Lecture 4 - Copy Constructor

Question 1

Copy constructor

Answer 1

When a copy of an object is made, it is initialized using a special constructor

Question 2

3 situations in which copy constructors are called

Answer 2

1. assignment from one object to another at time of creation
2. passing an object by value to a function
3. returning an object by value from a function

Question 3

Default copy constructor

Answer 3

simply copies values from one object to another
//SHALLOW COPY

Question 4

Shallow copy

Answer 4

copying values as they are from one object to another

Question 5

Syntax of custom copy constructor

Answer 5

NewClass::NewClass (const NewClass & obj)

Question 6

What is the issue with shallow copy?

Answer 6

If one of the data members is a reference type, the address is copied BUT the memory location is not
○ Both the original object and the copy point to the same memory location, which can lead to logical errors

Question 7

Deep copy

Answer 7

Creating a new object and copying the values of all data members AND making new copies of all referred objects
The copied object shares nothing with the old object