SoPlex

Data objects refer to C++ objects that do not allocate any resources, particularly that do not allocate any memory. This makes them behave just like ordinary C structures, in that both, the copy constructor and assignment operator are equivalent to a memcopy of the memory taken by the object. Examples for data objects are all builtin types such as int or double or simple classes such as complex.

We distinguish data objects from general C++ objects that may include some allocation of resources. (Note that for general C++ objects that do allocate resources, this must be respected by providing appropriate copy constructor and assignment operators.) An example for a general C++ class is class DataArray.

The distinction between data and general C++ objects becomes relevant when using such objects in container classes such as DataArray or Array.