Thursday, September 18, 2008

What is the difference between a list and an array?

What is the difference between an ARRAY and a LIST?
Answer1
Array is collection of homogeneous elements.
List is collection of heterogeneous elements. 

For Array memory allocated is static and continuous.
For List memory allocated is dynamic and Random. 

Array: User need not have to keep in track of next memory allocation.
List: User has to keep in Track of next location where memory is allocated. 

Answer2
Array uses direct access of stored members, list uses sequencial access for members.

//With Array you have direct access to memory position 5
Object x = a[5]; // x takes directly a reference to 5th element of array

//With the list you have to cross all previous nodes in order to get the 5th node:
list mylist;
list::iterator it;

for( it = list.begin() ; it != list.end() ; it++ )
{
if( i==5)
{
x = *it;
break;
}
i++;
}

Does c++ support multilevel and multiple inheritance? 
Yes.

Define a constructor - What it is and how it might be called (2 methods). 

Answer1
constructor is a member function of the class, with the name of the function being the same as the class name. It also specifies how the object should be initialized. 

Ways of calling constructor:
1) Implicitly: automatically by complier when an object is created.
2) Calling the constructors explicitly is possible, but it makes the code unverifiable.

Answer2
class Point2D{
int x; int y;
public Point2D() : x(0) , y(0) {} //default (no argument) constructor
};

main(){

Point2D MyPoint; // Implicit Constructor call. In order to allocate memory on stack, the default constructor is implicitly called.

Point2D * pPoint = new Point2D(); // Explicit Constructor call. In order to allocate memory on HEAP we call the default constructor.
 


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