c++ vector's member are not updating - c++

Question

Im trying to write a adjacency matrix representation using vectors of integer vectors , therefore vector> . However when I add members to the vector and later try and print those values nothing has changed. Most likely it has to do with "pass by value" however I have used "pass by reference" to the best of my knowledge.
Here is my header:
#ifndef GRAPH_MATRIX
#define GRAPH_MATRIX
#include <vector>
//header for graph represented via adjacency matrix with minimal functionality
class graph
{
public:
graph(int);
~graph();
void add_edge(int v1, int v2, int weight);
void print_graph();
private:
std::vector<std::vector<int>> vertex_matrix;
int num_of_vertices;
int num_of_edges;
};
#endif
the cpp implementation file:
#include <iostream>
#include "graph_matrix.h"
#include <climits>
using namespace std;
//header for graph represented via adjacency matrix with minimal functionality
graph::graph(int _num_of_vertices) : num_of_vertices(_num_of_vertices)
{
if (_num_of_vertices==0)
{
_num_of_vertices=10;
}
for (int i = 0; i < _num_of_vertices; i++)
{
vertex_matrix.push_back(vector<int> (_num_of_vertices,INT_MAX));
}
}
graph::~graph()
{
vertex_matrix.clear();
}
void graph::add_edge(int v1, int v2, int weight)
{
//vertex_matrix[v1-1][v2-1] == INT_MAX
vector<int> columnVector = vertex_matrix[v1-1];
if (columnVector[v2-1] == INT_MAX)
{
columnVector[v2-1] = weight;
}
}
void graph::print_graph()
{
for (int i=0; i< vertex_matrix.size(); i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < vertex_matrix.size(); j++)
{
//vertex_matrix[i][j]
std::vector<int> columnVector = vertex_matrix[i];
if (columnVector[j] != INT_MAX)
{
std::cout << columnVector[j] ;
}
else
{
std::cout << "0";
}
}
std::cout << endl;
}//end for printing
}
the main entry:
#include <iostream>
#include "graph_matrix.h"
using namespace std;
int main ()
{
std::cout << " Matrix representation of graph" << std::endl;
graph _graph(4);
_graph.add_edge(1,2,1);
_graph.add_edge(2,3,1);
_graph.add_edge(3,1,1);
_graph.add_edge(3,3,1);
_graph.add_edge(3,4,1);
_graph.add_edge(4,0,0);
_graph.print_graph();
}
When I use the print function I currently getting 0's.
How can I make this proper pass by reference, and have the updated values print.
Thanks

Answer 1

As stated in the comments, you are creating a copy of your column and then modifying the copy. What you want to do is to make a reference to it.
vector<int>& columnVector = vertex_matrix[v1-1];
if (columnVector[v2-1] == INT_MAX)
{
columnVector[v2-1] = weight;
}
Or you can access the element directly.
if (vertex_matrix[v1-1][v2-1] == INT_MAX)
{
vertex_matrix[v1-1][v2-1] = weight;
}
In print_graph you are doing the same, but here you are not modifying anything so that works, but you are making an unnecessary copy for no reason which is not ideal.
A last point is that you are calling vertex_matrix.clear() in your destructor. This is redundant, when the vector goes out of scope it will clear itself up, so you don't need to manage that.