Is there a way to access the private members of a class by a non member function?. Well there is one way, know as the friend function. This function has access to all private and protected members of the class for which it is a friend.
To declare a friend function, include its prototype in the class of which you want to access the private and public members, preceding it with the keyword friend.
EXAMPLE
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
class myclass
{
private:
int a,b;
public:
friend int sum(myclass x);
void set_ab(int i, int j);
};
The function sum is not a member function of any class. Although sum is not a member, it still has full access to its private members.
The friend functions are not called by the reference of the object created by the class, because it is not a member of the class, so it cannot be qualified with an objects name.
int main()
{
myclass n;
n.set_ab(3,4);//Call by the reference of the object.
sum(n);//Directly called without reference of the object.
}
So we can access all the members of a class by a non-member function, if the function is a friend with the class.
Administrador de ENGGDRCAOS. Canal dedicado especialmente a la formación del estudiante que aspira a ser ingeniero. Todos los videos son Ingles. Apasionado del universo Apple, estudiante de Ingeniería y Gamer por vocación.
