Access to methods of another (external) class

I (beginner) am trying to program a simple calculator that accepts two numbers (float) and can add, subtract, multiply and divide.

I want to realise this “project” using at least 3 classes. According to my design these classes are:

Class Input (reads inputs from the user. the inputs are numbers and operations “+”, “-“, “*” and “/”)

Class Operation (gets the entered data from the input class and accomplishs the calculation)

Class Display (gets the results from the Class Operation and displays on the screen).

The question is how can I implement the transfer of messages say from class Input to class Operation or to class Display?

I highly appreciate if I get a sample code for such class interactions.

Thanks in advance

Praul

well there are several ways of doing this. One might be to make Input and Display friends of Operation. That way they can directly set/read member variables of Operation.

Personally, I would only use Operation and then overload cin >> and cout << functions for Operation to do the input/output.

You could have (an) Input object(s) be member variable(s) of the Operation class and you could pass an Operation object to a Display object method.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elad

You could have (an) Input object(s) be member variable(s) of the Operation class and you could pass an Operation object to a Display object method.

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That was my idea. But as I mentioned earlier I am starting from scratch. I have read and am reading yet how to do that. But i could not get any workable (implementation) code. e.g.

Class Input

public:
float get_first_number()
private:
float first_number;
void setfirst_number(float);


If the above class declaration is valid, then I want to transfer this input namely the value of the first_number to the method of the class operation.

The problem is (or what I do not know is) hot to do it.

Can you please show me the implementation for the above example? Thank you so much.

Praul

Could you nto use inheritance?

Inheritance doesn't seem to make sense in this case.

You first have to figure out where to create and keep an instance (or instances) of each of your classes. Perhaps they will go into main. Then you need to identify how one interacts with another. One simple way would be to pass the operation class to the input class as a parameter to an input function so that it can be filled with data.

If you ask me, using classes isnt the way to go. Dont use them just because you can, use them because they help you solve the problem.

In this case I would use a couple a functions. The functions I would use would probably be
- GetInput
- ParseString
- CalcResult
And then I would simply display it in main with a single cout. Using classes really seems to over-complicate things since you are trying to use classes in a way they are not design to be used (IMO).

I agree that classes shouldn't be used in the real world just because they are available. However, if you are trying to learn and you've chosen a project for the educational value, not for efficiency or appropriateness, then it seems fine to me.

I might try something like this:

Code:

---

//rough pseudocode

struct Input
operand1
operand2
operator
void obtain()
{
  //obtain first operand
    //obtain operator
  //obtain operand2
}

class Operation
private:
Input input;
float result;

public:

void perfom()
{
  input.obtain();
  switch(input.operator)
  {
      case '+':
          //result is sum of input.operand1 and input.operand2
      //etc
    } 
}

class Display
void doit(const Operation & o)
{
 //displays o.result
}

int main
Operation op;
op.perform();
Display d;
d.doit(op);

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Should I be more protective of variables, sure. Is it a klunky solution to a common problem, sure. Is it be a useful learnng exercise in how classes can interact with other, only the OP can say.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elad

I agree that classes shouldn't be used in the real world just because they are available. However, if you are trying to learn and you've chosen a project for the educational value, not for efficiency or appropriateness, then it seems fine to me.

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Thank you very much indeed. I prefer this approach as you said for the sake of learning only.

Are struct and class the same or they differ in essence and in implementation? Why did you prefer to use struct for Input?

I think a good way to learn classes is to make a simple text-based console game.

>> Are struct and class the same or they differ in essence and in implementation?
struct and class are the same except that by default, struct members (and base classes) are public and class members (and base classes) are private. If you always specify public or private then they are the same. In practice, people generally use structs for bundles of data that don't really have any behavior associated with them, so people often use structs without any member functions and then use a class if they need to add member functions and hide the data behind an interface.

Thank you so much!!!!!!!