Question

Does a C++ compiler automatically convert:

MyObject object2 = object1;

into

MyObject object2( object1 );

?

Or does it treat it like:

MyObject object2;
object2 = object1;

?

Answer 1

You can try this to see the exact behavior:

#include <iostream>

class MyObject {
public:
    MyObject() {
        std::cout << "MyObject()" << std::endl;
    }
    MyObject(const MyObject& other) {
        std::cout << "MyObject(const MyObject& other)" << std::endl;
    }
    MyObject& operator=(const MyObject& other) {
        std::cout << "operator=(const MyObject& other)" << std::endl;
        return *this;
    }
};

int main() {
    MyObject object1;
    MyObject object2 = object1;
    MyObject object3(object1);
    MyObject object4;
    object4 = object1;
}

Outputs:

MyObject()
MyObject(const MyObject& other)
MyObject(const MyObject& other)
MyObject()
operator=(const MyObject& other)

Apart from that, I recommend reading What is The Rule of Three?