C ++ pod initialization by default c'tor

Question

Consider this POD:

struct T { int i; char c; }; 

In which C ++ standard did POD elements need to be initialized to zero through the default c'tor (or was it in the standards from the very beginning)?

Yes, this means that without c'tor specified by the user, "i" and "c" will both be initialized to 0. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/80ks028k%28VS.80% 29.aspx

Answer 1

I do not know if I understood your question correctly or not.

that is, without c'tor specified by the user, 'i' and 'c' will be initialized to 0.

Not necessary.

For instance:

 T x; // `i` and `c` are uninitialized T *ptr = new T; // `i` and `c` are uninitialized T *pptr = new T(); //`i` and `c` are zero initialized as `T()` implies value initialization T x(); // x is a function returning a type T and taking no arguments. 

To be precise, value initialization (C ++ 03 Section $ 8.5 / 5) is what you are looking for. It was introduced in C ++ 03.

Answer 2

What you are talking about is correctly called value initialization. It was introduced in C ++ 03 (it is defined in §8.5 / 5 if you want to see the details).