Question

class call to constructors

Asked by: kuntilanak

If I have the following scenario, class B and C inherit from A and class D inherit from B and C. If I make class D constructor call the non-default constructors of each of its ancestor.

Statement:
Modify the class calls to the constructors (one at a time), and trace through the constructor calls,
noting any di erences or peculiarities by changing the order of the listing of ancestors

Questions:
1. How do I make class D to call the non-default constructors of each of it's ancestors?
2. What does the statement mean by the class calls to the constructors?

My understanding of question 1 is the following code, is this true:

D(int z, int f) : B(f), C(z)   {
	cout << "This is D's non-default constructor " << endl;
   }
                                  
1:
2:
3:

Select allOpen in new window

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-11-03 at 13:50:11ID24869030
Tags

c++

,

object oriented programming

,

inheritance

,

virtual inheritance

Topics

C++ Programming Language

,

C Programming Language

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
14

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. constructors
    hi all, i've got a few points, and this one is relatively easy, so i'm feeling generous. [snip] unit test; interface type Tgrounds=class(TForm) field_1:longint; field_2:longint; constructor make; end; var grounds:Tgrounds; implementation constructor ...
  2. Constructor.
    hello. Would any one take their time to explain me what the constructor is ? I don't understand what it's purpose is what it's really used for. Thanks.

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: FalmarriPosted on 2009-11-03 at 13:54:27ID: 25734216

Yes that is correct. You can also have Ds default constructor call non default constructors


D() : B(5) : C (11) { 
 cout << "This is D's default constructor " << endl; 
}

                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: FalmarriPosted on 2009-11-03 at 13:56:12ID: 25734233

You can have a default and a non default constructor in one as well, something like this. So you can have a default value as well as be able to input a value.

class A{
public:
A(double a = 1.8) : att(a) { 
} 
double att;
};

                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: kuntilanakPosted on 2009-11-03 at 14:00:58ID: 25734275

What if I do:

D test;

will this call  D's default constructor with B and C's default constructor or will it call D's default constructor with B's and C's non-default constructor? How do we make it so that we call D's default constructor with B's and C's non-default constructor

 

by: FalmarriPosted on 2009-11-03 at 14:07:08ID: 25734334

Well D test; will call D's default constructor obviously. It depends how you declare D's default constructor. In the blow example D test; will call B and Cs constructor setting att to  4 and 5 respectively. If you use the 2nd constructor, it will override B and Cs defaults to 7 and 9 respectively.

class A{
public:
A(double a = 1.8) : att(a) { 
} 
double att;
}; 
class B : public A{
public:
B(double a = 4) : att(a) {  }  
}; 
class C : public A{
public:
B(double a = 5) : att(a) {  }  
}; 
class D : public B, public C{
public:
/* 1 */ D() : B() , C(){   }
//or
/* 2 */ D() : B(7) , C(9) { }
}

                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: kuntilanakPosted on 2009-11-03 at 14:43:48ID: 25734678

how do we choose the second constructor in D? Isnt it the same as well, D test ?

 

by: FalmarriPosted on 2009-11-03 at 14:45:52ID: 25734711

I meant you would have either of those, not both. It depends how you want to implement it. Instead of the 2nd one you could pass values. It would be like you said in your first post.

D(int a, int b) : B(a) , C(b) { }

You could replace that for /* 2 */ and it would work

D test1;
D test2( 5, 7);

 

by: kuntilanakPosted on 2009-11-03 at 14:49:31ID: 25734764

okay, what about the statement above, any idea what it means...

 

by: FalmarriPosted on 2009-11-03 at 14:52:58ID: 25734790

You mean your 2nd question?

>>2. What does the statement mean by the class calls to the constructors?

II don't really understand the question. The order of the listing the ancestors changes the order that the objects get constructed.

 

by: kuntilanakPosted on 2009-11-03 at 14:56:26ID: 25734813

what does a class call mean?

 

by: FalmarriPosted on 2009-11-03 at 14:59:55ID: 25734845

I think it just means the class' calls to the constructors. So changing D() : B() , C(){   } to D() : B(7) , C(9) { } is modifying the class' call.

 

by: kuntilanakPosted on 2009-11-03 at 15:18:03ID: 25734978

and if A has a public variable called count, will there be any case in those class call where count is initialized to the same value more than once?

 

by: FalmarriPosted on 2009-11-03 at 15:23:21ID: 25735014

Yeah. I'm not 100%, but I think count would be initialized to the same value if you pass in the same value to B and C's constructor. So

D test2( 5, 5); would initialize count to 5 twice.

 

by: kuntilanakPosted on 2009-11-03 at 15:38:31ID: 25735101

how would I make it so that it initialize count once?

 

by: itsmeandnobodyelsePosted on 2009-11-04 at 04:10:13ID: 25738495

>>> and if A has a public variable called count, will there be any case in those class call where count is initialized to the same value more than once?

If B and C both were derived from A and D was derived from both C and D, then there are two A objects for a D, B::A and C::A.

    [A]             [A]
      |                |
    [B]             [C]
         \        /
            [D]

Hence, if A has a public member count, there is a B::A::count and a C::A::count variable which both were initialized with the constructor of A (which was called twice).

Things become different if you derive virtual from A

class B : virtual public A
{
};

class C : virtual public A
{
};

Then you have

            [A]
         /        \
    [B]             [C]
         \        /
            [D]

and only one A object is included in a D. Construction of A happens after construction of B and there is only one count member which can accessed in any D member function by count without scope as long as there is no other count member in B, C, D (what is bad programming).

  void D::anyFunc()
  {
        count++;   // is A::count
  }

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...