How can we trap errors in constructors as constructors will not retrun any values.

And one more question.

What do you mean by the canonical form of a class

Poolan

You could pass a reference parameter to the constructor and use that to notify you of an error. I'm assuming that you are doing File I/O or dynamic allocation, because normally, the constructor is used to do simple tasks like zeroing out all the variables in the class and such... anyhow, as for the canonical form of a class, I would start by looking up the word canonical.

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-Aaron

This might be it...

Conforming to orthodox or well-established rules or patterns, as of procedure.

This probably means using the class to represent a stack, queue, or linked list. Those are just examples of classes with well established rules and patterns.

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-Aaron

1. You can throw exceptions.

2. Maybe this should be: "What does the instructor mean by the canonical form of a class?" The word "canonical" has been used in textbooks to mean a boilerplate beginning of all user-defined classes that corresponds to the most basic built-in classes:

From http://cpptips.hyperformix.com/cpptips/orth_can_class

(You could have looked it up yourself, maybe?)

Regards,

Dave

I also think that throwing exceptions is DEFINETELY the way to go about this; if your compiler doesn't have a built in throw-catch or wathever mechanism, you could try the stl (in case it supports that) for its outstanding implementation

Another link regarding the canonical form: Hedlund.

Kind regards,
Luci

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You guys are just too advanced for me. I would've suggested throwing exceptions, but I haven't learned how to do it yet.

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-Aaron

That's the reason I worded my #2 response the way I did. This is modestly called "Hedlund's Canonical Form" in class notes by an instructor named Hedlund. He does give a textbook reference. My advice to the original poster is to check his textbook or class notes for his instructor's take on "canonical" in this context.

Regards,

Dave