Is this C++ structure initialization trick safe?

Question

Instead of having to remember to initialize a simple \'C\' structure, I might derive from it and zero it in the constructor like this:

struct MY_STRUCT
{
            


        

Answer 1

It's a bit of code, but it's reusable; include it once and it should work for any POD. You can pass an instance of this class to any function expecting a MY_STRUCT, or use the GetPointer function to pass it into a function that will modify the structure.

template 
class CStructWrapper
{
private:
    STR MyStruct;

public:
    CStructWrapper() { STR temp = {}; MyStruct = temp;}
    CStructWrapper(const STR &myStruct) : MyStruct(myStruct) {}

    operator STR &() { return MyStruct; }
    operator const STR &() const { return MyStruct; }

    STR *GetPointer() { return &MyStruct; }
};

CStructWrapper myStruct;
CStructWrapper anotherStruct;

This way, you don't have to worry about whether NULLs are all 0, or floating point representations. As long as STR is a simple aggregate type, things will work. When STR is not a simple aggregate type, you'll get a compile-time error, so you won't have to worry about accidentally misusing this. Also, if the type contains something more complex, as long as it has a default constructor, you're ok:

struct MY_STRUCT2
{
    int n1;
    std::string s1;
};

CStructWrapper myStruct2; // n1 is set to 0, s1 is set to "";

On the downside, it's slower since you're making an extra temporary copy, and the compiler will assign each member to 0 individually, instead of one memset.