view the default functions generated by a compiler?

Question

Is there any way to view the default functions ( e.g., default copy constructor, default assignment operator ) generated by a compiler such as VC++2008 for a class which doe

Answer 1

You can trace into the code with the debugger to see what is going on. For example:

#include 

struct A {
    int a[100];
    char c;
    std::string s;
};

int main() {
    A a;
    A b(a);
}

Set a breakpoint at the construction of 'b' by the copy constructor. The assembler output at that point in the VC++6 debugger is:

12:       A b(a);
00401195   lea         eax,[ebp-1B0h]
0040119B   push        eax
0040119C   lea         ecx,[ebp-354h]
004011A2   call        @ILT+140(A::A) (00401091) 

The last is the copy constructor call. You can trace into that too if you want more details.

However, if your question is "how can I see the C++ code for the copy constructor et al", the answer is you can't, because there isn't any - the compiler generates assembler or machine code (depending on your compiler) for them, not C++ code.