Constructor Question

[turtlesavage]

What is the point of the portion after the single ":"? If I were to put "Person::Person(string firstname, string lastname, int arbitraryNumber)", would I need the second part?

  Person::Person(string first, string last, int arbitrary)
       : firstname(first), lastname(last), arbitraryNumber(arbitrary)

[keskiverto]

Member initializer lists. See http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/initializer_list

The point is the ability to pass parameters to the constructors of the members of the class.

Yes, you want it.

[turtlesavage]

Can I name them the same thing? For instance:

Person::Person(string first, string last, int arbitrary)
: first(first), last(last), arbitrary(arbitrary)

[keskiverto]

See "Scope Issues" in http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/initialization-lists-c++.html

[turtlesavage]

Thank you.

The links you provided me have a lot of good information that was relevant to my question.