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Overloading Class Constructors

Constructors in C++ can be overloaded to take different parameters. The compiler will call the constructor whose parameters match the arguments used. This example demonstrates overloading the Rectangle class constructor to take zero, one, or two integer parameters. When an object is declared without initializing arguments, the default constructor with no parameters is called. Empty parentheses cannot be used to call the default constructor, as that would declare a function instead of an object.

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34 views2 pages

Overloading Class Constructors

Constructors in C++ can be overloaded to take different parameters. The compiler will call the constructor whose parameters match the arguments used. This example demonstrates overloading the Rectangle class constructor to take zero, one, or two integer parameters. When an object is declared without initializing arguments, the default constructor with no parameters is called. Empty parentheses cannot be used to call the default constructor, as that would declare a function instead of an object.

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Overloading constructors

Like any other function, a constructor can also be overloaded with different versions taking
different parameters: with a different number of parameters and/or parameters of different types.
The compiler will automatically call the one whose parameters match the arguments:
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// overloading class constructors
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Rectangle {
int width, height;
public:
Rectangle ();
Rectangle (int,int);
int area (void) {return
(width*height);}
};

Rectangle::Rectangle () {
width = 5;
height = 5;
}

Rectangle::Rectangle (int a, int b) {
width = a;
height = b;
}

int main () {
Rectangle rect (3,4);
Rectangle rectb;
cout << "rect area: " << rect.area() <<
endl;
cout << "rectb area: " << rectb.area() <<
endl;
return 0;
}
rect area: 12
rectb area: 25


In the above example, two objects of class Rectangle are constructed: rect and rectb. rect is
constructed with two arguments, like in the example before.

But this example also introduces a special kind constructor: the default constructor. The default
constructor is the constructor that takes no parameters, and it is special because it is called when
an object is declared but is not initialized with any arguments. In the example above, the default
constructor is called for rectb. Note how rectb is not even constructed with an empty set of
parentheses - in fact, empty parentheses cannot be used to call the default constructor:
1 Rectangle rectb; // ok, default constructor called
2 Rectangle rectc(); // oops, default constructor NOT called


This is because the empty set of parentheses would make of rectc a function declaration instead
of an object declaration: It would be a function that takes no arguments and returns a value of
type Rectangle.

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