How to clone objects in C++

This post will discuss how to clone objects in C++.

1. Using copy constructor

A copy constructor is a special constructor to initialize a new object with the copy of an existing class object. It specifies the actions to be performed by the compiler while copying objects. The following C++ program demonstrates the usage of a copy constructor. It initializes an object with the copy of all the fields from another object of the same type.

#include <iostream>

class Point

{

public:

int x, y;

// constructor

Point();

Point(int x, int y): x(x), y(y) {}

// copy constructor

Point(const Point &rhs) {

this->x = rhs.x;

this->y = rhs.y;

}

};

int main()

{

Point p {0, 1};

std::cout << "Original object (" << p.x << ", " << p.y << ")\n";

Point copy(p);

std::cout << "Copied object (" << copy.x << ", " << copy.y << ")\n";

return 0;

}

Download Run Code

Output:

Original object (0, 1)
Copied object (0, 1)

2. Using assignment operator

Another simple and efficient solution is using the copy assignment operator to clone objects in C++. It can be used as follows: