Question

I expected Visual Studio to give me an error or at the very least a warning, but it gave me neither when I had an empty return in the constructor:

MyObject::MyObject()
{
    if (/*some condition*/)
    {
        //SomeCode
        return;
    }

    // continue with other code
}

I have not seen usage of this so far in my limited experience, so my question is whether it is OK to have a return in the constructor?

This is more of a curiosity question as I understand that it is very easy to code such that you never have to put return in there, although I have an instance where this would be very useful, but before using it I want to see if it is prohibited (maybe by the standard or is, in general, not a good idea).

Answer 1

The standards say:

12.1 Constructors
…
A return statement in the body of a
constructor shall not specify a return
value. The address of a constructor
shall not be taken.
…

It is OK to have return; in a constructor. My understanding is that this was allowed so that the programmer can return early from the constructor without the need for making a mess with boolean flags.