C++/WinRT treats runtime classes similar to C# reference types. Copying a C++/WinRT runtime class copies a reference to the underlying object. You can null out the reference by assigning nullptr to it.

On the other hand, C++ constructors don’t use the new keyword; the new keyword has a different meaning which doesn’t apply to Windows Runtime classes.

This means that C++ constructors have to do double-duty: They can be used to construct new objects, or they can be used as copy constructors or conversion constructors.

Constructors that actually, y’know, create new objects are represented as traditional C++ constructors.

C++/WinRT also injects additional constructors into each runtime class. One is the copy constructor, and another is the conversion constructor from nullptr.

If you had a class that has a default constructor, or could construct from an integer, you would write it something like this:

class Thing
{
public:
    Thing();
    explicit Thing(int capacity);
};

The C++/WinRT version looks similar, but with additional constructors:

class Thing
{
public:
    Thing();
    explicit Thing(int capacity);
    Thing(std::nullptr_t);
    Thing(Thing const&) = default;
    Thing(const&&) = default;
};

(If you look at the C++/WinRT headers, you won’t see the default constructors. They simply are generated automatically by the compiler.)

The first injected constructor is the conversion constructor from nullptr. The second and third are the copy and move copy constructors, which copy or move the reference to the underlying object.

// default constructor, creates an object
Thing t1;

// explicit constructor, creates an object
Thing t2{ 42 }; 

// conversion from nullptr, creates an empty reference
Thing t3{ nullptr };
Thing t4 = nullptr;

// copy constructor, copies reference to object
Thing t5{ t1 };
Thing t6 = t1;

// move copy constructor, moves reference to object
Thing t5{ std::move(t1) };
Thing t6 = std::move(t1);

This conflation of reference construction and object construction can be confusing. For example, you might forget that the default constructor creates an object:

class Something
{
private:
    Thing m_thing;
};

This constructs a brand new Thing object when the Something constructs. If you wanted to start with an empty reference, you need to initialize m_thing with nullptr.

class Something
{
private:
    Thing m_thing = nullptr;
};

When designing your own runtime classes, you may want to avoid having a constructor whose single parameter is the same as the type being constructed, because that would conflict with the copy constructor.

runtimeclass Thing
{
  Thing(Thing parent);
}

This would result in two conflicting projections into C++/WinRT. Would

// assuming t1 is a Thing
Thing t2{ t1 };

be an attempt to construct a brand new Thing, using t1 as the constructor parameter? Or would it be an attempt to copy the reference to the same underlying Thing object?

You can work around this by using a static function that acts like a constructor.

runtimeclass Thing
{
  static Thing CreateFromParent(Thing parent);
}

Or by changing it to a method on the parent.

runtimeclass Thing
{
  Thing CreateChild();
}

There is also an ambiguity if you have a constructor that takes a single reference type, and it’s possible for that reference to be null.

runtimeclass ChildThing
{
  // parent=null means create parentless
  ChildThing(ParentThing parent);
}

In this case, you might be tempted to create a new parentless ChildThing object by saying this:

ChildThing child{ nullptr };

Unfortunately, this actually invokes the conversion constructor from nullptr. To construct a new parentless ChildThing, you need to write

ChildThing child{ ParentThing{ nullptr } };

A cleaner workaround is to provide a default constructor that creates a parentless ChildThing.

runtimeclass ChildThing
{
  ChildThing(); // create parentless
  ChildThing(ParentThing parent); // creates with parent
}