Book Image

C++ Fundamentals

By : Antonio Mallia, Francesco Zoffoli
Book Image

C++ Fundamentals

By: Antonio Mallia, Francesco Zoffoli

Overview of this book

C++ Fundamentals begins by introducing you to the C++ compilation model and syntax. You will then study data types, variable declaration, scope, and control flow statements. With the help of this book, you'll be able to compile fully working C++ code and understand how variables, references, and pointers can be used to manipulate the state of the program. Next, you will explore functions and classes — the features that C++ offers to organize a program — and use them to solve more complex problems. You will also understand common pitfalls and modern best practices, especially the ones that diverge from the C++98 guidelines. As you advance through the chapters, you'll study the advantages of generic programming and write your own templates to make generic algorithms that work with any type. This C++ book will guide you in fully exploiting standard containers and algorithms, understanding how to pick the appropriate one for each problem. By the end of this book, you will not only be able to write efficient code but also be equipped to improve the readability, performance, and maintainability of your programs.
Table of Contents (9 chapters)
C++ Fundamentals
Preface

Copy Constructors and Assignment Operators


One special type of constructor is the copy constructor. It initializes the data members of one object to another object. The object that's used to copy the member's value is passed as an argument to the copy constructor, typically of type reference to the class itself, and possibly const qualified.

The following code refers to a class with a user-defined copy constructor, which copies the data member of the other object into the current one:

class class_name {
  public:
    class_name(const class_name& other) : member(other.member){}

  private:
    type member;
};

A copy constructor is declared implicitly by the compiler when the class definition does not explicitly declare a copy constructor and all the data members have a copy constructor. This implicit copy constructor performs a copy of the class members in the same order of initialization.

Let's look at an example:

struct A {
  A() {}
  A(const A& a) {
    std::cout << "Copy construct...