C++ Constructors
Thameera Senanayaka
Allion Technologies
What is a constructor?
- Initializes the members of a class
- Same name as the class
- No return value
- Can be public, protected or private
Order of Construction
- Base class and member constructors in the order of declration
- If the class is derived from virtual base classes, it initializes the object's virtual base pointers
- If the class has or inherits virtual functions, it initializes the object's virtual function pointers
- Execute code in its function body
Demo
Member initializer lists
- More efficient than using assignment operators in ctor body
class Box {
public:
Box(int width, int length, int height)
: m_width(width), m_length(length), m_height(height) // member init list
{}
int Volume() {return m_width * m_length * m_height; }
private:
int m_width;
int m_length;
int m_height;
};
Explicit constructors
- If a constructor has only one parameter (or multiple parameters except one having default values), that parameter type can be converted to the class type.
- Can lead to subtle but serious bugs
Demo
Default constructors
- A constructor that can be called with no arguments
- If no ctor is defined, a default ctor is provided by compiler
- Default constructors are special
- Box b;
- Box b[10];
- std::vector<Box>(10);
- When a derived class ctor does not explicitly call base class ctor in intialization list
Copy constructors and copy assignment operators
My_Array first; // initialization by default constructor
My_Array second(first); // initialization by copy constructor
My_Array third = first; // Also initialization by copy constructor
second = third; // assignment by copy assignment operator
// Copy ctor
X(const X& other);
// Copy assignment operator
X& operator= (const X& other);
Rule of three
- If a class defines one (or more) of the following three, it should probably explicitly define all three.
- Destructor
- Copy constructor
- Copy assignment operator
- If one of these had to be defined by the programmer, compiler-generated ones of others may not be what the programmer needs.
Move consturctor and move assignment operator
- Introduced by C++11
- Topic for a separate presentation
- Rule of 5
Explicitly defaulted / deleted constructors
- Disallow creating instances (eg: singleton)
- Disallow copying
struct noncopyable
{
noncopyable() {};
private:
noncopyable(const noncopyable&);
noncopyable& operator=(const noncopyable&);
};
- C++11 version
Explicitly defaulted / deleted constructors
struct noncopyable
{
noncopyable() =default;
noncopyable(const noncopyable&) =delete;
noncopyable& operator=(const noncopyable&) =delete;
};
Constructors in derived classes
- Derived class ctors always call base class ctors
- If a base class does not have a default ctor, you must supply base class ctor parameters in the derived class ctor
Demo
Thank you!
C++ Constructors
By Thameera
C++ Constructors
- 1,395