'Is a constructor a function and is it possible to call a constructor

I came across this where one of the user comment says:

A constructor cannot be called, it is not a function. It is invoked automatically when a new object is created.

My question is that is the above comment true/correct? If yes, then why isn't a constructor considered a function and why can't we call it?

c++functionconstructorimplicit


Solution 1:[1]

Formally in the C++ Standard it is (along with several others) a special member function so yes it is a function, but it is a special function and not all of the normal rules apply.

There is no syntax to write code that calls a constructor directly or forming a function pointer to it. The Standard specifically says "Constructors do not have names."

The compiler will automatically call a constructor when an object is created. The compiler will also automatically call constructors for subobjects (bases and members) of a class object. "Delegating constructors" are sort-of a degenerate case of initialization of subobjects (In formal algebra, we say that any set is a subset of itself, and say "strict" subset when we mean a subset that is not the entire set).

There are a variety of ways to create an object and some of them look like a function call, but that's actually a cast and results in creation of a new object, on which the constructor is called implicitly by the compiler. There's also placement-new syntax which doesn't do very much besides causing the compiler to implicitly call the constructor -- but even there a brand new object is being created.

One important way in which the compiler's implicit call to a constructor differs from an explicit function call found in user code is that the implicit call occurs within an implicit try/catch scope that will result in destruction of subobjects if an exception occurs. A direct call to the constructor, if one were possible, wouldn't have such extra behavior.

Solution 2:[2]

When I was using an "union" of objects where I had to manage the destruction and construction of the members of the union, I was able to call the constructor like this using the "new operator":

new(&variable) NameOfTheClass

#include <iostream>
class A {
    public: A() {std::cout << "constructor called for pointer " << this << std::endl;}
};

int main() {
   A a;
   new(&a) A; //Should call a second time the constructor
}

Solution 3:[3]

The quoted comment is incorrect. A constructor is a special member function. And it can be implicitly called by the compiler at the time of object creation.

For example,

struct A 
{   
};
int main()
{
//----v----->note the absence of parenthesis like when we call a function
    A a; //creates object of type A by implicitly calling the default constructor
}

These are some of the special(things to be noted) things about constructors:

  1. They don't have return types.
  2. They are automatically synthesized by the compiler given certain conditions are satisfied.
  3. They are implicitly called by the compiler at the time of object creation.

Solution 4:[4]

1- Yes, the constructor is a member function with a specific signature having the same name as for Class. 2- The default constructor is called implicitly when it is not called explicitly. But it can be called explicitly using "super()" in Java and "Base()" in C# in respective child classes.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1
Solution 2 Mickael Sereno
Solution 3
Solution 4 Basharat Hussain

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