single colin ":" operator name?

[kbarrett]

Hopefully an easy question.

boxType::boxType(double l, double w, double h)
: rectangleType(l, w)
{
if (h >= 0)
height = h;
else
height = 0;
}

In that code, the class boxType is inheriting rectangleType. The above code is a constructor for boxType, that is passing l and w to it's base class rectangleType. Here is the question... what is the NAME used to refer to the single colin operator that is being used to call the rectangleType constructor?

Thanks

[rpgfan3233]

The single colon signifies the beginning of an initialization list. If boxType inherits rectangleType, it is calling the necessary constructor for rectangleType.

[kbarrett]

but what is the NAME used when I talk about the single colin?

[jsmith]

It is the name of the base class that is being initialized.

ie, it is calling the following constructor:

rectangleType::rectangleType( double, double )

[rpgfan3233]

As far as I can tell, it was not given a name. It is simply used to delimit the beginning of an initialization list.