--Ashwiniiit (talk) 17:25, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
In object-oriented programming, a friend function that is a "friend" of a given class is allowed access to public, private, or protected data in that class. Normally, a function that is defined outside of a class cannot access such information. Declaring a function a friend of a class allows this, in languages where the concept is supported.
A friend function is declared by the class that is granting access. Friend declaration can be placed anywhere in the class declaration. It is not affected by the access control keywords.
A similar concept is that of friend class. Done Editing By FB.Com Friends should be used with caution. Too many functions or external classes declared as friends of a class with protected or private data may lessen the value of encapsulation of separate classes in object-oriented programming and may indicate a problem in the overall architecture design.
Read more about Friend Function: Use Cases
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