Use delegating constructors to represent common actions for all constructors of a class

Reason

To avoid repetition and accidental differences.

Example, bad

class Date {   // BAD: repetitive
    int d;
    Month m;
    int y;
public:
    Date(int dd, Month mm, year yy)
        :d{dd}, m{mm}, y{yy}
        { if (!valid(d, m, y)) throw Bad_date{}; }

    Date(int dd, Month mm)
        :d{dd}, m{mm} y{current_year()}
        { if (!valid(d, m, y)) throw Bad_date{}; }
    // ...
};

The common action gets tedious to write and might accidentally not be common.

Example

class Date2 {
    int d;
    Month m;
    int y;
public:
    Date2(int dd, Month mm, year yy)
        :d{dd}, m{mm}, y{yy}
        { if (!valid(d, m, y)) throw Bad_date{}; }

    Date2(int dd, Month mm)
        :Date2{dd, mm, current_year()} {}
    // ...
};

See also: If the "repeated action" is a simple initialization, consider a default member initializer.

Enforcement

(Moderate) Look for similar constructor bodies.