What are the rules for calling the superclass constructor?

Question

What are the C++ rules for calling the superclass constructor from a subclass one?

For example, I know in Java, you must do it as the first line of the subclass cons

Answer 1

Everybody mentioned a constructor call through an initialization list, but nobody said that a parent class's constructor can be called explicitly from the derived member's constructor's body. See the question Calling a constructor of the base class from a subclass' constructor body, for example. The point is that if you use an explicit call to a parent class or super class constructor in the body of a derived class, this is actually just creating an instance of the parent class and it is not invoking the parent class constructor on the derived object. The only way to invoke a parent class or super class constructor on a derived class' object is through the initialization list and not in the derived class constructor body. So maybe it should not be called a "superclass constructor call". I put this answer here because somebody might get confused (as I did).