Is it good/bad practice to initialize your vars in your protoypes???

[dtaqee88]

So I've been taught (from "C++ Programming/ From Program Analysis to Design" book) to initialize my private variables in the constructor in the definition of a class but......I just played around and initialized a variable inside my class prototypes and it worked. Is it bad to do so or does it matter?

[kbw]

Can you post an example of what you did?

You can only specify default parameters in a prototype, that's not quite the same thing as initialising members.

[dtaqee88]

Sure. This is the class prototype and it compiles just fine.
Line 16 is where I actually initialize a var.

class enemy
{
public:
    enemy();
    void attackThePlayer(player& player);
    void run(int, int);//take into account health and players level and such
    void returnEnemyStats();//health, attack power and such;
private:
    int health;
    int defense;
    int attackPower;
    int bossesKilledCounter;
    int enemiesKilledCounter;
    bool isEnemyDead;
    string getRandomEnemy;
    vector<string> enemyList {"Scorpion", "Bug", "Hyena", "Wolf",
                "Cat", "Shadow", "Dr. Fetus",
                "Dark Link", "Majin Boo", "Dr. Mario",
                "Dr. Mr. Evil"};
};

This is how I've been taught to initialize vars....inside your
class constructor:

enemy::enemy()
{
    //11 different enemies as of now
    enemyList = {"Scorpion", "Bug", "Hyena", "Wolf",
                "Cat", "Shadow", "Dr. Fetus",
                "Dark Link", "Majin Boo", "Dr. Mario",
                "Dr. Mr. Evil"};
}

Both ways work just fine. Just wondering why have a constructor when
vars can be initialized inside a class prototype. Thanks.


EDIT - What's the difference between specifying a default param and initializing a member?