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Asked: 2026-05-15T21:27:12+00:00

I am about to add a class X that will be used by my

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I am about to add a class X that will be used by my three previously designed classes (A, B and C).

The new class X will contain data and functions for new features as well as provide services to the classes that use it to hide lower layers. The problem is that A, B and C will use class X quite differently, that is, use different functions of it.

My question is if I should provide an API (or Abstract Base Class in C++) for the new class X or not. If I should, should that API be per X class or per A, B and C class? I have read somewhere that an API is sometimes more closely related to that caller that the class that implements it. If I do provide one API for each caller, the API will only contain the functions that the particular caller needs.

Or should I just create a normal C++ class and let the callers use a subset of the public functions of X in each of A, B and C, although they "technically" can use them all? The functions of class X are not very likely to change neither is the need to create a similar class to X.

If I’m not completely lost in object oriented programming, one reason for providing an interface/API for a class is that code that use the interface/API doesn’t need to change if you add another subclass since the caller works on the interface name and uses dynamic binding to resolve the correct subclass type.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Are you sure all these functions belong to the same class X? Think about separating different functionality into different classes:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-Coupling_/_High-Cohesion_pattern

    But without knowing what the functions of X are it is difficult to help further.

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