Object-Oriented Programming in C++ Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental C++ concepts, object-oriented design pillars, memory allocation, operators, inheritance models, and functions.

Object

The basic unit of object-oriented programming and an instance of a class, possessing states and behaviors.

Class

A template or blueprint that describes the behaviors and states supported by an object of its type.

Methods

Behaviors defined within a class where programming logic is written, data is manipulated, and actions are executed.

Data Abstraction

The process of providing only essential information to the outside world while hiding background details.

Encapsulation

Placing data and the functions that work on that data together within the same object or unit.

Inheritance

The process of forming a new class (derived class) from an existing class (base class) to enable code reusability.

Polymorphism

The ability to use an operator or function in different ways or assign it different meanings based on usage context.

Overloading

A branch of polymorphism where an existing operator or function is made to operate on new data types.

Instance Variables

Unique variables belonging to an object that create its state based on assigned values.

Identifier

A name used to identify a variable, function, class, module, or user-defined item, starting with a letter or underscore.

Trigraph Sequence

A three-character sequence starting with two question marks that represents a single character in code.

Local Variables

Variables declared inside a function or block that can only be accessed by statements within that specific block.

Global Variables

Variables defined outside all functions, accessible by any function throughout the lifetime of the program.

Data Type Modifiers

Keywords such as signed, unsigned, short, and long used to alter the meaning of base data types.

Call by Value

A parameter-passing method where a copy of the argument value is passed to the function, leaving the caller's original variable unmodified.

Call by Reference

A parameter-passing method where the memory address of the variable is passed, allowing changes inside the function to alter the original variable.

Tail Recursion

A recursive function call where the function calls itself at the very end and performs no further operations afterwards.

Automatic Storage Class

The default storage class for local variables, declared with keyword auto, featuring local visibility and function block lifetime.

Register Storage Class

A storage class declared with keyword register that allocates memory in a CPU register rather than RAM for faster access.

Static Storage Class

A storage class declared with keyword static that initializes a variable once and retains its value between function calls throughout program execution.

External Storage Class

A storage class declared with keyword extern that provides global visibility across multiple program files.

Single Dimensional Array

A linear array structure storing a fixed set of similar elements in contiguous memory locations starting at index $0$.

Multidimensional Array

A rectangular array structure storing data in tabular form consisting of rows and columns.

Pointer

A variable that holds the memory address of another variable as its value.

Address Operator (&)

An operator used to determine the memory address of a variable in C++.

Indirection Operator (*)

An operator used to access the value stored at a specified memory address.

Default Constructor

A constructor method that accepts no arguments and is invoked automatically when an object is created.

Parameterized Constructor

A constructor method that accepts arguments to initialize distinct objects with specific values.

Copy Constructor

An overloaded constructor used to declare and initialize a new object using an existing object of the same class.

Shallow Copy

An object copying process that copies member values directly, leaving pointers in both objects referencing the exact same memory location.

Deep Copy

An object copying process that dynamically allocates new memory for copied pointers so source and target objects maintain distinct memory locations.

Destructor

A special class method prefixed with a tilde character that automatically destructs objects and frees memory when objects go out of scope.

Single Inheritance

An inheritance type where a derived class is inherited from only one base class.

Multilevel Inheritance

The process of deriving a class from another derived class in a transitive chain.

Multiple Inheritance

The process of deriving a new class that inherits directly from two or more base classes.

Hybrid Inheritance

An inheritance structure created by combining more than one type of inheritance.

Hierarchical Inheritance

The process of deriving multiple classes from a single base class.

Pure Virtual Function

A virtual function declared in a base class with $= 0$ that has no definition in the base class.

Abstract Class

A class containing at least one pure virtual function that cannot be used to declare objects of its own.