How to initialize a constructor with that takes Strings as parameters?

Question

I am not sure that I am using the right terminology, but question is how do I properly make a constructor that takes a string in as a parameter?

I am used to having a const char * in the constructor instead of strings.

Normally I would do something like this:

Name(const char* fName, const char* lName)
    : firstName(0), lastName(0)
{
    char * temp = new char [strlen(fName) + 1];
    strcpy_s(temp, strlen(fName) + 1, fName);
    firstName = temp;

    char * temp2 = new char [strlen(lName) + 1];
    strcpy_s(temp2, strlen(lName) + 1, lName);
    lastName = temp2;
}

What if the constructor is this:

 Name(const string fName, const string lName) { }

Do I still do base member initialization? do I still need to use string copy in the base of the constructor?

Answer 1

Use std::string and initializer lists:

std::string fName, lName;

Name(string fName, string lName):fName(std::move(fName)), lName(std::move(lName))
{
}

In this case, you don't need to use terribly bare pointers, you don't need allocate memory, copy characters and finally de-allocate. In addition, this new code has chances to take advantages of moving rather than copying since std::string is movable. Also it's useful to read this.

And so on....