Skip to main content

Functions inside constructor should throw (if they fail)

This is a for constructors, which do non-trivial resource allocation
and initialization using helper member functions in the class. Exceptions
raised in such member functions should be propagated upto the constructor
and not eat them. In other words, such member functions should throw
exception if they can't satisfy their contract even though they provide
strong exception safety guarantee. Exception propagated upto
the constructor will be automatically propagated where the object is being
constructed indicating failure in object construction. Otherwise, silently
eating exceptions during object initialization will create an object in
an inconsistent state. The scope in which it is created will never know
that actually the object construction failed. If object construction can
be reasonably performed even in the face of exception, then it need not be
propagated out.

Example, LStack: A Stack implemented as a linked-list.

LStack::LStack (const LStack & s)
{
this->copy_all_nodes (s);
}

/// Following function provides strong exception safety guarantee
LStack::copy_all_nodes (const LStack &s)
{
try {
/// Copy nodes from the linked list of s into this's linked-list
/// copying of list elements may fail at arbitrary intermediate
/// position.

}
catch (...) {
this->delete_partially_initialized_list ();
/// throw; /// Should be done.
}
}

In the above case, copy_all_nodes is flowed because it failed to satisfy its
contract and still did not indicate its failure to the constructor.
Consequently, the client trying to use copy of LStack object will
be disappointed for sure.

This is important in case of constructor because it is difficult to tell
that object construction failed because there is no return value.

Comments

Wow! this blog is good. it is really excellent c++ blog. I like this very much. I am learning programming and hope your blog can help me.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I think I will leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
I know very much about C++ and is in good practices but never heard this one. It is new to me.

Popular Content

Unit Testing C++ Templates and Mock Injection Using Traits

Unit testing your template code comes up from time to time. (You test your templates, right?) Some templates are easy to test. No others. Sometimes it's not clear how to about injecting mock code into the template code that's under test. I've seen several reasons why code injection becomes challenging. Here I've outlined some examples below with roughly increasing code injection difficulty. Template accepts a type argument and an object of the same type by reference in constructor Template accepts a type argument. Makes a copy of the constructor argument or simply does not take one Template accepts a type argument and instantiates multiple interrelated templates without virtual functions Lets start with the easy ones. Template accepts a type argument and an object of the same type by reference in constructor This one appears straight-forward because the unit test simply instantiates the template under test with a mock type. Some assertion might be tested in...

Multi-dimensional arrays in C++11

What new can be said about multi-dimensional arrays in C++? As it turns out, quite a bit! With the advent of C++11, we get new standard library class std::array. We also get new language features, such as template aliases and variadic templates. So I'll talk about interesting ways in which they come together. It all started with a simple question of how to define a multi-dimensional std::array. It is a great example of deceptively simple things. Are the following the two arrays identical except that one is native and the other one is std::array? int native[3][4]; std::array<std::array<int, 3>, 4> arr; No! They are not. In fact, arr is more like an int[4][3]. Note the difference in the array subscripts. The native array is an array of 3 elements where every element is itself an array of 4 integers. 3 rows and 4 columns. If you want a std::array with the same layout, what you really need is: std::array<std::array<int, 4>, 3> arr; That's quite annoying for...

Review of Manning's Functional Programming in C++

Last year I reviewed the pre-print manuscript of Manning's Functional Programming in C++ written by Ivan Čukić. I really enjoyed reading the book. I enthusiastically support that the book Offers precise, easy-to-understand, and engaging explanations of functional concepts. Who is this book for This book expects a reasonable working knowledge of C++, its modern syntax, and semantics from the readers. Therefore, reading this book might require a companion book for C++ beginners. I think that’s fair because FP is an advanced topic. C++ is getting more and more powerful day by day. While there are many FP topics that could be discussed in such a book, I like the practicality of the topics selected in this book. Here's the table of contents at a glance. This is a solid coverage of functional programming concepts to get a determined programmer going from zero-to-sixty in a matter of weeks. Others have shared their thoughts on this book as well. See Rangarajan Krishnamo...