Difference Between Friend Function and Friend Class

In this post, we will understand the difference between Friend function and Friend class.

Friend Function

• It is usually used with operator overloading operation.

• It is used with the ‘friend’ keyword.

• It helps give a non-member function the access to the private members of the class.

• It has to be declared before it is used.

• It is used to access private and protected members of the class.

• It can be a global function or a function in another class.

Example

class Node
{
   private:
   int val;
   Node* next;

   // Other members of Node Class //
   friend int LinkedList::search();
   // Only search method of linkedList
   // can be used to access the internal members
};

Friend Class

• It is a class that is used with ‘friend’ keyword.

• It is not necessary to declare it before using it.

• A friend class is used when a class is created as an inherited class from another base class.

• It is used to access private and protected members of the class.

Example

class Node
{
   private:
   int val;
   Node* next;
   /* Other members of Class */

   // The class can access private members of
   //Node friend class LinkedList;
};

AmitDiwan

Published on 23-Mar-2021 07:55:25

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