diff --git a/src/gretl/data_store.cpp b/src/gretl/data_store.cpp
index bfbaaaf..679092f 100644
--- a/src/gretl/data_store.cpp
+++ b/src/gretl/data_store.cpp
@@ -7,11 +7,16 @@
 #include <any>
 #include "data_store.hpp"
 #include "state.hpp"
+#include "wang_checkpoint_strategy.hpp"
 #include <iostream>
 #include <iomanip>
 
 namespace gretl {
 
+DataStore::DataStore(size_t checkpoint_budget) : DataStore(std::make_unique<WangCheckpointStrategy>(checkpoint_budget))
+{
+}
+
 DataStore::DataStore(std::unique_ptr<CheckpointStrategy> strategy) : checkpointStrategy_(std::move(strategy))
 {
   currentStep_ = 0;
diff --git a/src/gretl/data_store.hpp b/src/gretl/data_store.hpp
index 9e9955f..5f27bf0 100644
--- a/src/gretl/data_store.hpp
+++ b/src/gretl/data_store.hpp
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ struct defaultInitializeZeroDual {
 /// checkpointing state information, and its backpropagated sensitivities
 class DataStore {
  public:
+  /// @brief Backward-compat constructor using a Wang checkpoint budget.
+  explicit DataStore(size_t checkpoint_budget);
+
   /// @brief Constructor requiring a checkpoint strategy.
   /// @param strategy a checkpoint strategy implementation (e.g., WangCheckpointStrategy,
   /// StrummWaltherCheckpointStrategy)