Copy Constructor

First seen in CS138 - Introduction to Data Abstraction and Implementation. Learned in CS247 - Software Engineering Principles.

Linked List ADT Copy constructor:

Node:: Node(const Node& other): data{other.data},next{other.next ? new Node{*(other.next)} : nullptr}{}

// Copy constructor
Point(const Point &p1) {
	x = p1.x; 
	y = p1.y; 
}

Compiler-Provided Copy Constructor

If we don’t provide an implementation of the copy constructor, the compiler provides a default Copy Constructor that simply copies all the fields.

Another example:

class Test {
	public:
	    Test() {};
	    Test(const Test& t) {
	        cout << "Copy constructor called " << endl;
	    };
	    Test& operator=(const Test& t) {
	        cout << "Assignment operator called " << endl;
	        return *this; // to allow for chaining
	    };
};

Why *this and not just *this?

Because *this is a pointer. And this makes sense on why you would do this->data instead of this.data when you want to access specific member fields.

From CS138 - Introduction to Data Abstraction and Implementation:

Related

• Copy Assignment Operator