Calling constructors in c++ without new

Question

I\'ve often seen that people create objects in C++ using

Thing myThing(\"asdf\");

Instead of this:

Thing myThing = Thing(\"         


        

Answer 1

The compiler may well optimize the second form into the first form, but it doesn't have to.

#include 

class A
{
    public:
        A() { std::cerr << "Empty constructor" << std::endl; }
        A(const A&) { std::cerr << "Copy constructor" << std::endl; }
        A(const char* str) { std::cerr << "char constructor: " << str << std::endl; }
        ~A() { std::cerr << "destructor" << std::endl; }
};

void direct()
{
    std::cerr << std::endl << "TEST: " << __FUNCTION__ << std::endl;
    A a(__FUNCTION__);
    static_cast(a); // avoid warnings about unused variables
}

void assignment()
{
    std::cerr << std::endl << "TEST: " << __FUNCTION__ << std::endl;
    A a = A(__FUNCTION__);
    static_cast(a); // avoid warnings about unused variables
}

void prove_copy_constructor_is_called()
{
    std::cerr << std::endl << "TEST: " << __FUNCTION__ << std::endl;
    A a(__FUNCTION__);
    A b = a;
    static_cast(b); // avoid warnings about unused variables
}

int main()
{
    direct();
    assignment();
    prove_copy_constructor_is_called();
    return 0;
}

Output from gcc 4.4:

TEST: direct
char constructor: direct
destructor

TEST: assignment
char constructor: assignment
destructor

TEST: prove_copy_constructor_is_called
char constructor: prove_copy_constructor_is_called
Copy constructor
destructor
destructor