Applying explicit on your constructors

I am not sure how many C++ developers out there use the explicit keyword or are even aware of its existence. It was only today that I actually took a look at what it does and I’d like to thank my friend Rama Krishna for some vauable pointers (not the C/C++ kind) he gave me. Before I tell you what explicit does, lemme show you some code :-

class A
{
    friend class B;
public:
    A(int q) : _y(q)
    {
    }
private:
    int _y;
};

class B
{
public:
    B(A a) : _x(a._y)
    {
    }
    void Show()
    {
        printf("%d\r\n",_x);
    }
private:
    int _x;
};

Okay, nothing fancy about that code, eh? Now, take a look at this :-

int _tmain()
{
    B b = 17;
    b.Show();
    return 0;
}

I bet that looks pretty confusing for people who are not familar with conversion constructors. Basically, what happens is that the B b = 17 is considered as B b(17) and this is taken as B b(A(17))! Pretty crazy it might seem, but apparently, lot of guys have been using this style for years. (Thanks to Mike Dunn for pointing out an error in my original explanation; the error has been corrected)

The explicit keyword is used to specify that the constructor cannot take part in implicit conversions. Just change your code as follows :-

class A
{
    friend class B;
public:
    explicit A(int q) : _y(q)
    {
    }
private:
    int _y;
};

class B
{
public:
    explicit B(A a) : _x(a._y)
    {
    }
    void Show()
    {
        printf("%d\r\n",_x);
    }
private:
    int _x;
};

Now you’ll have to explicitly write B b(A(17)) or else get a compiler error.

BTW, just to verify if I am the only idiot in town who had never heard of this stuff, have any of you guys ever used this weird conversional syntax when constructing objects?

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