Default Memberwise Assignment

The assignment operator (=) can be used to assign an object to another object of the same type.

• Assigning objects
  • Assignment operator (=)
  • Can assign one object to another of same type
  • Default: memberwise assignment
  • Each right member assigned individually to left member
• Passing, returning objects
  • Objects passed as function arguments
  • Objects returned from functions
  • Default: pass-by-value
    • Copy of object passed, returned
      • Copy constructor; Copy original values into new object

Member wise assignment can cause serious problems when used with a class whose data members contain pointers to dynamically allocated storage.

Figure 19: Default memberwise assignment. (part 1 of 2)

Figure 20: Default memberwise assignment. (part 2 of 2)