11 Classes [class]

11.4 Class members [class.mem]

11.4.5 Constructors [class.ctor]

11.4.5.3 Copy/move constructors [class.copy.ctor]

A non-template constructor for class X is a copy constructor if its first parameter is of type X&, const X&, volatile X& or const volatile X&, and either there are no other parameters or else all other parameters have default arguments ([dcl.fct.default]).

[Example 1:

X::X(const X&) and X::X(X&,int=1) are copy constructors.

struct X { X(int); X(const X&, int = 1); }; X a(1); // calls X(int); X b(a, 0); // calls X(const X&, int); X c = b; // calls X(const X&, int); — end example]

A non-template constructor for class X is a move constructor if its first parameter is of type X&&, const X&&, volatile X&&, or const volatile X&&, and either there are no other parameters or else all other parameters have default arguments ([dcl.fct.default]).

[Example 2:

Y::Y(Y&&) is a move constructor.

struct Y { Y(const Y&); Y(Y&&); }; extern Y f(int); Y d(f(1)); // calls Y(Y&&) Y e = d; // calls Y(const Y&) — end example]

[Note 1:

All forms of copy/move constructor can be declared for a class.

[Example 3: struct X { X(const X&); X(X&); // OK X(X&&); X(const X&&); // OK, but possibly not sensible }; — end example]

— end note]

[Note 2:

If a class X only has a copy constructor with a parameter of type X&, an initializer of type const X or volatile X cannot initialize an object of type cv X.

[Example 4: struct X { X(); // default constructor X(X&); // copy constructor with a non-const parameter }; const X cx; X x = cx; // error: X::X(X&) cannot copy cx into x — end example]

— end note]

A declaration of a constructor for a class X is ill-formed if its first parameter is of type cv X and either there are no other parameters or else all other parameters have default arguments.

A member function template is never instantiated to produce such a constructor signature.

[Example 5: struct S { template<typename T> S(T); S(); }; S g; void h() { S a(g); // does not instantiate the member template to produce S::S<S>(S); // uses the implicitly declared copy constructor } — end example]

If the class definition does not explicitly declare a copy constructor, a non-explicit one is declared implicitly.

If the class definition declares a move constructor or move assignment operator, the implicitly declared copy constructor is defined as deleted; otherwise, it is defaulted ([dcl.fct.def]).

The latter case is deprecated if the class has a user-declared copy assignment operator or a user-declared destructor ([depr.impldec]).

The implicitly-declared copy constructor for a class X will have the form X::X(const X&) if each potentially constructed subobject of a class type M (or array thereof) has a copy constructor whose first parameter is of type const M& or const volatile M&.94

Otherwise, the implicitly-declared copy constructor will have the form X::X(X&)

If the definition of a class X does not explicitly declare a move constructor, a non-explicit one will be implicitly declared as defaulted if and only if

(8.1)
X does not have a user-declared copy constructor,
(8.2)
X does not have a user-declared copy assignment operator,
(8.3)
X does not have a user-declared move assignment operator, and
(8.4)
X does not have a user-declared destructor.

[Note 3:

When the move constructor is not implicitly declared or explicitly supplied, expressions that otherwise would have invoked the move constructor might instead invoke a copy constructor.

— end note]

The implicitly-declared move constructor for class X will have the form X::X(X&&)

An implicitly-declared copy/move constructor is an inline public member of its class.

A defaulted copy/move constructor for a class X is defined as deleted ([dcl.fct.def.delete]) if X has:

(10.1)
a potentially constructed subobject of type M (or array thereof) that cannot be copied/moved because overload resolution ([over.match]), as applied to find M's corresponding constructor, results in an ambiguity or a function that is deleted or inaccessible from the defaulted constructor,
(10.2)
a variant member whose corresponding constructor as selected by overload resolution is non-trivial,
(10.3)
any potentially constructed subobject of a type with a destructor that is deleted or inaccessible from the defaulted constructor, or,
(10.4)
for the copy constructor, a non-static data member of rvalue reference type.

[Note 4:

A defaulted move constructor that is defined as deleted is ignored by overload resolution ([over.match], [over.over]).

Such a constructor would otherwise interfere with initialization from an rvalue which can use the copy constructor instead.

— end note]

A copy/move constructor for class X is trivial if it is not user-provided and if:

(11.1)
class X has no virtual functions ([class.virtual]) and no virtual base classes ([class.mi]), and
(11.2)
the constructor selected to copy/move each direct base class subobject is trivial, and
(11.3)
for each non-static data member of X that is of class type (or array thereof), the constructor selected to copy/move that member is trivial;

otherwise the copy/move constructor is non-trivial.

[Note 5:

The copy/move constructor is implicitly defined even if the implementation elided its odr-use ([basic.def.odr], [class.temporary]).

— end note]

If an implicitly-defined ([dcl.fct.def.default]) constructor would be constexpr-suitable ([dcl.constexpr]), the implicitly-defined constructor is constexpr.

Before the defaulted copy/move constructor for a class is implicitly defined, all non-user-provided copy/move constructors for its potentially constructed subobjects are implicitly defined.

[Note 6:

An implicitly-declared copy/move constructor has an implied exception specification ([except.spec]).

— end note]

The implicitly-defined copy/move constructor for a non-union class X performs a memberwise copy/move of its bases and members.

[Note 7:

Default member initializers of non-static data members are ignored.

See also the example in [class.base.init].

— end note]

The order of initialization is the same as the order of initialization of bases and members in a user-defined constructor (see [class.base.init]).

Let x be either the parameter of the constructor or, for the move constructor, an xvalue referring to the parameter.

Each base or non-static data member is copied/moved in the manner appropriate to its type:

(14.1)
if the member is an array, each element is direct-initialized with the corresponding subobject of x;
(14.2)
if a member m has rvalue reference type T&&, it is direct-initialized with static_cast<T&&>(x.m);
(14.3)
otherwise, the base or member is direct-initialized with the corresponding base or member of x.

Virtual base class subobjects shall be initialized only once by the implicitly-defined copy/move constructor (see [class.base.init]).

The implicitly-defined copy/move constructor for a union X copies the object representation ([basic.types.general]) of X.

For each object nested within ([intro.object]) the object that is the source of the copy, a corresponding object o nested within the destination is identified (if the object is a subobject) or created (otherwise), and the lifetime of o begins before the copy is performed.

94)94)

This implies that the reference parameter of the implicitly-declared copy constructor cannot bind to a volatile lvalue; see [diff.class].