Article ID: 138695 - Last Review: September 18, 2003 - Revision: 3.0

DOC: ConstructElements & DestructElements

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SUMMARY

The documentation (included with the products listed above) for ConstructElements and DestructElements contains errors.

ConstructElements and DestructElements are two of the seven templated global helper functions used by MFC's templated collection classes such as CArray, CList, and CMap. ConstructElements is used to construct the elements stored in the collection classes and DestructElements is used to destruct the elements stored in the collection classes.

In Visual C++ 2.x, the MFC default implementation of ConstructElements does a bit-wise zero initialization to all the new elements, and the default implementation of DestructElements does nothing.

In Visual C++ 4.0 through 6.0, the MFC default implementation of ConstructElements not only does a bit-wise zero initialization to all the new elements but also calls the stored objects' constructors in a loop. This is different from the implementation in Visual C++ 2.x, but the documentation was not changed. See the "More Information" section in this article for the function implementation.

In addition, the MFC default implementation of DestructElements in Visual C++ 4.0 through 6.0, destructs the stored objects by calling their destructors. This is new in Visual C++ 4.x. See the "More Information" section in this article for the function implementation.

MORE INFORMATION

ConstructElements and DestructElements are the templated global helper functions used by MFC's templated collection classes to help constructing and destroying elements stored in the collection classes. As part of your implementation of classes based on these templated collection classes, you must override these functions as necessary with versions tailored to the type of data stored in your collection classes. Following are the MFC default implementations for ConstructElements and DestructElements in Visual C++ 4.0 through 6.0: 

   template<class TYPE>
   inline void AFXAPI ConstructElements(TYPE* pElements, int nCount)
   {
     ASSERT(nCount == 0 ||
            AfxIsValidAddress(pElements, nCount * sizeof(TYPE)));

     // First do bit-wise zero initialization.
     memset((void*)pElements, 0, nCount * sizeof(TYPE));

     // Then call the constructor(s).
     for (; nCount--; pElements++)
         ::new((void*)pElements) TYPE;
   }

   template<class TYPE>
   inline void AFXAPI DestructElements(TYPE* pElements, int nCount)
   {
      ASSERT(nCount == 0 ||
             AfxIsValidAddress(pElements, nCount * sizeof(TYPE)));

      // Call the destructor(s).
      for (; nCount--; pElements++)
          pElements->~TYPE();
   }
NOTE: In C++, when resolving a reference to a templated function, it examines all nontemplate instances of the function (the specialized functions) first. Then it examines all template instances of the function. Therefore, if you specialize the above functions in your applications when you use Visual C++ 2.0, your program still should be compatible with Visual C++ 4.x without any changes.
APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Foundation Class Library 4.2, when used with:
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0 Standard Edition
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 4.1 Subscription
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 4.2 Enterprise Edition
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Enterprise Edition
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Enterprise Edition
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 4.2 Professional Edition
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Professional Edition
    • Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Professional Edition
    • Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Learning Edition 6.0
    • Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 Standard Edition
    • Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2002 Standard Edition
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