Initialize Pointer Through Function

Question

I was browsing my teacher's code when I stumbled across this:

Order* order1 = NULL;

then

order1 = order(customer1, product2);

which calls

Order* order(Customer* customer, Product* product)
{
    return new Order(customer, product);
}

This looks like silly code. I'm not sure why, but the teacher initialized all pointers to NULL instead of declaring them right away(looking at the code it's entirely possible, but he chose not to).

My question is: is this good or acceptable code? Does the function call have any benefits over calling a constructor explicitely? And how does new work in this case? Can I imagine the code now as kind of like:

order1 = new Order(customer, product);

Answer 1

Init to NULL

[edit] since there's a valid discussion, I've changed the order of the options a bit to emphasize the recommended option.

Variables should be declared as local and as late as possible, and initialized immediately. Thus, the most common pattern is:

Order * order1 = order(...);

just before order1 is required.
If there is any reason to separate the declaration of order1 from the instantiation, like this:

Order * order1;  // Oh no! not initialized!
// ... some code
order1 = order(...);

order1 should be initialized to NULL, to prevent common bugs that occur with uninitialized variables, easily introduced when // some code changes.

Factory method
Again, there's some more change resilence here: the requirements for instantiating an Order may change. There are two scenarios I can think of right off top of my head:

(1) Validation that can't be done by Order's constructor. Order may come from a 3rd party library and can't be changed, or instantiation needs to add validation that isn't within the scope of Order:

Order* order(Customer* customer, Product* product)             
{      
    // Order can't validate these, since it doesn't "know" the database       
    database.ValidateCustomer(customer); // throws on error
    database.ValidateProduct(product); // throws on error

    return new Order(customer, product);             
}   

(2) You may need an order that behaves differently.

class DemoOrder : public Order  { ... }

Order* order(Customer* customer, Product* product)             
{             
    if (demoMode)
      return new DemoOrder(customer, product); // doesn't write to web service
    else
      return new Order(customer, product);             
}   

However, I wouldn't make this a general pattern blindly.

Answer 2

It seems to me that your teacher is an old C programmer who hasn't quite shaken off some of his old habits. In the old times, you had to declare all variables at the beginning of a function, so it's not unusual to see some old timers still doing so.