C++ Copying vs Assignment Assignment Operator

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Example

The Assignment Operator is when you replace the data with an already existing(previously initialized) object with some other object's data. Lets take this as an example:

// Assignment Operator
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using std::cout;
using std::endl;

class Foo
{
  public:
    Foo(int data)
    {
        this->data = data;    
    }
    ~Foo(){};
    Foo& operator=(const Foo& rhs)
    {
            data = rhs.data; 
            return *this;
    }

    int data;
};

int main()
{
   Foo foo(2); //Foo(int data) called
   Foo foo2(42);
   foo = foo2; // Assignment Operator Called
   cout << foo.data << endl; //Prints 42
}

You can see here I call the assignment operator when I already initialized the foo object. Then later I assign foo2 to foo . All the changes to appear when you call that equal sign operator is defined in your operator= function. You can see a runnable output here: http://cpp.sh/3qtbm



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