CS202: Programming Systems

Week 2
Constructors & Destructor

10/2021
CS202 – What will be discussed?
o Constructors
o The this pointer
o Destructor
o Member Initialization
o Copy constructor
o Assignment operator

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Constructors
o Constructor is a physical piece of code (in fact, it is
a special type of method) that is used to construct
and initialize objects.
o It is automatically invoked when a new object is
created.
o There is no returned value, even a void.
o A class can have many constructors (overload)
o Name of the constructors must be the same as the
class name.
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Notes on constructors
o If no constructor is implemented, the
compiler will issue a default constructor
o The default construtor:
n No argument
n Invoke other default constructors of data
members if they are objects.
n Doesn’t initialize other data members if they
are not objects.
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Default constructor
o If there is at least one construtor, the default
constructor will not be created by the compiler

class Date
{ int main()
public: {
Date(int iNewDay); Date today; //error
... …
private: return 0;
... }
};

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Other constructors
o They allow users different options to create
a new object
class Date {
public:
Date();
Date(int, int);
Date(int, int, int);
…
private:
int iDay, iMonth, iYear;
};

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The this pointer
o Check the following lines of code, are they
correct in terms of: syntax? semantics?
useful?
Date::Date(int iDay, int iMonth, int iYear)
{
iDay = iDay;
iMonth = iMonth;
iYear = iYear;
}

Date today(4, 10, 2021);

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The this pointer

today tomorrow nextweek

+ iDay + iDay + iDay

+ iMonth + iMonth + iMonth
+ iYear + iYear + iYear

o How can we know day, month or year of

which object are using?

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The this pointer
o C++ adds an implicit function parameter - the
pointer to the current object instance: this
o this is a constant pointer, you cannot
modify it within a member function.

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The this pointer
Date::Date(int iDay, int iMonth, int iYear)
{
iDay = iDay;
iMonth = iMonth;
iYear = iYear;
}

o Syntax: correct
o Semantic: legal
o Useful: NO!!!
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The code should be
Date::Date(int iDay, int iMonth, int iYear)
{
this->iDay = iDay;
this->iMonth = iMonth;
this->iYear = iYear;
}

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Destructor
o Invoked automatically, when the variable is
removed from memory (e.g. goes out of scope).
o Each class can have at most one destructor
o The destructor name is a name of a class
preceded by a tilde sign (~).
o Destructor, the same as constructor, has no return
type (even void)
o Destructor frees the resources used by the object
(allocated memory, file descriptors, semaphores
etc.)
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Example
class MyArray {
public:
MyArray();
~MyArray() {
n = 0;
delete [] pArr;
pArr = NULL;
}
private:
int n;
int *pArr;
};
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Notes on destructor
o You don’t need to write a destructor if your class
has nothing to clean up.
o If you are using resources, for example dynamic
memory allocation, and you forget to have your
destructor, the program will create the memory
leaking.

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Members Initialization
o Distinguish between Assignment and
Initialization

Date(int iNDay, int iNMonth, int iNYear)

{
iDay = iNDay;
iMonth = iNMonth;
iYear = iNYear;
}

o This is assignment, not Initialization

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Members Initialization
o This is members initialization
class Date {
public:
Date();
Date(int iNDay, int iNMonth, int iNYear)
: iDay(iNDay), iMonth(iNMonth), iYear(iNYear)
{}
~Date();
…
private:
int iDay, iMonth, iYear;
};

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Mandatory Members Initialization
o Const members
o References
o Sub-objects which require arguments in
constructors
class Test
{
private:
Another& refA; // reference member
const int MAX; // const member
vector arr;
public:
Test(Another& r)dbtien
: @refA(r), MAX(100), arr (MAX) {}
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};
Default copy constructor
o In each class, if there is no copy constructor, a
default copy constructor will be generated. It helps to
create a new object of this class from another object.
For example:

int main()
{
Rectangle a;
Rectangle b(a); // invoke copy constructor
Rectangle c = a; // invoke copy constructor
}

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Default copy constructor (cont.)
o Default copy constructor performs a bitwise
copy from the source to the current object:

source obj destination obj

ptr ptr

a a

b b

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Copy constructor
o Due to the bitwise copy of the default
constructor, it will cause a serious problem
if the copying takes place when the object
has a member pointer with a dynamic
allocated memory.
n Pointers of the source obj and the destination
obj will refer into the same memory

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Copy constructor
o Depending on the members of the class to
decide whether to have a copy constructor
n When having dynamic allocated members

Test::Test(const Test& src)

{
iSize = src.iSize;
ptr = new int [iSize];
for (int i=0; i<iSize; ++i)
ptr[i] = src.ptr[i];
}

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The default assignment operator
o Similar to the default copy constructor, in
each class, if there is no assignment
operator, a default assignment operator will
be generated
o It also has a similar functionality of a
default copy constructor, i.e. doing a
bitwise copy from the source object to the
destination object.

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Assignment operator
o Thus, if there is a pointer member in the
class, an assignment operator should be
defined.
o Note: assignment operator is a bit different
from the copy constructor:
n Clean up the allocated memory that the pointer
member is pointing to before being allocated with
a new memory.
n Remember to check for self-assignment
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Assignment operator

Source object Destination obj

ptr ptr

• Clean up the memory it is pointing to

• Copy the memory to a new place

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For example
Test& Test::operator=(const Test& src)
{
if (this != &src)
{
delete [] ptr;
iSize = src.iSize;
ptr = new int [iSize];
for (int i=0; i<iSize; ++i)
ptr[i] = src.ptr[i];
}
return *this;
}

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Assignment operator (using swap)
o The src is swapped from the this object, and
will be deleted right after the function finishes

Test& Test::operator=(Test src)

{
swap(iSize, src.iSize);
swap(ptr, src.ptr);
return *this;
}
Copy constructor vs Assignment Op
Copy constructor:
o Create an object from scratch
o No need to check for seft-assignment
o No need to free the resource before
copying

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Remember
The 3 following functions often go together:
o Copy constructor
o Assignment operator
o Destructor

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