Glossary: Container
A container
class
is one whose function is manage a collection of objects of another class.
Arrays, lists and trees are all examples of collections each
with a unique set of methods for adding, removing and locating members.
As the concept of a collection is logically independent
of the members of the collection, it follows that a collection is
a suitable subject to be an independent class. For example it would seem quite
wrong to have to reimplement all the machinery of a list, each time a new
type of object needed to be stored in a list.
Technical Note
There are a number of ways to implement container classes. The one
chosen by
root
it to use pointers to a primordial class and require all classes
that are to be held in containers
inherit
from this class so that they can be addressed by
such pointers.
See OO Concepts: Containers
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Nick West