Member Functions of C++ Classes

In C++, Member Functions can be defined in two places:

  • Outside the class definition
  • Inside the class definition

Outside the class definition:

Member functions that are declared inside a class have to be defined separately outside the class. It’s like a normal function. It should have a function header and a function body.

The main difference between a member function and a normal function is that a member function incorporates a membership ‘identity lebel’ in the header. ‘lebel’ tells the compiler which class the function belongs to. It has the following Syntax:

return-type class-name::function-name(argument declaration)
{
 Function body
}

Inside the class definition:

Defining a member function is to replace the function declaration by the actual function definition inside the class.
Example:

class item 
{
 int number;
 float cost;
 public:
void getdata(int a, float b)   // declaration Inline function
void putdata(void)   // definition inside the class          
{
 cout<<number<<"\n";
 cout<<cost<<"\n";
}
};