On Sun, 19 Nov 2006 17:47:55 +0000, "Martin Waller" <martinej.waller@ntlworld.com> said:

Implementation #1: MyClass::MyClass() { init(); }

void MyClass::init() { spOther(new someOtherClass(this)); }

Implementation #2: MyClass::MyClass():spOther(new someOtherClass(this)) { }

Question:

Why does implementation #2 fail to compile with the error:

error: no match for call to '(boost::shared_ptr<someOtherClass>)(someOtherClass*)' ?

yet implementation #2 compiles fine?

Please help me understand what going on here...is it possible to get implementation #2 to compile or is it 'bad code'?

(Your references are mixed up here - I'm assuming implementation #1 is the problematic one.) Implementation #2 should work - you're using the constructor's initialiser list to assign to the spOther member, using the shared_ptr's constructor. Implementation #1 attempts to call a method of the shared_ptr type with a parameter of type someOtherClass* (as returned by new). shared_ptr doesn't have any method matching that signature so the compiler gives an error. A more correct implementation of init would be: void MyClass::init() { // either spOther = shared_ptr<someOtherClass>(new someOtherClass(this)); // or spOther.reset(new someOtherClass(this)); } Dave. -- Dave Slutzkin Melbourne, Australia daveslutzkin@fastmail.fm