What are Constructors and Destructors?

There are two special class methods which you may optionally add to a class. They meet a very specific need: automatic initialization when an object is created, and cleanup when an object is destroyed. Technically, they are known as constructor and destructor methods, and can perform almost any functionality needed by your object: initialization of variables, reading/writing data to/from disk, etc. You do not call these methods directly from your code. If they are present in your class, PowerBASIC automatically calls them each time an object of that class is created or destroyed. If you choose to use them, these special class methods must be named CREATE and DESTROY. They may take no parameters, and may not return a result. They are defined at the class level, so they may never appear within an INTERFACE definition.

CLASS MyClass

INSTANCE MyVar AS LONG

CLASS METHOD CREATE()

' Do initialization

END METHOD

CLASS METHOD Destroy()

' Do cleanup

END METHOD

INTERFACE MyInterface

INHERIT IUNKNOWN

METHOD MyMethod()

' Do things

END METHOD

END INTERFACE

END CLASS

As displayed above, CREATE and DESTROY must be placed at the class level, before any INTERFACE definitions. You should note that it's not possible to name any standard method (one that's accessible through an interface) as CREATE or DESTROY. That's just to help you remember the rules for a constructor or destructor. However, you may use these names as needed to describe a method external to your program.

A very important caution: You must never create an object of the current class in a CREATE method. To do so will cause CREATE to be executed again and again until all available memory is consumed. This is a fatal error, from which recovery is impossible.