C++Talk.NET C++ language newsgroups   Archives   FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  static variables in a class          C++Talk.NET Forum Index -> C++ language (comp.lang.c++) View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message john smith Guest Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 12:06 am    Post subject: static variables in a class I was looking at some code that someone had written, and they had a class with all static attributes. Can someone please enlighten me why someone would do that? Doesn't that break the rule of encapsulation? I have always been used to seeing accessors and mutators instead of directly accessing an attribute to change or access the variable. Thanks in advance for any insight. Back to top Shezan Baig Guest Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 12:15 am    Post subject: Re: static variables in a class john smith wrote: Quote: I was looking at some code that someone had written, and they had a class with all static attributes. Can someone please enlighten me why someone would do that? Doesn't that break the rule of encapsulation? I have always been used to seeing accessors and mutators instead of directly accessing an attribute to change or access the variable. Thanks in advance for any insight. Probably just for scoping reasons. Alternatively, they could have just used a namespace, but maybe there was some reason to prevent it being re-opened? Hope this helps, -shez- Back to top Dave Rahardja Guest Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 1:41 am    Post subject: Re: static variables in a class On 9 Sep 2005 17:15:08 -0700, "Shezan Baig" <shezanbaig2004 (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote: Quote: john smith wrote: I was looking at some code that someone had written, and they had a class with all static attributes. Can someone please enlighten me why someone would do that? Doesn't that break the rule of encapsulation? I have always been used to seeing accessors and mutators instead of directly accessing an attribute to change or access the variable. Thanks in advance for any insight. Probably just for scoping reasons. Alternatively, they could have just used a namespace, but maybe there was some reason to prevent it being re-opened? Right. I've done that to get around an old compiler that has unreliable namespace support. By the way, John, how do static variables break the rule of encapsulation? The use of accessors and mutators is a good idea, but there are times that you want to let other entities (especially other classes belonging to a common library) access your members directly for efficiency or even clarity. Back to top M Guest Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 6:39 am    Post subject: Re: static variables in a class It's difficult to comment on that specific code without seeing it, but most of the cases of static members that I've seen or used were simply to make the same data accessible to every instance of the class such as an instance counter or a lookup table. On Fri, 9 Sep 2005 17:06:31 -0700, "john smith" <princetonharvard (AT) charter (DOT) net> wrote: Quote: I was looking at some code that someone had written, and they had a class with all static attributes. Can someone please enlighten me why someone would do that? Doesn't that break the rule of encapsulation? I have always been used to seeing accessors and mutators instead of directly accessing an attribute to change or access the variable. Thanks in advance for any insight. Back to top Marcus Kwok Guest Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:52 pm    Post subject: Re: static variables in a class Dave Rahardja <ask (AT) me (DOT) com> wrote: Quote: The use of accessors and mutators is a good idea, but there are times that you want to let other entities (especially other classes belonging to a common library) access your members directly for efficiency or even clarity. I found these articles on why getters/setters (also called accessors/modifiers and inspectors/mutators) should be avoided. It is given in a Java context but the principles apply to OO design in C++. Why getter and setter methods are evil http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-09-2003/jw-0905-toolbox.html More on getters and setters http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-01-2004/jw-0102-toolbox.html -- Marcus Kwok Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First         C++Talk.NET Forum Index -> C++ language (comp.lang.c++) All times are GMT Page 1 of 1   Jump to: Select a forum C/C++----------------C LanguageC Language (Moderated)C++ Language (Moderated)C++ language (comp.lang.c++)C++ language, library and standards Non-English C/C++ Newsgroups----------------C++ (German)C++ (French)  You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2006 phpBB Group SEO toolkit © 2004-2006 webmedic.