Re: deferring member object instantiation to constructor

From:
"mlimber" <mlimber@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
30 May 2006 06:02:16 -0700
Message-ID:
<1148994136.418609.238710@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>
v4vijayakumar wrote:

Is there any way to defer instantiation of " t1" to the constructor of
"test1"? because, "t1" can only meaningfully initialized in the "test1"
constructor.

#cat test.cpp
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class test
{
public:
  test()
  {
    cout << "hello" << endl;
  }
};

class test1
{
  test t;

public:
  test1()
  {
    cout << "hello1" << endl;
  }
};

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  test1 t1;

  return 0;
}
#g++ test.cpp
#./a.out
hello
hello1


Since your question as stated doesn't make sense, I think you meant to
ask: Can I defer the calling of the constructor test::test() for the
member object t within test1's constructor? The answer is no and yes --
no, because the member object will be default constructed in the
(implicit) initializer list before the body of the constructor
executes, and yes, because you could change the object to a (smart)
pointer so that construction of t is delayed until you are ready to do
it. For instance:

 class test1
 {
 public:
   test1()
   {
     cout << "hello1" << endl;

     // Do some other stuff to get ready for making a test object

     t.reset( new test );
   }

 private:
   std::auto_ptr<test> t;

   // Disable functions because of auto_ptr's
   // destructive copy semantics
   test1( const test1& );
   test1& operator=( const test1& );
 };

Of course, using std::tr1::scoped_ptr (aka boost::scoped_ptr) would be
preferable since it would minimize mistakes with copying auto_ptrs.

Keeping the rest of the program the same but substituting my test1
class would give this output:

hello1
hello

Cheers! --M

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