Thread: Why not use an = Operator instead of a Copy Constructor?

Originally Posted by laserlight

I think that what works well is the opposite: writing the copy assignment operator in terms of the copy constructor. Of course, you need to have a suitable destructor and swap function.

I tried this

Code:

class point{
  public:
    point(){;}
    ~point(){;}
    point(const point&);
    double x, y, z;
    point &operator =(const point &right_side);         
};

point &point::operator =(const point &rhs){
      this(&rhs);
      return *this;      
}

point::point (const point &pt) {
      *this = pt;    
}

but it doesn't seem to work. Although the following does

Code:

class point{
  public:
    point(){;}
    ~point(){;}
    point(const point&);
    double x, y, z;
    point &operator =(const point &right_side);         
};

point &point::operator =(const point &rhs){
      x = rhs.x;
      y = rhs.y;
      z = rhs.z;
      return *this;      
}

point::point (const point &pt) {
      *this = pt;    
}