Initializing an object to all zeroes

Question

Oftentimes data structures\' valid initialization is to set all members to zero. Even when programming in C++, one may need to interface with an external API for which this

Answer 1

The best method for clearing structures is to set each field individually:

struct MyStruct
{
  std::string name;
  int age;
  double checking_account_balance;
  void clear(void)
  {
     name.erase();
     age = 0;
     checking_account_balance = 0.0;
  }
};

In the above example, a clear method is defined to set all the members to a known state or value. The memset and std::fill methods may not work due to std::string and double types. A more robust program clears each field individually.

I prefer having a more robust program than spending less time typing.