VC++ 2013 – Initializer lists and uniform initialization

We’ve always been able to use initializer lists with arrays, now you can do it with any type that has a method that takes an argument of type std::initializer_list<T> (including constructors). The standard library collections have all been updated to support initializer lists.

void foo()
{
  vector<int> vecint = { 3, 5, 19, 2 };
  map<int, double> mapintdoub =
  {
    { 4, 2.3},
    { 12, 4.1 },
    { 6, 0.7 }
  };
}

And it’s trivial to do this with your own functions.

void bar1(const initializer_list<int>& nums) 
{
  for (auto i : nums)
  {
    // use i
  }
}

bar1({ 1, 4, 6 });

You can also do it with your user defined types.

class bar2
{
public:
  bar2(initializer_list<int> nums) { }
};

class bar3
{
public:
  bar3(initializer_list<bar2> items) { }
};

bar2 b2 = { 3, 7, 88 };

bar3 b3 = { {1, 2}, { 14 }, { 11, 8 } };

Uniform initialization is a related feature that’s been added to C++ 11. It automatically uses the matching constructor.

class bar4
{
  int x;
  double y;
  string z;

public:
  bar4(int, double, string) { }
};

class bar5
{
public:
  bar5(int, bar4) { }
};

bar4 b4 { 12, 14.3, "apples" };

bar5 b5 { 10, { 1, 2.1, "bananas" } };

If there’s an initializer-list constructor, it takes precedence over another matching constructor.

class bar6
{
public:
  bar6(int, int) // (1)
  {
    // ...
  }

  bar6(initializer_list<int>) // (2)
  {
    // ...
  }
};
  
bar6 b6 { 10, 10 }; // --> calls (2) above