< programming > 1. In functional programming and type theory , one of the symbols used to create an object with an algebraic data type .
2. A function provided by a class in C++ and some other object-oriented languages to instantiate an object, i.e. to name it and initialise it. The constructor function has the same name as the class. A class may also have a destructor function to destroy objects of that class.
(1994-10-20)