Back to Basics: The Rule of Five in C++ - Andre Kostur - CppCon 2023

Discover the importance of the rule of five in C++: learn how to write robust code by defining or deleting special member functions for destructors, copy constructors, and more.

Key takeaways

C++ is a value-based language, but it has a well-defined object lifetime model.
The rule of five means that if you define or delete any one of the special member functions (destructor, copy constructor, copy assignment operator, move constructor, move assignment operator), you need to define or delete all of them.
The compiler provides default implementations for these special member functions if you don’t define them explicitly.
However, you shouldn’t use default implementations for these functions if you need more control over object creation and destruction.
Guideline C21 of the C++ Core Guidelines states that if you define or delete any special member function, you should define or delete all of them.
The “Rule of Zero” suggests that you should not write code that requires special handling for object creation and destruction, but rather let the compiler handle it for you.
Most of the time, the compiler-generated code is sufficient, but there are cases where you need to write custom code for object creation and destruction.
The C++ Core Guidelines provide guidance on how to write good C++ code and avoid common pitfalls.
The rule of five is a set of guidelines to help you write good C++ code and avoid common pitfalls when it comes to object creation and destruction.

Back to Basics: The Rule of Five in C++ - Andre Kostur - CppCon 2023

More talks