Constructors & Destructors

What is a constructor?

It is a member function which initializes a

class. A constructor has: (i) the same name as the class itself (ii) no return type

class rectangle { private: float height; float width; int xpos; int ypos; public: rectangle(float, float); // constructor void draw(); // draw member function void posn(int, int); // position member function void move(int, int); // move member function }; rectangle::rectangle(float h, float w) { height = h; width = w; xpos = 0; ypos = 0; }

Comments on constructors
A constructor is called automatically whenever a
You must supply the arguments to the constructor If you do not specify a constructor, the compiler
generates a default constructor for you (expects no parameters and has an empty body). new instance of a class is created.

when a new instance is created.

Comments on constructors (cont.)

void main() { rectangle rc(3.0, 2.0);
rc.posn(100, 100); rc.draw(); rc.move(50, 50); rc.draw(); }

Warning: attempting to initialize a data member of

a class explicitly in the class definition is a syntax error.

Overloading constructors
You can have more than one constructor in a class,
as long as each has a different list of arguments.
class rectangle { private: float height; float width; int xpos; int ypos; public: rectangle(float, float); // constructor rectangle(); // another constructor void draw(); // draw member function void posn(int, int); // position member function void move(int, int); // move member function };

Overloading constructors (cont.)

rectangle::rectangle() { height = 10; width = 10; xpos = 0; ypos = 0; }
void main() { rectangle rc1(3.0, 2.0); rectangle rc2(); rc1.draw(); rc2.draw(); }

Composition: objects as members of classes

A class may have objects of other classes as

members.
class properties { private: int color; int line; public: properties(int, int); // constructor }; properties::properties(int c, int l) { color = c; line = l; }

Composition: objects as members of classes (cont.)

class rectangle { private: float height; float width; int xpos; int ypos; properties pr; // another object public: rectangle(float, float, int, int ); // constructor void draw(); // draw member function void posn(int, int); // position member function void move(int, int); // move member function };

Overloaded Assignment Ops

Overloading Assigment ( = ) Operators work
almost exactly like Copy Constructors, with a few subtle differences They need to check for self assignment They return a reference to *this Depending on your code, they may be different (more optimized) than your copy constructor

Operator Overloading

They need to avoid self assigment Self Assigment is stuff like

Object A; A=A;

Now, normally this would never happen.. but, depending on how pointers are cast, or whatever, it can. So you have to be careful.

Operator Overloading =
const Employee &Employee::operator=(const Employee &rhs) { if ( this == &rhs ) return *this;
id = rhs.getId(); name = new char[strlen(rhs.getName()) + 1]; strcpy(name,rhs.name);

return *this;
}

Rule of 3

Rule of 3 Remember if you class needs

either a destructor, overloaded assignment operator or copy constructor, it generally needs ALL 3.

Composition: objects as members of classes (cont.)

rectangle::rectangle(float h, float w, int c, int l):pr(c, l) { height = h; width = w; xpos = 0; ypos = 0; };
void main() { rectangle rc(3.0, 2.0, 1, 3); C++ statements; }

What is a destructor?
It is a member function which deletes an object. A destructor function is called automatically when
the object goes out of scope:
(1) the function ends (2) the program ends (3) a block containing temporary variables ends (4) a delete operator is called

A destructor has:

(i) the same name as the class but is preceded by a tilde (~) (ii) no arguments and return no values

class string { private: char *s; int size; public: string(char *); // constructor ~string(); // destructor }; string::string(char *c) { size = strlen(c); s = new char[size+1]; strcpy(s,c); } string::~string() { delete []s; }

Comments on destructors

If you do not specify a destructor, the When a class contains a pointer to memory
you allocate, it is your responsibility to release the memory before the class instance is destroyed. compiler generates a default destructor for you.

What is a copy constructor?

It is a member function which initializes an A copy constructor has the following

object using another object of the same class. general function prototype: class_name (const class_name&);

class rectangle { private: float height; float width; int xpos; int ypos; public: rectangle(float, float); // constructor rectangle(const rectangle&); // copy constructor void draw(); // draw member function void posn(int, int); // position member function void move(int, int); // move member function };

rectangle::rectangle(const rectangle& old_rc) { height = old_rc.height; width = old_rc.width; xpos = old_rc.xpos; ypos = old_rc.ypos; }

void main() { rectangle rc1(3.0, 2.0); rectangle rc2(rc1); rectangle rc3 = rc1;
C++ statements; }

// use constructor // use copy constructor // alternative syntax for // copy constructor

Defining copy constructors is very important

In the absence of a copy constructor, the Default copy constructors work fine unless
the class contains pointer data members ... why???
C++ compiler builds a default copy constructor for each class which is doing a memberwise copy between objects.

#include <iostream.h> #include <string.h>

class string { private: char *s; int size; public: string(char *); // constructor ~string(); // destructor void print(); void copy(char *); };

void string::print() { cout << s << endl; }

void string::copy(char *c) { strcpy(s, c); } void main() { string str1("George"); string str2 = str1; // default copy constructor str1.print(); str2.print(); // what is printed ?

str2.copy("Mary");
str1.print(); str2.print(); } // what is printed now ?

Defining a copy constructor for the above example:

class string { private: char *s; int size; public: string(char *); // constructor ~string(); // destructor string(const string&); // copy constructor void print(); void copy(char *); };

8.2 Fundamentals of Operator Overloading

Types
Built in (int, char) or user-defined Can use existing operators with user-defined types
Cannot create new operators

Overloading operators

Create a function for the class Name function operator followed by symbol
Operator+ for the addition operator +

8.2 Fundamentals of Operator Overloading

Using operators on a class object

It must be overloaded for that class
Exceptions: Assignment operator, =
Memberwise assignment between objects

Address operator, &

Returns address of object

Overloading provides concise notation

object2 = object1.add(object2); object2 = object2 + object1;

Both can be overloaded

8.3 Restrictions on Operator Overloading

Cannot change
How operators act on built-in data types
I.e., cannot change integer addition

Precedence of operator (order of evaluation)

Use parentheses to force order-of-operations

Associativity (left-to-right or right-to-left) Number of operands

Cannot create new operators

& is unitary, only acts on one operand

Operators that can be overloaded + ~ /= <<= -new[] ! %= == ->* delete[] * = ^= != , / < &= <= ->

8.3 Restrictions on Operator Overloading

% > |= >= [] ^ += << && () & -= >> || new | *= >>= ++ delete

Operators that cannot be overloaded . .* :: ?: sizeof

Overloaded Assignment Ops

Overloading Assigment ( = ) Operators work
almost exactly like Copy Constructors, with a few subtle differences They need to check for self assignment They return a reference to *this Depending on your code, they may be different (more optimized) than your copy constructor

Operator Overloading

They need to avoid self assigment Self Assigment is stuff like

Object A; A=A;

Now, normally this would never happen.. but, depending on how pointers are cast, or whatever, it can. So you have to be careful.

Operator Overloading =
const Employee &Employee::operator=(const Employee &rhs) { if ( this == &rhs ) return *this;
id = rhs.getId(); name = new char[strlen(rhs.getName()) + 1]; strcpy(name,rhs.name);

return *this;
}

Rule of 3

Rule of 3 Remember if you class needs

either a destructor, overloaded assignment operator or copy constructor, it generally needs ALL 3.

 Operator functions
Member functions

8.4 Operator Functions As Class Members Vs. As Friend Functions

Use this keyword to implicitly get argument Gets left operand for binary operators (like +) Leftmost object must be of same class as operator

Non member functions

Need parameters for both operands Can have object of different class than operator Must be a friend to access private or protected data

 Overloaded << operator

8.4 Operator Functions As Class Members Vs. As Friend Functions

Left operand of type ostream &
Such as cout object in cout << classObject

Similarly, overloaded >> needs istream & Thus, both must be non-member functions

 Commutative operators

8.4 Operator Functions As Class Members Vs. As Friend Functions

May want + to be commutative
So both a + b and b + a work

Suppose we have two different classes Overloaded operator can only be member function when its class is on left
HugeIntClass + Long int
Can be member function

When other way, need a non-member overload function

<< and >>

8.5 Overloading StreamInsertion and Stream-Extraction Operators

Already overloaded to process each built-in type Can also process a user-defined class Class PhoneNumber
Holds a telephone number

Example program

Print out formatted number automatically

(123) 456-7890

1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

// Fig. 8.3: fig08_03.cpp // Overloading the stream-insertion and // stream-extraction operators. #include <iostream> using std::cout; using std::cin; using std::endl; using std::ostream; using std::istream; #include <iomanip>

fig08_03.cpp (1 of 3)
Notice function prototypes for overloaded operators >> and <<

They must be non-member friend functions, since the object of class Phonenumber appears on the right of // PhoneNumber class definition the operator. class PhoneNumber { cin << object friend ostream &operator<<( ostream&, const PhoneNumber & ); cout >> object friend istream &operator>>( istream&, PhoneNumber & );

using std::setw;

private: char areaCode[ 4 ]; // 3-digit area code and null char exchange[ 4 ]; // 3-digit exchange and null char line[ 5 ]; // 4-digit line and null

27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

// overloaded stream-insertion operator; cannot be // a member function if we would like to invoke it with // cout << somePhoneNumber; ostream &operator<<( ostream &output, const PhoneNumber &num ) { output << "(" << num.areaCode << ") " << num.exchange << "-" << num.line; return output; // enables cout << a << b << c;

fig08_03.cpp (2 of 3)

The expression: cout << phone; is interpreted as the function call: operator<<(cout, phone); output is an alias for cout.

} // end function operator<<

This allows objects to be cascaded. cout << phone1 << phone2; ignore() // overloaded stream-extraction operator; cannot beskips specified first calls number of characters from // a member function if we would like to invoke it with operator<<(cout, phone1), and input (1 by default). // cin >> somePhoneNumber; returns cout.
istream &operator>>( istream &input, PhoneNumber &num ) { Next, cout << phone2 executes. input.ignore(); // skip ( Stream manipulator setw input >> setw( 4 ) >> num.areaCode; // input area code restricts number of characters input.ignore( 2 ); // skip ) and space read. setw(4) allows 3 input >> setw( 4 ) >> num.exchange; // input exchange characters to be read, leaving input.ignore(); // skip dash (-) room for the null character. input >> setw( 5 ) >> num.line; // input line

return input;

// enables cin >> a >> b >> c;

8.6 Overloading Unary Operators

Overloading unary operators

Non-static member function, no arguments Non-member function, one argument
Argument must be class object or reference to class object

Remember, static functions only access static data

8.6 Overloading Unary Operators

Upcoming example (8.10)

Overload ! to test for empty string If non-static member function, needs no arguments
!s becomes s.operator!()
class String { public: bool operator!() const; ... };

If non-member function, needs one argument

s! becomes operator!(s)
class String { friend bool operator!( const String & ) ... }

8.7 Overloading Binary Operators

Overloading binary operators

Non-static member function, one argument Non-member function, two arguments
One argument must be class object or reference

Upcoming example

If non-static member function, needs one argument

class String { public: const String &operator+=( const String & ); ... };

y += z equivalent to y.operator+=( z )

8.7 Overloading Binary Operators

Upcoming example
If non-member function, needs two arguments Example:
class String { friend const String &operator+=( String &, const String & ); ... };

y += z equivalent to operator+=( y, z )

 Casting

8.9 Converting between Types

Cast operator (conversion operator)

Convert from
One class to another Class to built-in type (int, char, etc.)

Traditionally, cast integers to floats, etc. May need to convert between user-defined types

Must be non-static member function

Cannot be friend

Do not specify return type

Implicitly returns type to which you are converting

8.9 Converting between Types

Example
Prototype
A::operator char *() const; Casts class A to a temporary char * (char *)s calls s.operator char*()

Also
A::operator int() const; A::operator OtherClass() const;

8.9 Converting between Types

Casting can prevent need for overloading

Suppose class String can be cast to char * cout << s; // s is a String
Compiler implicitly converts s to char * Do not have to overload <<

Compiler can only do 1 cast

8.11 Overloading ++ and --

Increment/decrement operators can be

overloaded
Add 1 to a Date object, d1

Prototype (member function)

Date &operator++(); ++d1 same as d1.operator++()

Prototype (non-member)
Friend Date &operator++( Date &); ++d1 same as operator++( d1 )

8.11 Overloading ++ and --

To distinguish pre/post increment

Post increment has a dummy parameter
int of 0

Prototype (member function)

Date operator++( int ); d1++ same as d1.operator++( 0 )

Prototype (non-member)
friend Date operator++( Data &, int ); d1++ same as operator++( d1, 0 )

8.11 Overloading ++ and --

Return values
Preincrement
Returns by reference (Date &)

lvalue (can be assigned)

Postincrement
Returns by value Returns temporary object with old value rvalue (cannot be on left side of assignment)

Decrement operator analogous

#include <iostream.h> class myclass { int a,b; public: myclass(){} myclass(int x,int y){a=x;b=y;} void show() { cout<<a<<endl<<b<<endl; } // these are friend operator functions // NOTE: Both the operans will be passed explicitely // operand to the left of the operator will be passed as the first argument and operand to the right as the second argument friend myclass operator+(myclass,myclass); friend myclass operator-(myclass,myclass); }; myclass operator+(myclass ob1,myclass ob2) { myclass temp; temp.a = ob1.a + ob2.a; temp.b = ob1.b + ob2.b; return temp; }

myclass operator-(myclass ob1,myclass ob2) { myclass temp; temp.a = ob1.a - ob2.a; temp.b = ob1.b - ob2.b; return temp; } void main() { myclass a(10,20); myclass b(100,200); a=a+b; a.show(); }