I was under impression that it's impossible, see for example:
Calling the constructor of the base class after some other instructions in C++
But the following program runs and produces two lines of "Constructor Person":
#include <iostream>
class Person
{
public:
Person()
{
std::cout << "Constructor Person" << std::endl; }
};
class Child : public Person
{
public:
Child()
{
c = 1;
Person();
}
int c;
};
int main()
{
Child child;
return 0;
}
The first one is implicit call of the default constructor, that's clear. What about the 2nd one - does it mean that the action described in the title is legitimate? I use Visual C++ 2010.
The following is an excerpt from "Accelerated C++":
"Derived objects are constructed by:
1. Allocating space for the entire object (base class members as well as derived class members);
2. Calling the base-class constructor to initialize the base-class part of the object;
3. Initializing the members of the derived class as directed by the constructor initializer;
4. Executing the body of the derived-class constructor, if any."
Summarizing the answers and comments: Calling a constructor of the base class from a subclass' constructor body is impossible in the sense that #2 above must precede #4. But we still can create a base object in the derived constructor body thus calling a base constructor. It will be an object different from the object being constructed with the currently executed derived constructor.