Passing an object to a method C++ - c++

Question

Sorry for grammar, not a native speaker.
So I've got an assignment to create a simple program where you should be able to create three people, pass in their name, country, occupation and phone number. You should be able to print out saved information as a spreadsheet.
So I came up with this kind of piece of code:
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;
class Person {
public:
string surname;
string name;
string country;
string occupation;
string phone;
// Set default value
Person() {
surname = "empty";
name = "empty";
country = "empty";
occupation = "empty";
phone = "empty";
}
// SET PERSON'S DATA
void set_surname(string entered_surname) {
surname = entered_surname;
}
void set_name(string entered_name) {
name = entered_name;
}
void set_country(string entered_country) {
country = entered_country;
}
void set_occupation(string entered_occupation) {
occupation = entered_occupation;
}
void set_phone(string entered_phone) {
phone = entered_phone;
}
// RETURN PERSONS DATA
string get_surname() {
return surname;
}
string get_name() {
return name;
}
string get_country() {
return country;
}
string get_occupation() {
return occupation;
}
string get_phone() {
return phone;
}
};
void create_a_frankenstein(Person person) {
string entered_data;
cout << "Please, enter person's surname: \n";
cin >> entered_data;
person.set_surname(entered_data);
cout << "Please, enter person's name: \n";
cin >> entered_data;
person.set_name(entered_data);
cout << "Please, enter person's country: \n";
cin >> entered_data;
person.set_country(entered_data);
cout << "Please, enter person's occupation: \n";
cin >> entered_data;
person.set_occupation(entered_data);
cout << "Please, enter person's phone: \n";
cin >> entered_data;
person.set_phone(entered_data);
}
int main() {
Person fst;
Person snd;
Person trd;
Person group[3] = {fst, snd, trd};
int people_created = 0;
bool switch_on = true;
while (switch_on) {
cout << "What operation would you like to perform: \n";
cout << " 1) Create new person \n";
cout << " 2) Print out all of the available information \n";
cout << " 3) Quit \n";
//Get the number of operation to perform
int operation;
cout << "Please, enter a number: \n";
cin >> operation;
switch (operation) {
//Option 1: create a person
case 1:
if (people_created == 3) {
cout << "It is not possible to create more that three people";
}
else {
create_a_frankenstein(group[people_created]);
people_created++;
}
break;
//Option 2: print out all of the available information
case 2:
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) cout << setw(20) << setfill(' ') << left << group[i].get_surname();
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) cout << setw(20) << setfill(' ') << left << group[i].get_name();
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) cout << setw(20) << setfill(' ') << left << group[i].get_country();
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) cout << setw(20) << setfill(' ') << left << group[i].get_occupation();
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) cout << setw(20) << setfill(' ') << left << group[i].get_phone();
break;
// Option 3: quit
case 3:
switch_on = false;
break;
}
}
}
Everything seem to work just fine. Except it doesn't change information in object's variables.
My guess is that when I pass a Person-type object to create_a_frankenstein(), method creates a copy of an object and starts working with a copy without changing anything in the original object.
I've tried to use pointer. I manage to do what I intend to on simplier examples:
void first(int* a){
for (int i = 0; i < 7; i++) {
a[i] = a[i]+1;
}
}
int main() {
int a[7] = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6};
for (int i=0; i<7; i++) {
cout << a[i] << ' ';
}
}
But when I try to use it in the Lab, it doesn't work as easily.
Will be glad to receive any advices on how to solve the problem and what topics I should brush up or look deeper in. Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Try to pass your Person objects by reference. You can find more here: passing object by reference in C++. Btw in your code example you don't call your function named 'first'.

Answer 2

The problem is on the void create_a_frankenstein(Person person) method.
You are passing a copy of the Person's object. If you want to keep the changes made to an object pass it as a reference: void create_a_frankenstein(Person& person)
Note:
Don't use arrays. Use std::vector instead if you want to store sequences of objects.
It would be nice if you define any getter member function as const --> return_type getter_name(params) const { //body here}