Constant Objects and Members

• Similar to primitive data types, objects that need to be unmodifiable can be defined as constant objects. The const keyword may be used to accomplish this, e.g.
  

  class employee{
  public:
  	// Members of the class go in here.
  };
  
  const employee Jake; // Defined employee object as an unmodifiable object
  

• Attempts to modify a const object using member functions or non-member functions will result in compiler errors
• Member functions that operate on const objects, without modifying them, must be declared with the const keyword.
• The const keyword must be specified after the parameter list in function prototypes and function definitions. Example...
• Constructors and Destructors of const objects do not require the const keyword
• When a class contains a const data member, it cannot be initialized in the body of the constructor, because a const member ,by definition, cannot be assigned a new value. However, C++ does not permit the initialization of data members in the class definition. How then, can the const data members be initialized? The initialization can only be accomplished using a member initialization list. The member initialization list is executed prior to the execution of the constructor. One may think of it conceptually as a part of the class definition that permits initialization. Example...