C++, "canceling a construction"

Hi /prog/

My is simple, but perhaps not so frequent.

How should I stop a construction of an object (c++)?

Basically I have a class with some data members which must fulfill some requirements. Say we initialize these data members upon construction, if the supplied values were erroneous then I guess I want to stop construction and throw an error. Is this the right idea? How do I "cancel the construction"?

Help much appreciated :)

Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.