• When the compiler generates a temporary object
If a program doesn’t use a copy constructor (explicitly or implicitly), the compiler provides a prototype but not a function definition. Otherwise, the program defines a copy constructor that performs memberwise initialization. That is, each member of the new object is initialized to the value of the corresponding member of the original object. If a member is itself a class object, then memberwise initialization uses the copy constructor defined for that particular class.
In some cases, memberwise initialization is undesirable. For example, member pointers initialized with new generally require that you institute deep copying, as with the baseDMA class example. Or a class may have a static variable that needs to be modified. In such cases, you need to define your own copy constructor.
Assignment Operators
A default assignment operator handles assigning one object to another object of the same class. Don’t confuse assignment with initialization. If a statement creates a new object, it’s using initialization, and if a statement alters the value of an existing object, it’s assignment:
Star sirius;
Star alpha = sirius; // initialization (one notation)
Star dogstar;
dogstar = sirius; // assignment
Default assignment uses memberwise assignment. If a member is itself a class object, then default memberwise assignment uses the assignment operator defined for that particular class. If you need to define a copy constructor explicitly, you also need, for the same reasons, to define the assignment operator explicitly. The prototype for a Star class assignment operator is this:
Star & Star::operator=(const Star &);
Note that the assignment operator function returns a reference to a Star object. The baseDMA class shows a typical example of an explicit assignment operator function.
The compiler doesn’t generate assignment operators for assigning one type to another. Suppose you want to be able to assign a string to a Star object. One approach is to define such an operator explicitly:
Star & Star::operator=(const char *) {...}
A second approach is to rely on a conversion function (see “Conversion Considerations” in the next section) to convert a string to a Star object and use the Star-to-Star assignment function. The first approach runs more quickly but requires more code. The conversion function approach can lead to compiler-befuddling situations.
Chapter 18, “Visiting with the New C++ Standard,” discusses two more special methods added by C++11: the move constructor and the move assignment operator.
Other Class Method Considerations
There are several other points to keep in mind as you define a class. The following sections list some of them.
Constructor Considerations
Constructors are different from other class methods in that they create new objects, whereas other methods are invoked by existing objects. This is one reason constructors aren’t inherited. Inheritance means a derived object can use a base-class method, but, in the case of constructors, the object doesn’t exist until after the constructor has done its work.
Destructor Considerations
You need to remember to define an explicit destructor that deletes any memory allocated by new in the class constructors and takes care of any other special bookkeeping that destroying a class object requires. If the class is to be used as a base class, you should provide a virtual destructor even if the class doesn’t require a destructor.
Conversion Considerations
Any constructor that can be invoked with exactly one argument defines conversion from the argument type to the class type. For example, consider the following constructor prototypes for a Star class:
Star(const char *); // converts char * to Star
Star(const Spectral &, int members = 1); // converts Spectral to Star
Conversion constructors are used, for example, when a convertible type is passed to a function that is defined as taking a class argument. For instance, suppose you have the following:
Star north;
north = "polaris";
The second statement would invoke the Star::operator=(const Star &) function, using Star::Star(const char *) to generate a Star object to be used as an argument for the assignment operator function. This assumes that you haven’t defined a (char *)-to-Star assignment operator.
Using explicit in the prototype for a one-argument constructor disables implicit conversions but still allows explicit conversions:
class Star
{
...
public:
explicit Star(const char *);
...
};
...
Star north;
north = "polaris"; // not allowed
north = Star("polaris"); // allowed
