Initialize const member variables

Question

I have C++ code that boils down to something like the following:

class Foo{
    bool bar;
    bool baz;
    Foo(const void*);
};
Foo::Foo(const void* ptr){
          


        

Answer 1

If you can afford a C++11 compiler, consider delegating constructors:

class Foo
{
    // ...
    bool const bar;
    bool const baz;
    Foo(void const*);
    // ...
    Foo(my_struct const* s); // Possibly private
};

Foo::Foo(void const* ptr)
    : Foo{complex_method(ptr)}
{
}

// ...

Foo::Foo(my_struct const* s)
    : bar{calculate_bar(s)}
    , baz{calculate_baz(s)}
{
}

As a general advice, be careful declaring your data members as const, because this makes your class impossible to copy-assign and move-assign. If your class is supposed to be used with value semantics, those operations become desirable. If that's not the case, you can disregard this note.