[ACCEPTED]-Can't C++ POD type have any constructor?-c++

Accepted answer

Score: 19

POD means Plain Old Data type which by definition 29 cannot have user-defined constructor.

POD 28 is actually an aggregate type (see the next 27 quotation). So what is aggregate? The C++ Standard 26 says in section §8.5.1/1,

An aggregate is 25 an array or a class (clause 9) with no user-declared constructors (12.1), no 24 private or protected nonstatic data members (clause 23 11), no base classes (clause 10), and 22 no virtual functions (10.3).

And section 21 §9/4 from the C++ Standard says,

[....] A 20 POD-struct is an aggregate class that has no non-static data members 19 of type non-POD-struct, non-POD-union 18 (or array of such types) or reference, and 17 has no user-defined copy assignment operator and no user-defined destructor. Similarly, a POD-union is an 16 aggregate union that has no non-static 15 data members of type non-POD-struct, non-POD-union 14 (or array of such types) or reference, and has 13 no user-defined copy assignment operator and no user-defined destructor. A POD class is a class that is 12 either a POD-struct or a POD-union.

From 11 this, its also clear that POD class/struct/union 10 though cannot have user-defined assignment operator and user-defined destructor also.

There are 9 however other types of POD. The section 8 §3.9/10 says,

Arithmetic types (3.9.1), enumeration 7 types, pointer types, and pointer to member 6 types (3.9.2), and cv-qualified versions 5 of these types (3.9.3) are collectively 4 called scalar types. Scalar types, POD-struct 3 types, POD-union types (clause 9), arrays 2 of such types and cv-qualified versions of 1 these types (3.9.3) are collectively called POD types.

Read this FAQ : What is a "POD type"?

Score: 6

The class A is POD and can be initialized 13 like this

Sorry, that is wrong. Because b is 12 private, the class is not a POD.

But Clang 11 assumes A as non-aggregate type. Why I can't 10 have constructor like that? Or should I 9 do something else?

This is a limitation of 8 C++ as it exists currently. C++0x will not 7 have this limitation anymore. While in C++0x 6 your type is not a POD either, your initialization 5 will work (assuming that you make that constructor 4 public).

(Also, I think a better term for you to 3 use here is "aggregate". The requirement 2 for using { ... } is that your class is an aggregate. It 1 doesn't have to be a POD).

Score: 2

The other answers describe the POD rules 5 pretty well. If you want to get a similar 4 initialization style to a constructor for 3 a POD you can use a make_-style function, for 2 example:

struct A
{
    int i_;
};

A make_A(int i = 0) 
{
    A a = { i }; 
    return a; 
}

now you can get initialized POD 1 instances like:

A a = make_A();

Source: stackoverflow.com

[ACCEPTED]-Can't C++ POD type have any constructor?-c++

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