behavior ("shallow copy") is actually the intended one, then an explicit definition, although redundant, will be "self-documenting code" indicating that it was an intention rather than an oversight. Modern C++ includes a syntax for expressly specifying that a default function is desired without having to type out the function body. Rule of five With the advent of C++11 the rule of three can be broadened to the rule of five (also known as "the rule of the big five") as C++11 implements move semantics, allowing destination objects to grab (or steal) data from temporary objects. The following example also shows the new moving members: move constructor and move assignment operator. Consequently, for the rule of five we have the following special members: destructor copy constructor copy assignment operator move constructor move assignment operator Situations exist where classes may need destructors, but cannot sensibly implement copy and move constructors and copy and move assignment operators. This happens, for example, when the base class does not support these latter Big Four members, but the derived class's constructor allocates memory for its own use. In C++11, this can be simplified by explicitly specifying the five members as default. See also C++ classes Class (computer programming) References C++ Computer programming folklore Software engineering folklore Articles with example C++ code