C++ named requirements: CopyConstructible

 

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C++ named requirements

Basic DefaultConstructible MoveConstructible (C++11) CopyConstructible CopyAssignable MoveAssignable (C++11) Destructible Type properties ScalarType PODType TriviallyCopyable (C++11) TrivialType (C++11) StandardLayoutType (C++11)   ImplicitLifetimeType Library-wide BooleanTestable EqualityComparable LessThanComparable Swappable ValueSwappable (C++11) NullablePointer (C++11) Hash (C++11) Allocator FunctionObject Callable Predicate BinaryPredicate Compare

Container Container ReversibleContainer AllocatorAwareContainer SequenceContainer ContiguousContainer (C++17) AssociativeContainer UnorderedAssociativeContainer (C++11)   Container element DefaultInsertable (C++11) CopyInsertable (C++11) MoveInsertable (C++11) EmplaceConstructible (C++11) Erasable (C++11) Iterator LegacyIterator LegacyInputIterator LegacyOutputIterator LegacyForwardIterator LegacyBidirectionalIterator LegacyRandomAccessIterator LegacyContiguousIterator (C++17) ConstexprIterator (C++20) Stream I/O FormattedInputFunction UnformattedInputFunction FormattedOutputFunction UnformattedOutputFunction Formatters BasicFormatter (C++20) Formatter (C++20)

Random Numbers SeedSequence (C++11) RandomNumberEngine (C++11) RandomNumberDistribution (C++11) UniformRandomBitGenerator (C++11) RandomNumberEngineAdaptor (C++11) Concurrency BasicLockable (C++11) Lockable (C++11) TimedLockable (C++11) SharedLockable (C++14) SharedTimedLockable (C++14) Mutex (C++11) TimedMutex (C++11) SharedMutex (C++17) SharedTimedMutex (C++14) Ranges RangeAdaptorObject (C++20) RangeAdaptorClosureObject (C++20) Multidimensional View LayoutMapping (C++23) LayoutMappingPolicy (C++23) AccessorPolicy (C++23) Other CharTraits RegexTraits (C++11)   BitmaskType LiteralType (C++11) NumericType UnaryTypeTrait (C++11) BinaryTypeTrait (C++11) TransformationTrait (C++11) Clock (C++11) TrivialClock (C++11)

 

Specifies that an instance of the type can be copy-constructed from an lvalue expression.

Requirements

The type T satisfies CopyConstructible if

• The type T satisfies MoveConstructible, and

Given

• v, an lvalue expression of type T or const T or an rvalue expression of type const T,
• u, an arbitrary identifier.

The following expressions must be valid and have their specified effects:

Expression	Post-conditions
T u = v;	The value of u is equivalent to the value of v. The value of v is unchanged.
T(v)	The value of T(v) is equivalent to the value of v. The value of v is unchanged.

The expression v.~T() also must be valid, and, for lvalue v, the expression &v must have the type T* or const T* and must evaluate to the address of v.

(until C++11)

Notes

Until C++11, classes that overloaded operator& were not CopyConstructible and thus were not usable in the standard library containers. This is a design decision in C++98 (instead of a defect, see LWG issue 390).

Since C++11, the standard library uses std::addressof whenever the address of an object is needed.

Extended content

Being a CopyConstructible class implies std::is_copy_constructible but not vice versa since std::is_copy_constructible will only check for the ability to call the constructor with the correct arguments, and, e.g., not a MoveConstructible requirement. Run this code #include <type_traits> #include <utility>   struct S { S() = default; S(S&&) = delete; S(const S&) = default; }; static_assert(std::is_copy_constructible_v<S>);   int main() { S s1;   // Class `S` doesn't satisfy MoveConstructible requirement, // hence doesn't satisfy CopyConstructible requirement [[maybe_unused]] S s2{std::move(s1)}; // ill-formed, use of deleted function }

References

Extended content
C++23 standard (ISO/IEC 14882:2024): 16.4.4.2 Template argument requirements [utility.arg.requirements]

See also

is_copy_constructibleis_trivially_copy_constructibleis_nothrow_copy_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)	checks if a type has a copy constructor (class template)
copy_constructible (C++20)	specifies that an object of a type can be copy constructed and move constructed (concept)