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POImplementing copy assignment operator for Point class
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copied!<p>Consider a point class, with declarations like:</p> <pre><code>// Point.h class Point { public: Point(); // Default constructor Point(const Point & p); // Copy constructor Point & operator=(Point source); // Copy assignment operator, needs implemented ~Point(); // Destructor // ... private: double m_x; // X coordinate double m_y; // Y coordinate }; </code></pre> <p>For the homework, the only thing I have left to implement is the copy assignment operator.<br> The canonical answer for how to do this is the <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3279543/what-is-the-copy-and-swap-idiom">copy-and-swap idiom</a>. </p> <p>Using the swap function for copy assignment solves one problem and creates another (how to implement the swap function).</p> <p>While I don't feel a need to provide a swap function, I wouldn't know how best to implement swap anyway. Is it to specialize <a href="http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/algorithm/swap" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>std::swap</code></a>? I know about neither namespaces nor template specialization yet.</p> <p>Formally, my question is two-fold:</p> <ol> <li>How should copy assignment be implemented? If it uses a swap function, how should I implement that?</li> <li>In the wild, would I simply not write the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_three_%28C++_programming%29" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Big Three members</a>, as the <code>Point</code> class is simply two numbers? Will the compiler write the operations correctly and optimally?</li> </ol>

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