeeping.”

• Learn the order of constructor and destructor calls.

• Learn about the dangers of returning a reference or a pointer to private data.

• Assign the data members of one object to those of another object.

• Create objects composed of other objects.

• Use friend functions and learn how to declare friend classes.

• Use the this pointer in a member function to access a non-static class member.

• Use static data members and member functions.