C++ - What is this doing if the constructor is private?

Question

In the code below, why does the compiler not complain for mClass2?

class CMyClass{
private:
    CMyClass(){}
};

void TestMethod(){
    CMyClass mClass1;   //Fails.
    CMyClass mClass2(); //Works.
}

Answer 1

Because you've just declared a function mClass2 of zero arguments that returns a CMyClass. That's a valid option since there could be, say, a static CMyClass instance which that function has access to. Note that CMyClass still has a public copy constructor.

(To convince yourself, compile this module to assembler and observe that commenting out the line CMyClass mClass2(); produces the same output.)