Declaring an object before initializing it in c++

Question

Is it possible to declare a variable in c++ without instantiating it? I want to do something like this:

Animal a;
if( happyDay() ) 
    a( \"puppies\" ); //c         


        

Answer 1

I prefer Greg's answer, but you could also do this:

char *AnimalType;
if( happyDay() ) 
    AnimalType = "puppies";
else
    AnimalType = "toads";
Animal a(AnimalType);

I suggest this because I've worked places where the conditional operator was forbidden. (Sigh!) Also, this can be expanded beyond two alternatives very easily.