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Copy constructors, assignment operators, and exception safe assignment

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The rule of three/five/zero, [ edit ] rule of three.

If a class requires a user-defined destructor , a user-defined copy constructor , or a user-defined copy assignment operator , it almost certainly requires all three.

Because C++ copies and copy-assigns objects of user-defined types in various situations (passing/returning by value, manipulating a container, etc), these special member functions will be called, if accessible, and if they are not user-defined, they are implicitly-defined by the compiler.

The implicitly-defined special member functions are typically incorrect if the class manages a resource whose handle is an object of non-class type (raw pointer, POSIX file descriptor, etc), whose destructor does nothing and copy constructor/assignment operator performs a "shallow copy" (copy the value of the handle, without duplicating the underlying resource).

Classes that manage non-copyable resources through copyable handles may have to declare copy assignment and copy constructor private and not provide their definitions or define them as deleted. This is another application of the rule of three: deleting one and leaving the other to be implicitly-defined will most likely result in errors.

[ edit ] Rule of five

Because the presence of a user-defined (or = default or = delete declared) destructor, copy-constructor, or copy-assignment operator prevents implicit definition of the move constructor and the move assignment operator , any class for which move semantics are desirable, has to declare all five special member functions:

Unlike Rule of Three, failing to provide move constructor and move assignment is usually not an error, but a missed optimization opportunity.

[ edit ] Rule of zero

Classes that have custom destructors, copy/move constructors or copy/move assignment operators should deal exclusively with ownership (which follows from the Single Responsibility Principle ). Other classes should not have custom destructors, copy/move constructors or copy/move assignment operators [1] .

This rule also appears in the C++ Core Guidelines as C.20: If you can avoid defining default operations, do .

When a base class is intended for polymorphic use, its destructor may have to be declared public and virtual. This blocks implicit moves (and deprecates implicit copies), and so the special member functions have to be declared as defaulted [2] .

However, this makes the class prone to slicing, which is why polymorphic classes often define copy as deleted (see C.67: A polymorphic class should suppress public copy/move in C++ Core Guidelines), which leads to the following generic wording for the Rule of Five:

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14.14 — Introduction to the copy constructor

Consider the following program:

You might be surprised to find that this program compiles just fine, and produces the result:

Let’s take a closer look at how this program works.

The initialization of variable f is just a standard brace initialization that calls the Fraction(int, int) constructor.

But what about the next line? The initialization of variable fCopy is also clearly an initialization, and you know that constructor functions are used to initialize classes. So what constructor is this line calling?

The answer is: the copy constructor.

The copy constructor

A copy constructor is a constructor that is used to initialize an object with an existing object of the same type. After the copy constructor executes, the newly created object should be a copy of the object passed in as the initializer.

An implicit copy constructor

If you do not provide a copy constructor for your classes, C++ will create a public implicit copy constructor for you. In the above example, the statement Fraction fCopy { f }; is invoking the implicit copy constructor to initialize fCopy with f .

By default, the implicit copy constructor will do memberwise initialization. This means each member will be initialized using the corresponding member of the class passed in as the initializer. In the example above, fCopy.m_numerator is initialized using f.m_numerator (which has value 5 ), and fCopy.m_denominator is initialized using f.m_denominator (which has value 3 ).

After the copy constructor has executed, the members of f and fCopy have the same values, so fCopy is a copy of f . Thus calling print() on either has the same result.

Defining your own copy constructor

We can also explicitly define our own copy constructor. In this lesson, we’ll make our copy constructor print a message, so we can show you that it is indeed executing when copies are made.

The copy constructor looks just like you’d expect it to:

When this program is run, you get:

The copy constructor we defined above is functionally equivalent to the one we’d get by default, except we’ve added an output statement to prove the copy constructor is actually being called. This copy constructor is invoked when fCopy is initialized with f .

Access controls work on a per-class basis (not a per-object basis). This means the member functions of a class can access the private members of any class object of the same type (not just the implicit object).

We use that to our advantage in the Fraction copy constructor above in order to directly access the private members of the fraction parameter. Otherwise, we would have no way to access those members directly (without adding access functions, which we might not want to do).

A copy constructor should not do anything other than copy an object. This is because the compiler may optimize the copy constructor out in certain cases. If you are relying on the copy constructor for some behavior other than just copying, that behavior may or may not occur. We discuss this further in lesson 14.15 -- Class initialization and copy elision .

Best practice

Copy constructors should have no side effects beyond copying.

Prefer the implicit copy constructor

Unlike the implicit default constructor, which does nothing (and thus is rarely what we want), the memberwise initialization performed by the implicit copy constructor is usually exactly what we want. Therefore, in most cases, using the implicit copy constructor is perfectly fine.

Prefer the implicit copy constructor, unless you have a specific reason to create your own.

We’ll see cases where the copy constructor needs to be overwritten when we discuss dynamic memory allocation ( 21.13 -- Shallow vs. deep copying ).

The copy constructor’s parameter must be a reference

It is a requirement that the parameter of a copy constructor be an lvalue reference or const lvalue reference. Because the copy constructor should not be modifying the parameter, using a const lvalue reference is preferred.

If you write your own copy constructor, the parameter should be a const lvalue reference.

Pass by value (and return by value) and the copy constructor

When an object is passed by value, the argument is copied into the parameter. When the argument and parameter are the same class type, the copy is made by implicitly invoking the copy constructor. Similarly, when an object is returned back to the caller by value, the copy constructor is implicitly invoked to make the copy.

We see both happen in the following example:

In the above example, the call to printFraction(f) is passing f by value. The copy constructor is invoked to copy f from main into the f parameter of function printFraction .

When generateFraction returns a Fraction back to main , the copy constructor is implicitly called again. And when f2 is passed to printFraction , the copy constructor is called a third time.

On the author’s machine, this example prints:

If you compile and execute the above example, you may find that only two calls to the copy constructor occur. This is a compiler optimization known as copy elision . We discuss copy elision further in lesson 14.15 -- Class initialization and copy elision .

Using = default to generate a default copy constructor

If a class has no copy constructor, the compiler will implicitly generate one for us. If we prefer, we can explicitly request the compiler create a default copy constructor for us using the = default syntax:

Using = delete to prevent copies

Occasionally we run into cases where we do not want objects of a certain class to be copyable. We can prevent this by marking the copy constructor function as deleted, using the = delete syntax:

In the example, when the compiler goes to find a constructor to initialize fCopy with f , it will see that the copy constructor has been deleted. This will cause it to emit a compile error.

As an aside…

You can also prevent the public from making copies of class object by making the copy constructor private (as private functions can’t be called by the public). However, a private copy constructor can still be called from other members of the class, so this solution is not advised unless that is desired.

For advanced readers

The rule of three is a well known C++ principle that states that if a class requires a user-defined copy constructor, destructor, or copy assignment operator, then it probably requires all three. In C++11, this was expanded to the rule of five , which adds the move constructor and move assignment operator to the list.

Not following the rule of three/rule of five is likely to lead to malfunctioning code. We’ll revisit the rule of three and rule of five when we cover dynamic memory allocation.

We discuss destructors in lesson 15.4 -- Introduction to destructors and 19.3 -- Destructors , and copy assignment in lesson 21.12 -- Overloading the assignment operator .

Question #1

In the lesson above, we noted that the parameter for a copy constructor must be a (const) reference. Why aren’t we allowed to use pass by value?

Show Solution

When we pass a class type argument by value, the copy constructor is implicitly invoked to copy the argument into the parameter.

If the copy constructor used pass by value, the copy constructor would need to call itself to copy the initializer argument into the copy constructor parameter. But that call to the copy constructor would also be pass by value, so the copy constructor would be invoked again to copy the argument into the function parameter. This would lead to an infinite chain of calls to the copy constructor.

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Pre-requisite: Constructor in C++ 

A copy constructor is a member function that initializes an object using another object of the same class. In simple terms, a constructor which creates an object by initializing it with an object of the same class, which has been created previously is known as a copy constructor .  

Copy constructor is used to initialize the members of a newly created object by copying the members of an already existing object.

Copy constructor takes a reference to an object of the same class as an argument.

The process of initializing members of an object through a copy constructor is known as copy initialization.

It is also called member-wise initialization because the copy constructor initializes one object with the existing object, both belonging to the same class on a member by member copy basis.

The copy constructor can be defined explicitly by the programmer. If the programmer does not define the copy constructor, the compiler does it for us.  

Syntax of Copy Constructor

Characteristics of Copy Constructor

1. The copy constructor is used to initialize the members of a newly created object by copying the members of an already existing object.

2. Copy constructor takes a reference to an object of the same class as an argument. If you pass the object by value in the copy constructor, it would result in a recursive call to the copy constructor itself. This happens because passing by value involves making a copy, and making a copy involves calling the copy constructor, leading to an infinite loop. Using a reference avoids this recursion. So we use reference of Objects to avoid infinite calls.

3. The process of initializing members of an object through a copy constructor is known as copy initialization.

4 . It is also called member-wise initialization because the copy constructor initializes one object with the existing object, both belonging to the same class on a member-by-member copy basis.

5. The copy constructor can be defined explicitly by the programmer. If the programmer does not define the copy constructor, the compiler does it for us.

Types of Copy Constructors

1. default copy constructor.

An implicitly defined copy constructor will copy the bases and members of an object in the same order that a constructor would initialize the bases and members of the object.

2. User Defined Copy Constructor 

A user-defined copy constructor is generally needed when an object owns pointers or non-shareable references, such as to a file, in which case a destructor and an assignment operator should also be written

When is the copy constructor called? 

In C++, a Copy Constructor may be called in the following cases: 

• When an object of the class is returned by value. 
• When an object of the class is passed (to a function) by value as an argument. 
• When an object is constructed based on another object of the same class. 
• When the compiler generates a temporary object.

It is, however, not guaranteed that a copy constructor will be called in all these cases, because the C++ Standard allows the compiler to optimize the copy away in certain cases, one example is the return value optimization (sometimes referred to as RVO).

Copy Elision

In copy elision , the compiler prevents the making of extra copies which results in saving space and better the program complexity(both time and space); Hence making the code more optimized.  

Now it is on the compiler to decide what it wants to print, it could either print the above output or it could print case 1 or case 2 below, and this is what Return Value Optimization is. In simple words, RVO is a technique that gives the compiler some additional power to terminate the temporary object created which results in changing the observable behavior/characteristics of the final program.

When is a user-defined copy constructor needed? 

If we don’t define our own copy constructor, the C++ compiler creates a default copy constructor for each class which does a member-wise copy between objects. The compiler-created copy constructor works fine in general. We need to define our own copy constructor only if an object has pointers or any runtime allocation of the resource like a file handle , a network connection, etc.  

The default constructor does only shallow copy.  

Deep copy is possible only with a user-defined copy constructor. In a user-defined copy constructor, we make sure that pointers (or references) of copied objects point to new memory locations.  

Copy constructor vs Assignment Operator 

The main difference between Copy Constructor and Assignment Operator is that the Copy constructor makes a new memory storage every time it is called while the assignment operator does not make new memory storage.

Which of the following two statements calls the copy constructor and which one calls the assignment operator? 

A copy constructor is called when a new object is created from an existing object, as a copy of the existing object. The assignment operator is called when an already initialized object is assigned a new value from another existing object. In the above example (1) calls the copy constructor and (2) calls the assignment operator. See this for more details.

Example – Class Where a Copy Constructor is Required 

Following is a complete C++ program to demonstrate the use of the Copy constructor. In the following String class, we must write a copy constructor. 

What would be the problem if we remove the copy constructor from the above code? 

If we remove the copy constructor from the above program, we don’t get the expected output. The changes made to str2 reflect in str1 as well which is never expected.   

Can we make the copy constructor private?  

Yes, a copy constructor can be made private. When we make a copy constructor private in a class, objects of that class become non-copyable. This is particularly useful when our class has pointers or dynamically allocated resources. In such situations, we can either write our own copy constructor like the above String example or make a private copy constructor so that users get compiler errors rather than surprises at runtime.

Why argument to a copy constructor must be passed as a reference?  

A copy constructor is called when an object is passed by value. Copy constructor itself is a function. So if we pass an argument by value in a copy constructor, a call to the copy constructor would be made to call the copy constructor which becomes a non-terminating chain of calls. Therefore compiler doesn’t allow parameters to be passed by value.

Why argument to a copy constructor should be const?

One reason for passing const reference is, that we should use const in C++ wherever possible so that objects are not accidentally modified. This is one good reason for passing reference as const , but there is more to it than ‘ Why argument to a copy constructor should be const?’

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Copy constructors and copy assignment operators (C++)

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Starting in C++11, two kinds of assignment are supported in the language: copy assignment and move assignment . In this article "assignment" means copy assignment unless explicitly stated otherwise. For information about move assignment, see Move Constructors and Move Assignment Operators (C++) .

Both the assignment operation and the initialization operation cause objects to be copied.

Assignment : When one object's value is assigned to another object, the first object is copied to the second object. So, this code copies the value of b into a :

Initialization : Initialization occurs when you declare a new object, when you pass function arguments by value, or when you return by value from a function.

You can define the semantics of "copy" for objects of class type. For example, consider this code:

The preceding code could mean "copy the contents of FILE1.DAT to FILE2.DAT" or it could mean "ignore FILE2.DAT and make b a second handle to FILE1.DAT." You must attach appropriate copying semantics to each class, as follows:

Use an assignment operator operator= that returns a reference to the class type and takes one parameter that's passed by const reference—for example ClassName& operator=(const ClassName& x); .

Use the copy constructor.

If you don't declare a copy constructor, the compiler generates a member-wise copy constructor for you. Similarly, if you don't declare a copy assignment operator, the compiler generates a member-wise copy assignment operator for you. Declaring a copy constructor doesn't suppress the compiler-generated copy assignment operator, and vice-versa. If you implement either one, we recommend that you implement the other one, too. When you implement both, the meaning of the code is clear.

The copy constructor takes an argument of type ClassName& , where ClassName is the name of the class. For example:

Make the type of the copy constructor's argument const ClassName& whenever possible. This prevents the copy constructor from accidentally changing the copied object. It also lets you copy from const objects.

Compiler generated copy constructors

Compiler-generated copy constructors, like user-defined copy constructors, have a single argument of type "reference to class-name ." An exception is when all base classes and member classes have copy constructors declared as taking a single argument of type const class-name & . In such a case, the compiler-generated copy constructor's argument is also const .

When the argument type to the copy constructor isn't const , initialization by copying a const object generates an error. The reverse isn't true: If the argument is const , you can initialize by copying an object that's not const .

Compiler-generated assignment operators follow the same pattern for const . They take a single argument of type ClassName& unless the assignment operators in all base and member classes take arguments of type const ClassName& . In this case, the generated assignment operator for the class takes a const argument.

When virtual base classes are initialized by copy constructors, whether compiler-generated or user-defined, they're initialized only once: at the point when they are constructed.

The implications are similar to the copy constructor. When the argument type isn't const , assignment from a const object generates an error. The reverse isn't true: If a const value is assigned to a value that's not const , the assignment succeeds.

For more information about overloaded assignment operators, see Assignment .

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