Do the parentheses after the type name make a difference with new?

Question

If \'Test\' is an ordinary class, is there any difference between:

Test* test = new Test;

and

Test* test = new Test();
         


        

Answer 1

No, they are the same. But there is a difference between:

Test t;      // create a Test called t

and

Test t();   // declare a function called t which returns a Test

This is because of the basic C++ (and C) rule: If something can possibly be a declaration, then it is a declaration.

Edit: Re the initialisation issues regarding POD and non-POD data, while I agree with everything that has been said, I would just like to point out that these issues only apply if the thing being new'd or otherwise constructed does not have a user-defined constructor. If there is such a constructor it will be used. For 99.99% of sensibly designed classes there will be such a constructor, and so the issues can be ignored.