Checking if a variable is initialized

Question

There is no way of checking of the contents of a variable are undefined or not. The best thing you can do is to assign a signal/sentinel value (for example in the constructor) to indicate that further initialization will need to be carried out.

Variable that is not defined will cause compilation error.

What you're asking is about checking if it is initialized. But initialization is just a value, that you should choose and assign in the constructor.

For example:

class MyClass
{
    MyClass() : mCharacter('0'), mDecimal(-1.0){};
    void SomeMethod();

    char mCharacter;
    double mDecimal;
};

void MyClass::SomeMethod()
{
    if ( mCharacter != '0')
    {
        // touched after the constructor
        // do something with mCharacter.
    }

    if ( mDecimal != -1.0 )
    {
        // touched after the constructor
        // define mDecimal.
    }
}

You should initialize to a default value that will mean something in the context of your logic, of course.

Depending on your applications (and especially if you're already using boost), you might want to look into boost::optional.

(UPDATE: As of C++17, optional is now part of the standard library, as std::optional)

It has the property you are looking for, tracking whether the slot actually holds a value or not. By default it is constructed to not hold a value and evaluate to false, but if it evaluates to true you are allowed to dereference it and get the wrapped value.

class MyClass
{
    void SomeMethod();

    optional<char> mCharacter;
    optional<double> mDecimal;
};

void MyClass::SomeMethod()
{
    if ( mCharacter )
    {
        // do something with *mCharacter.
        // (note you must use the dereference operator)
    }

    if ( ! mDecimal )
    {
        // call mDecimal.reset(expression)
        // (this is how you assign an optional)
    }
}

More examples are in the Boost documentation.

With C++17 you can use std::optional to check if a variable is initialized:

#include <optional>
#include <iostream>  // needed only for std::cout

int main() {
    std::optional<int> variable;

    if (!variable) {
        std::cout << "variable is NOT initialized\n";
    }

    variable = 3;

    if (variable) {
        std::cout << "variable IS initialized and is set to " << *variable << '\n';
    }

    return 0;
}

This will produce the output:

variable is NOT initialized
variable IS initialized and is set to 3

---

To use std::optional in the code snipped you provided, you'll have to include the <optional> standard library header and add std::optional<...> to the respective variable declarations:

#include <optional>

class MyClass
{
    void SomeMethod();

    std::optional<char> mCharacter;
    std::optional<double> mDecimal;
};

void MyClass::SomeMethod()
{
    if ( mCharacter )
    {
        std::cout << *mCharacter;  // do something with mCharacter.
    }

    if ( ! mDecimal )
    {
        mDecimal = 3.14159;  // define mDecimal.
    }
}