Teach Yourself Borland C++ in 14 Days - portal

92 Day 3
Inline functions are usually class member functions. Often the inline function definition (the
function itself) is placed in the header file following the class declaration. (This is the one time
that you can place code in your header files.) Because the GetSpeed() function mentioned
previously is so small, it can be inlined easily. Here’s how it would look:
inline int Airplane::GetSpeed() {
return speed; // speed is a class member variable
}
An inline function can also be defined within a class declaration. Because I haven’t talked
about classes yet, though, I’ll hold that discussion for tomorrow.
Summary
Wow, that’s some pretty heavy stuff! Because you are reading this, you must still be left
standing. That’s good news. Today we got out the big guns and took on pointers and
references. Once you get a handle on pointers, you are well on your way to understanding
C++. As part of the discussion on pointers you learned about local versus dynamic memory
allocation, which led to a discussion about the new and delete operators. Today ends with
an explanation of how C++ extends the use of functions over what the C language provides.
Workshop
The Workshop contains quiz questions to help you solidify your understanding of the
material covered and exercises to provide you with experience in using what you have learned.
You can find answers to the quiz questions in Appendix A, “Answers to Quiz Questions.”
Q&A
Q Pointers and references confuse me. Am I alone?
A Absolutely not! Pointers and references are complicated and take some time to fully
understand. You will probably have to work with C++ a while before you get a
handle on pointers and references.
Q Do I always have to delete an object that I created dynamically with the new
operator?
A Yes and no. All objects created with new must have a corresponding delete, or the
program will leak memory. Some objects, however, have parent objects that will
take the responsibility for deleting them. So the question is not whether an object
created with new should be deleted, but rather who should delete it. You will always
want to call delete for classes you write. Later, when you learn about VCL (on