One more thing to remember when defining copy constructor and operator=

Assigning an object to itself is disastrous, so whenever you have to define a copy constructor and assignment operator, make sure your code is guarded from such a mistake:

 
class Date {
	int day, month, year;
	//...
	Date & operator= (const Date & other){ *this=other; //Dangerous 
								return *this;}
	//...
}
void f () {
	Date d;
	Date *pdate = &d

	//...many lines of code 

	*pdate=d; //oops, object assigned to itself; disastrous
}//f()

A safe version should look like this:

 
Date & Date::operator= (const Date & other) 
{ 
	if (&other != this) //guarded from self assignment
	{
		*this = other;
		//...
	}

	return *this; 
}

Danny Kalev

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