Should I use virtual 'Initialize()' functions to initialize an object of my class?

Question

I\'m currently having a discussion with my teacher about class design and we came to the point of Initialize() functions, which he heavily promotes. Example:

Answer 1

If you use it, then you should make the constructor private and use factory methods instead that call the initialize() method for you. For example:

class MyClass
{
public:
    static std::unique_ptr Create()
    {
        std::unique_ptr result(new MyClass);
        result->initialize();
        return result;
    }

private:
    MyClass();

    void initialize();
};

That said, initializer methods are not very elegant, but they can be useful for the exact reasons your teacher said. I would not consider them 'wrong' per se. If your design is good then you probably will never need them. However, real-life code sometimes forces you to make compromises.