Friend Functions & Friend Classes
Object Oriented Programming
Spring 2020
Imran Siddiqi
1
Friend functions
• A friend function of a class is defined outside that class's
scope, yet has the right to access the non-public (and public)
members of the class
• Let’s say you want a function to operate on objects of two
different classes and access their private data, you would
need to use a friend function
Example of friend functions
class alpha
{
private:
int data;
public:
alpha():data(3) {}
friend int frifunc(alpha); //friend func declaration
};
int frifunc(alpha a) //friend func defined
{
cout << a.data;
}
void main()
{
alpha aa;
frifunc(aa); //friend func called
getch();
}
Example of friend functions
class beta; //req for frifunc declaration
class alpha
{
private:
int data;
public:
alpha():data(3) {}
friend int frifunc(alpha, beta);
};
class beta
{
private:
int data;
public:
beta():data(7) {}
friend int frifunc(alpha,beta);
};
Example of friend functions
int frifunc(alpha a, beta b) //friend func defined
{
return (a.data + b.data);
}
void main()
{
alpha aa;
beta bb;
cout<<frifunc(aa,bb)<<endl; //friend func called
getch();
}
friend classes
• The member functions of a class can all be made friends at
the same time when you make the entire class a friend
• If class alpha declares class beta as a friend class, then all
member functions of class beta can access private data of
class alpha
• It is also possible to declare only one member function of
another class to be a friend
friend classes
class beta;
class alpha
{
private:
int data;
public:
alpha():data(3) {}
friend beta; //friend class declaration
};
class beta
{
public:
void func(alpha a)
{
cout<<"alpha's data: "<<a.data;
}
};
friend classes
void main()
{
alpha aa;
beta bb;
bb.func(aa);
getch();
}
friend classes
class Triangle;
class Point
{
private:
int x, y;
public:
Point() :x(0), y(0)
{}
Point(int u, int v)
{ x = u; y = v;}
void print()
{cout << "(" << x << ", " << y << ")" << endl;}
friend class Triangle;
}; 9
class Triangle {
Point p1, p2, p3;
public:
Triangle() :p1(0, 0), p2(0, 0), p3(0, 0)
{}
Triangle(Point varp1, Point varp2, Point varp3) {
p1 = varp1;
p2 = varp2;
p3 = varp3;
}
float Area()
{
return (1.0/2 * (p1.x*(p2.y - p3.y) + p2.x*(p3.y -
p1.y) + p3.x*(p1.y - p2.y)));
}
10
Class member functions as friends
class Triangle;
class Point
{
private:
int x, y;
public:
Point() :x(0), y(0)
{}
Point(int u, int v)
{ x = u; y = v;}
void print()
{cout << "(" << x << ", " << y << ")" << endl;}
friend float Triangle::Area();
11
};
class Triangle {
Point p1, p2, p3;
public:
Triangle() :p1(0, 0), p2(0, 0), p3(0, 0)
{}
Triangle(Point varp1, Point varp2, Point varp3) {
p1 = varp1;
p2 = varp2;
p3 = varp3;
}
float Area()
{
return (1.0/2 * (p1.x*(p2.y - p3.y) + p2.x*(p3.y -
p1.y) + p3.x*(p1.y - p2.y)));
}
12
Summary (friends)
• Even though the prototypes for friend functions appear in
the class definition, friends are not member functions
• Friend declarations can be placed anywhere in a class
definition either in public, private or protected sections
• Violates the data hiding principle of classes, so it should be
avoided as much as possible
• Friendship is granted, not taken i.e., for class B to be a friend
of class A, class A must explicitly declare that class B is its
friend
• The friendship relation is neither symmetric nor transitive
Summary (friends)
class T {
public: Global function a() can access private
friend void a(); data of class T
int m();
private: m() can access private data in S
...
}; All functions of T can access private
data of class X
void a() {...}
class S {
public:
friend int T::m();
...
};
class X {
public:
friend class T;
...
};
