Question

I made this constructor, and I need to make a deep copy of it. I don’t really understand the meaning of a deep copy. I know it makes independent copy of an object that has its own dynamic memory, but I don’t understand what the need is for this. I’m also not sure how to actually implement the deep copy. Any suggestions?

Here is my constructor that I need to make deep copy of:
Could anyone provide some syntax help, like a skeleton?

template<class t_type>
inline ALIST<t_type>::ALIST()
{
  t_type value;
  capacity=10;  
  DB = new t_type[capacity];
  count=capacity;

  cout<<"Enter value: ";
  cin.clear();
  cin>>value;


  for(int i=0; i<capacity; i++)
  {
    DB[i]=value;
  }
}

Answer 1

What is the copy-and-swap idiom?

Deep copies are used so that you can copy all the information that an object has, and then alter the copy without altering the original. Broadly speaking, a shallow copy will copy only the pointer itself, but still point to the same information. This can lead to unexpected changes in data if you’re not careful.