Discerning between struct indexing and size initialization - c++

Question

I'm trying to write a function that takes an array of structs and will sort the elements of the array alphabetically by accessing the first data member. I'm struggling to get the code to distinguish between when I'm referring to a data member versus initializing the size of an array. For example, the following code
void selectionSort(struct A[], int size)
{
int mindex;
for (int ct1 = 0; ct1 < size - 1; ct1++)
{
mindex = ct1;
for (int ct2 = ct1 + 1; ct2 < size; ct2++)
if (A[ct2].state < A[mindex].state)
mindex = ct2;
swap(A[mindex], A[ct1]);
}
}
complains that ct2 is not constant, when I'm clearly using it as an index. How would I get this to run correctly? That is, how can I get it to compare data members in their respective indices rather than think I'm initializing the size of a struct variable?
Edit The error message I am receiving is expression must have a constant value for the variable ct2.

Answer 1

I think you might have a problem with how you're creating your function. Usually, when you declare an array of structs it looks like this.
struct Student {
int uid;
string name;
};
Student studentArry[3];
You would use 'Student' or the name of your struct to initialize your array. For example, int arr[10] is an integer array of size 10 while Student arr[10] is a student array of size 10.
One other side note, if you're trying to create a function that is passed a struct you have to initialize the struct before you define the function. This code will work because the struct was declared before the function was.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
struct Student {
int uid;
string name;
};
void print(Student array[], int size){
for(int i = 0; i < size; i++){
cout << array[i].uid << endl;
cout <<array[i].name<< endl;
}
};
int main(){
Student StudentRecords[2] = {
{19, "John Smith"},
{21, "Jim Pop"}
};
print(StudentRecords, 2);
return 0;
}
The code below will not because the print function doesn't know what type student is.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void print(Student array[], int size){
for(int i = 0; i < size; i++){
cout << array[i].uid << endl;
cout <<array[i].name<< endl;
}
};
int main(){
struct Student {
int uid;
string name;
};
Student StudentRecords[2] = {
{19, "John Smith"},
{21, "Jim Pop"}
};
print(StudentRecords, 2);
return 0;
}
So, all in all, I think you need to change how you're creating the parameter for the function and possible where you're declaring your struct.