methods - Why do we need a constructor in OOP?

Question

I am new to OOP. I am still in a learning phase.

Why do we need constructors, When we can initialize the values of the properties (variables) by writing a "Initialize function"?

Basically why do we write a constructor when we can achieve the same results even by writing a function for initializing the variables?

Answer 1

The constructor IS the "Initialize function"

Rather than calling two functions

object = new Class;
object.initialize();

You just call

object = new Class();

The logic inside the constructor can be identical to the logic inside the initialize function, but it's much tidier and avoids you naming your function initialize(), me naming mine initialize_variables(), and someone else naming theirs init_vars()... consistency is useful.

If your constructor is very large, you may still wish to split variable initialisation into a separate function and calling that function from your constructor, but that's a specific exception to the scenario.