C++ is a commonly used Object-Oriented Programming Language in the industry. C++ is a pioneer programming language in OOP, developed by Bjarne Stroustrup at AT & T Bell Laboratories in the year 1979. The most frequently used feature of c++ could be to create a class in it. Within a class, we can create class members –methods and variables.
Introduction
Constructors are often used to create objects, or technically, create instances of an object. In most object-oriented programming languages, they also are overloaded. As in many programming languages, the name of the constructor is predetermined based on that of the class. This limits the named objects as there can be a single constructor. In a scenario where multiple constructors are required, they are implemented by using the overload functions.
In C++, the default constructors are without parameters. They are instantiated from the object members with corresponding default values.
Constructor
A constructor (ctor) is a programming technique used to create an object in class-based object-oriented programming. A new object is created by calling a special-purpose subroutine. It is a member function of a class that, in turn, initializes objects of a class. This method accepts arguments. The supplied parameters are used by the base constructor and set member variables.
Characteristics of Constructor
A constructor is a special member function of the class. It is different from a generic member function for the following reasons:
- Constructor member is scoped public
- It has the same name as that of declaring class.
- The name is case-sensitive
- Constructors do not have a return type.
- The default constructor is implicitly created.
- When creating an object, the constructor gets called automatically.
- A constructor is not implicitly inherited.
- It usually has different rules for scope modifiers.
Types of Constructors
Default Constructors – The constructor having nil parameters and no arguments. They are compiler-generated implicit constructors.
Parameterized Constructors are those through which you can pass arguments. The arguments initialize an object that was created. Create a parameterized constructor simply by adding parameters to it, similar we do for any other function. Use the parameters in the constructor’s body to initialize the object. This type of constructor is commonly used for overloading and also for initializing various data elements of objects with different initial values.
Copy Constructor – It is a member function used to initialize an object using another object of the same class. The compiler, by default, creates a copy constructor for each class, following a member-wise copy between objects.
