The big-3:

Blunt rule-of-thumb (not always applicable, but a good start): If any of your data members are pointers, and especially if those pointers end up pointing to stuff allocated with new, think carefully about whether you need to implement code for these three functions.

Conversely, if none of your attributes are pointers (e.g. if they are all primitive types, or C++ library types such as std::string), you probably don’t need to worry about the big-3.

To check your understanding, try cs32/lab03/

Also this on uninitialized pointers:

https://ucsb-cs16.github.io/topics/cpp_pointer_initialization/

Also see:

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php/1411679/mod_resource/content/1/CMPSC%2032%20Conrad%20PROOF.pdf

p. 55-81

The “->” operator

	string* s = new string("Hello");
	cout << s << endl; // prints address of pointer s
	cout << *s << endl; // prints value of pointer s
	//cout << s.length() << endl; // ERROR
	cout << (*s).length() << endl;
	cout << s->length() << endl; // -> is shorthand for (*s).

Destructor

// Student.h
public:
~Student();

// Student.cpp
Student::~Student() {
	cout << "calling destructor for this: " << this << endl;
}
Note: “this” is a keyword referring to the reference of the current object. Similar keyword in Java.

void foo() {
	Student s;
	cout << "&s = " << &s << endl;

	Student* me = new Student();
	cout << "me: " << me << endl;
	cout << me->getName() << endl;

	delete me; 
}

int main() {
  foo();
	return 0;
}
// What gets deleted? Order of deletion?
// destructors are called with the keyword "delete" or if the function it lives in is popped from the stack.