Inheritance of Constructors and Destructors

Inheritance of Constructors
- A derived class constructor will automatically invoke the base class default constructor, unless instructed otherwise.
- The base class constructor is invoked before the derived class constructor is executed.
- The derived class constructor may invoke a specific base class constructor. B(parameter) : A(parameter) {body of class B constructor}
Inheritance of Destructors
- The derived class destructor automatically invokes the base class destructor.
- The base class destructor is invoked after the derived class destructor is executed.
Inheritance of the Assignment Operator
- The automatic assignment operator invokes the assignment operator for the base class.
- A programmer-defined assignment operator must copy the base class members.
  - This is a problem if the base class members are private.

This page was last modified on Mar 6, 2001

URL: http://people.hsc.edu/faculty-staff/robbk/Coms262/Lectures/InheritanceConstructors.html