Setter not changing the data from a vector within a class - c++

Question

In my program, I have a class that holds a vector of type integer. It is used to store distances. I have a function, that when called, should set values in the vector to 0's. (used for initializing). But when I go to check the size of the vector, it still says the vector is empty.
I have created multiple functions that check whether the vector is adding any elements, and it is not. I have a function, that within main, I call to see if the vector is empty, and it returns 0 (the vector has 0 elements in it).
int MLB::getDistanceSize()
{
return distances.size();
}
void MLB::setInitialDistances(int size)
{
for(int i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
this->distances.push_back(0);
}
}
class MLB
{
public:
//constructor
MLB();
~MLB();
int getDistanceSize();
void setInitialDistances(int size);
private:
vector<int> distances;
};
The input file is a csv file with each line consisting of:
stadium1,stadium2,distance
so sample input file is:
AT&T Park,Safeco Field,680
AT&T Park,Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum,50
Angel Stadium,Petco Park,110
Angel Stadium,Dodger Stadium,50
Busch Stadium,Minute Maid Park,680
Busch Stadium,Great American Ball Park,310
Busch Stadium,Target Field,465
Busch Stadium,Kauffman Stadium,235
etc...
I am using qt, and this is where I am calling the functions themselves. All information is stored into a map, and the other getters work perfectly fine. Sorry for making this a lot more confusing than the problem really is, any help is greatly appreciated.
// key and value, key is the team name, value is the MLB stadium information
struct entry
{
string key;
MLB value;
};
class Map
{
public:
//Public default constructor
Map();
//Public default destructor
~Map();
// returns entry of the map
entry atIndex(int index);
// Inserts a key and its value using linear algorithm
void insert(const string& theKey, const MLB& value);
private:
vector<entry> thisTable;
int currentSize; //Integer variable for current size
};
functions for Map:
Map::Map()
{
currentSize = 0;
}
Map::~Map()
{
}
void Map::insert(const string& theKey, const MLB& value)
{
entry thisEntry;
thisEntry.key = theKey;
thisEntry.value = value;
thisTable.push_back(thisEntry);
currentSize+=1;
}
entry Map::atIndex(int index)
{
return thisTable.at(index);
}
//mainwindow constructor
mainWindow::mainWindow()
{
//Reads in input from first csv file, all works fine all data stored and can access it
string iStadium1;
string iStadium2;
string iDistance;
string previous;
int distance;
int index1;
int index2;
bool found;
ifstream csvFile2;
csvFile2.open("inputDistance.csv");
getline(csvFile2, iStadium1, ',');
while(!csvFile2.eof())
{
index1 = 0;
found = false;
while(!found)
{
if(thisMap.atIndex(index1).value.getStadiumName() == iStadium1)
{
thisMap.atIndex(index1).value.setInitialDistances(thisMap.mapSize());
cout << "Distance Size Test 1: " << thisMap.atIndex(index1).value.getDistanceSize() << endl;
found = true;
}
else
{
index1++;
}
}
previous = iStadium1;
while(iStadium1 == previous)
{
getline(csvFile2, iStadium2, ',');
getline(csvFile2, iDistance, '\n');
distance = stoi(iDistance);
index2 = 0;
found = false;
while(!found)
{
if(thisMap.atIndex(index2).value.getStadiumName() == iStadium2)
{
found = true;
cout << "Distance Size Test 2: " << thisMap.atIndex(index1).value.getDistanceSize() << endl;
// crashes here. Index out of bounds, size is 0 for some reason
thisMap.atIndex(index1).value.setDistance(index2, distance);
}
else
{
index2++;
}
}
getline(csvFile2, iStadium1, ',');
}
}
csvFile2.close();
}
I expect the vector to hold 30 slots (assuming the desired size passed into the function is 30) of value 0, rather than having an empty vector.

Answer 1

The code in your question works as expected after adding constructor and destructor (doing both nothing) :
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
class MLB
{
public:
//constructor
MLB();
~MLB();
int getDistanceSize();
void setInitialDistances(int size);
private:
vector<int> distances;
};
int MLB::getDistanceSize()
{
return distances.size();
}
void MLB::setInitialDistances(int size)
{
for(int i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
this->distances.push_back(0);
}
}
MLB::MLB() {
}
MLB::~MLB() {
}
int main()
{
MLB mlb;
mlb.setInitialDistances(30);
cout << mlb.getDistanceSize() << endl;
}
pi#raspberrypi:/tmp $ g++ d.cc
pi#raspberrypi:/tmp $ ./a.out
30
the vector is not empty but contains 30 times 0
if thisMap.atIndex(index1).value.setDistance(index2, distance); does nothing this is probably because atIndex(index1) returns a copy rather than a reference, so you modify a copy and the original is unchanged
For instance :
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
class C {
public:
vector<int> getv() { return v; } // return a copy
vector<int> & getvref() { return v; } // return the ref to the vector, not a copy
int len() { return v.size(); }
private:
vector<int> v;
};
int main()
{
C c;
c.getv().push_back(0); // modify a copy of v
cout << c.len() << endl;
c.getvref().push_back(0); // modify v
cout << c.len() << endl;
}
Compilation and execution :
pi#raspberrypi:/tmp $ g++ vv.cc
pi#raspberrypi:/tmp $ ./a.out
0
1
you edited you question and this is what I supposed :
entry Map::atIndex(int index)
{
return thisTable.at(index);
}
return a copy, must be
entry & Map::atIndex(int index)
{
return thisTable.at(index);
}