Aggregate initialization in C++

I previously wrote an article about variable initialization in C++, but sadly, initialization of variables in C++ is a complicated subject with a lot of options.

Aggregate classes

Before talking about aggregate initialization, we need to know what an aggregate is. Aggregate classes have these properties:

• All its data members are public
• Doesn’t define any constructors
• Doesn’t have virtual functions
• Doesn’t inherit from any class
• Doesn’t have any in-class initializers

An example could be:

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class Person {
 public:
  std::string name;
  int age;
};

Aggregate initialization

Aggregates can be initialized using initializer lists, like this:

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Person adrian{"Adrian", 32};

In this case, the order of the member variables in the definition of Person dictates the order of arguments in the initialization. The first argument, will be assigned to name, and the second to age.

There is a different syntax that can be used:

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Person carlos{
  .name = "Carlos",
  .age = 25
};

I consider this better because it makes it clearer which value is being assigned to each member. Sadly, as with list-intialization, the order needs to be kept.

Another thing to consider is that in any case, it is not necessary to pass all values. These are both valid:

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Person adrian{"Adrian"};
Person carlos{
  .name = "Carlos"
};

In these cases, age will be value initialized to 0.

Conclusion

I discovered aggregate initialization by reading some code and stumbling into aggregate initialization syntax. I think aggregates only work on very specific cases, so I don’t expect to use this knowledge very frequently. The good thing, is that I won’t be surprised if I see code that uses it.