Thread: What does these lines do after ":" mark?

i'm trying to read and understand a .cc (c++)file,
i want to know what does ok_flag(false),time_range(false),prefix() do after ":" ?
I did know that ":" was being used for class inheritance but what is ":" for in the bleow code?

Code:

ClassA::ClassA(const char *db) : ok_flag(false),time_range(false),prefix()
{
//.. Constructor statements
}

plz help
thanx.

Originally Posted by laserlight

They mark the beginning of the initialisation list. The ok_flag and time_range member variables are initialised to false, while the prefix member variable is initialised using its default constructor.

ok_flag and time_range are the variables, and prefix is a class.

did i understand correctly?

the post has been answered here

Originally Posted by anon

For all we know, ok_flag, time_range and prefix are data members of the class ClassA. We can assume that the first two might be bools, but we have know idea what type prefix might be (int, char, std::string, custom class) unless we go and look it up in the class declaration where you might hope to see something like:

Code:

class ClassA
{
    //...
    bool ok_flag;
    bool time_range;
    SomeType prefix;
};

The initialisation list is made up of "constructor calls" for the data members of the class to initialize these members. Built-in types, such as ints and bools, are not really classes and hence do not have a real constructor, but do accept a constructor-like syntax for this purpose.

If there is nothing between the parenthesis, it means using the default constructor of the type (one that takes no arguments). If prefix happened to be an int, this should set its value to 0 (but I'd prefer to be explicit - prefix(0)). If it happens to be a std::string, it would initialize prefix to be an empty std::string. Etc.

so you say ok_flag and time_range are boolean members(variables) of some base class, and prefix is another member(variable) of some base class. if they are not the members of base class why not assigning them in

Code:

Class A::Class A(const char *db)
{
//Constructor statements
ok_flag=true;
time_range=true;
//etc.
}

section?

another question is about assignment in c++ :
does "int a = 5;" also means "a(5)" in c++?

ok, thanks.