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However, constructors do not offer the same protection. Because a constructor is involved in allocating resources, it does not automatically free any resources it allocates if it terminates prematurely. The C++ Standard, [except.ctor], paragraph 2 [ISO/IEC 14882-2014], states:
An object of any storage duration whose initialization or destruction is terminated by an exception will have destructors executed for all of its fully constructed subobjects (excluding the variant members of a union-like class), that is, for subobjects for which the principal constructor (12.6.2) has completed execution and the destructor has not yet begun execution. Similarly, if the non-delegating constructor for an object has completed execution and a delegating constructor for that object exits with an exception, the object’s destructor will be invoked. If the object was allocated in a new-expression, the matching deallocation function (3.7.4.2, 5.3.4, 12.5), if any, is called to free the storage occupied by the object.
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| [Cline 2009] | Question 17.2, I'm still not convinced: A 4-line code snippet shows that return-codes aren't any worse than exceptions; |
| [ISO/IEC 14882-2014] | Subclause 15.2, "Constructors and Destructors" |
| [Meyers 96] | Item 9, "Use Destructors to Prevent Resource Leaks" |
| [Stroustrup 2001] | "Exception-Safe Implementation Techniques" |
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