views:

116

answers:

2

Suppose, I write

class A { };

compiler should provide (as and when needed)

  1. a constructor
  2. a destructor
  3. a copy constructor
  4. = operator

Is this all what the compiler provides? Are there any additions or deletions to this list?

+1  A: 

Your list is complete. This is all it is adding.

Danvil
+5  A: 

It's complete. But there are two points you should note:

  1. It's the copy =operator. Just like there is a copy constructor, there is a copy assignment operator.
  2. They are only provided if actually used.

Some explanation for 2:

struct A { private: A(); };
struct B : A { };

That's fine! Providing a default constructor would be ill-formed for "B", because it would not be able to call the base-class' constructor. But the default constructor (and the other special functions) is only provided (we say it's implicitly defined) if it's actually needed.

Johannes Schaub - litb
I guess you could argue that in the case of an empty class, the compiler also adds at least one byte of padding ;-)
Steve Jessop