Copy constructors

 

C++

Language

Standard library headers

Concepts

Utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Algorithms library

Iterators library

Numerics library

Input/output library

Localizations library

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Technical Specifications

 

C++ language

 

Classes

General

overview

class/struct types

union types

Members

data members

static members

the this pointer

nested classes

member templates

bit fields

using-declarations

member functions

member access specifiers

constructors and member initializer lists

default member initializer(C++11)

friend specifier

explicit specifier

converting constructor

Special member functions

default constructor

copy constructor

move constructor(C++11)

copy assignment operator

move assignment operator(C++11)

destructor

Inheritance

base and derived classes

virtual member functions

override(C++11)

final(C++11)

pure virtual functions and abstract classes

 

A copy constructor of class T is a non-template constructor whose first parameter is T&, const T&, volatile T&, or const volatile T&, and either there are no other parameters, or the rest of the parameters all have default values.

Syntax

class_name ( const class_name & )	(1)
class_name ( const class_name & ) = default;	(2)
class_name ( const class_name & ) = delete;	(3)

Explanation

1. Typical declaration of a copy constructor
2. Forcing a copy constructor to be generated by the compiler
3. Avoiding implicit generation of the copy constructor

The copy constructor is called whenever an object is initialized from another object of the same type (unless overload resolution selects the move constructor as a better match), which includes

• direct initialization T a(b);, where b is of type T
• copy initialization, including by-value function parameter passing, by-value returns ,exception throwing and handling, and T a = b;, where b is of type T or derived from T

Implicitly-declared copy constructor

If no user-defined copy constructors are provided for a class type (struct, class, or union), the compiler will always declare a copy constructor as a non-explicit inline public member of its class. This implicitly-declared copy constructor has the form T::T(const T&) if all of the following is true:

• all direct and virtual bases of T have copy constructors with references to const or to const volatile as their first parameters
• all non-static members of T have copy constructors with references to const or to const volatile as their first parameters

Otherwise, the implicitly-declared copy constructor is T::T(T&). (Note that due to these rules, the implicitly-declared copy constructor cannot bind to a volatile lvalue argument)

A class can have multiple copy constructors, e.g. both T::T(const T&) and T::T(T&). If some user-defined copy constructors are present, the user may still force the generation of the implicitly declared copy constructor with the keyword default

(since C++11)

Deleted implicitly-declared copy constructor

the implicitly-declared copy constructor for class T is undefined if any of the following conditions are true:	(until C++11)
the implicitly-declared or defaulted copy constructor for class T is defined as deleted if any of the following conditions are true:	(since C++11)

• T has non-static data members that cannot be copied (have deleted, inaccessible, or ambiguous copy constructors)
• T has direct or virtual base class that cannot be copied (has deleted, inaccessible, or ambiguous copy constructors)
• T has direct or virtual base class with a deleted or inaccessible destructor

T has a user-defined move constructor or move assignment operator T is a union and has a variant member with non-trivial copy constructor T has a data member of rvalue reference type

(since C++11)

Trivial copy constructor

The copy constructor for class T is trivial if all of the following is true:

• It is not user-provided (that is, it is implicitly-defined or defaulted), and if it is defaulted, its signature is the same as implicitly-defined
• T has no virtual member functions
• T has no virtual base classes
• The copy constructor selected for every direct base of T is trivial
• The copy constructor selected for every non-static class type (or array of class type) member of T is trivial

T has no non-static data members of volatile-qualified type

(since C++14)

A trivial copy constructor is a constructor that creates a bytewise copy of the object representation of the argument, and performs no other action. Objects with trivial copy constructors can be copied by copying their object representations manually, e.g. with std::memmove. All data types compatible with the C language (POD types) are trivially copyable.

Implicitly-defined copy constructor

If the implicitly-declared copy constructor is neither deleted nor trivial, it is defined (that is, a function body is generated and compiled) by the compiler if odr-used. For union types, the implicitly-defined copy constructor copies the object representation (as by std::memmove). For non-union class types (class and struct), the constructor performs full member-wise copy of the object's bases and non-static members, in their initialization order, using direct initialization.

The generation of the implicitly-defined copy constructor is deprecated if T has a user-defined destructor or user-defined copy assignment operator.

(since C++11)

Notes

In many situations, copy constructors are optimized out even if they would produce observable side-effects, see copy elision

Example

struct A {
    int n;
    A(int n=1) : n(n) {}
    A(const A& a) : n(a.n) {} // user-defined copy ctor
};
 
struct B : A {
    // implicit default ctor B::B()
    // implicit copy ctor B::B(const B&) 
};
 
struct C : B {
     C() : B() {}
 private:
     C(const C&); // non-copyable, C++98 style
};
 
int main()
{
    A a1(7);
    A a2(a1); // calls the copy ctor
    B b;
    B b2 = b;
    A a3 = b; // conversion to A& and copy ctor
    volatile A va(10);
    // A a4 = va; // compile error
 
    C c;
    // C c2 = c; // compile error
}