Class Types
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The declaration creates a unique type, class type class-name. This lets you declare further class objects (or instances) of this type, and objects derived from this type (such as pointers to, references to, arrays of class-name, and so on):
class X { ... };
X x, &xr, *xptr, xarray[10];
/* four objects: type X, reference to X, pointer to X and array of X */
struct Y { ... };
Y y, &yr, *yptr, yarray[10];
// C would have
// struct Y y, *yptr, yarray[10];
union Z { ... };
Z z, &zr, *zptr, zarray[10];
// C would have
// union Z z, *zptr, zarray[10];
Note the difference between C and C++ structure and union declarations: The keywords struct and union are essential in C, but in C++, they are needed only when the class names, Y and Z, are hidden (see Class name scope)