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C++ Brain Teasers: Exercise Your Mind

Discussion: A Strong Point

Explore the concept of strong typing in C++ through the Player and Points example. Understand how direct and copy initialization differ, and why marking single-argument constructors as explicit helps avoid subtle bugs. Learn to use strong types for clearer, safer code and how implicit conversions work in constructor calls.

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Run the code

Now, it’s time to execute the code and observe the output.

C++ 17
#include <iostream>
struct Points
{
    Points(int value) : value_(value) {}
    int value_;
};
struct Player
{
    explicit Player(Points points) : points_(points) {}
    Points points_;
};
int main()
{
    Player player(3);
    std::cout << player.points_.value_;
}

Strong typing

The Player struct has a points_ member to keep track of the player’s points. Instead of using a fundamental type like int for this, we use a custom type Points ...