Overload shallow and deep copy constructor cpp - c++

Question

I am starting with C++ environment, I hope I didn't mess up a lot with the concepts here.
I have one task where I need to create an object that has to be able to be copied in two ways, with a shallow copy and a deep copy.
The object has to allow two types of copies. Either the object is shallow copied or deep copy depending on the demands.
In the code below I create a simple example to explain the use case. There, I implement the object Object with a one-argument constructor and a deep copy constructor. Then at some point we use the functions get_shallow and get_deep.
Is there a way to tell the compiler which constructor to use when it copies Object in the scope of the functions? Sometimes I will need a function to return the shallow copy and other times a deep copy.
using namespace std;
class Object;
typedef std::shared_ptr<Object> objectPtr;
class Object{
private:
int *data;
public:
Object(int d);
Object(const Object &source);
~Object();
};
// One argument constructor
Object::Object(int d) {
data = new int;
*data = d;
}
//deep copy constructor
Object::Object(const Object &source) :Object(*source.data) {}
Object::~Object() {delete data;}
Object get_shallow(Object object) {
return object;
}
Object get_deep(Object object) {
return object;
}
int main(){
Object object1 {100};
get_deep(object1); //returns a deep copy of the object
get_shallow(object1); //returns a shallow copy of the object
return 0;
}

Answer 1

You can use a tag on the copy constructor to indicate it is making a shallow copy.
Note carefully that a shallow copy does not own the resources. So when the owner gets destructed, any shallow copy will have dangling pointers. That's a very fragile situation, and easily the source of bugs.
An alternative solution is to have a std::shared_ptr for the shared resources, and then those resources exist until all owners relinquish ownership (typically relinquishing ownership upon destruction, but could be that they change ownership over the lifecycle of the entity object).
Regardless, here's an example of shallow copy constructor.
#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::ostream;
class Object {
int* data;
bool delete_data = true;
public:
enum Shallow_tag { shallow };
~Object();
Object(int d);
Object(Object const&); // DEEP copy.
Object(Object const&, Shallow_tag); // SHALLOW copy.
bool is_shallow() const { return !delete_data; }
auto get_data() const -> int* { return data; }
};
Object::~Object() { if (delete_data) delete data; }
// One argument constructor
Object::Object(int d) : data{new int(d)} { }
//deep copy constructor
Object::Object(Object const& other) : Object(*other.data) {}
// shallow copy
Object::Object(Object const& other, Shallow_tag) : data{other.data}, delete_data{false} {}
Object get_shallow(Object const& object) {
return Object(object, Object::shallow);
}
Object get_deep(Object object) {
return object;
}
ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, Object const& obj) {
out << (obj.is_shallow() ? "shallow" : "deep") << " ";
auto d = obj.get_data();
if (d) out << "data:" << *d;
else out << "data:(null)";
return out;
}
int main() {
auto object1 = Object{100};
auto obj2 = get_deep(object1); //returns a deep copy of the object
auto obj3 = get_shallow(object1); //returns a shallow copy of the object
cout << "obj2 is " << obj2 << "\n";
cout << "obj3 is " << obj3 << "\n";
}
UPDATE: using shared_ptr for the data.
Of course, an int as shared data is probably a bit silly. But for the purposes of an example it is illustrative of whatever the data payload type.
#include <iostream>
#include <memory>
using std::cout;
using std::make_shared;
using std::ostream;
using std::shared_ptr;
class Object {
shared_ptr<int> data;
public:
Object(int d);
auto get_data() const -> int* { return data.get(); }
};
Object::Object(int d) : data{make_shared<int>(d)} { }
auto operator<<(ostream& out, Object const& obj) -> ostream& {
auto d = obj.get_data();
if (d) out << "data:" << *d;
else out << "data:(null)";
return out;
}
Object get_copy(Object o) {
return o;
}
int main() {
auto object1 = Object{100};
auto obj2 = get_copy(object1);
auto obj3 = get_copy(object1);
cout << "obj2 is " << obj2 << "\n"; // 100
cout << "obj3 is " << obj3 << "\n"; // 100
*object1.get_data() = 5;
cout << "obj2 is " << obj2 << "\n"; // 5
cout << "obj3 is " << obj3 << "\n"; // 5
obj2 = Object{75};
cout << "obj2 is " << obj2 << "\n"; // 75
cout << "obj3 is " << obj3 << "\n"; // 5
}