Initialize or Construct

Earlier we declared and initialized a Point object using squiggly-braces:

Point MyPoint = { 3.0, 4.0 };

Now, using constructors , we have a different way to declare and initialize:

Point MyPoint ( 3.0, 4.0 );

These two functions represent different programming styles, and different points in the history of C++. Maybe for that reason, the C++ compiler requires that you use one or the other, and not both in the same program.

If you define a constructor for a structur e, then you have to use the constructor to initialize all new structures of that type. The alternate syntax using squiggly-braces is no longer allowed. Initializing using squiggly-braces is an older style of programming and is rarely used now. Please consider to use constructors for the most cases.