ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with several sections that define and detail the many attributes of the collective data type known as the structure. This aggregated data type includes several options that aid in the removal of literal limitations, and thus help us to further our move into object-oriented programming (OOP). Structures are user-defined data types that allow for groupings of similar or related data that do not have a single base data type. These groups can include all the basic value data types, as well as a list of methods used to manipulate those values. Operator overloading is the reapplication of operators to include class manipulations. The standard class operator overloads include object-to-object and object-to-numeric values. Delegates are objects used as references to encapsulate specific methods, which include signatures and formal return types. The delegate, while similar to the C++ function pointer, is actually type safe and considered OOP compliant.
