Static vector as a class objects container - c++

Question

I've seen many questions and answers about this issue but still I can't solve my problem. How should I initialize a static vector? I'm also asking you for checking I use a default construct properly. I don't mean checking if it's working because I know that it does. I just wonder if it is an elegant implementation?
class Employee
{
private:
static std::vector<Employee> employee;
std::string name;
int age;
Employee::Employee()
{
std::string localName;
int localAge;
std::cout << "So... do you want to hire a new employee? Let's look at CVs " << std::endl;
localName = "Marek"; //GenerateName();
localAge = 21; //these function is not ready yet. it'd be just a rand()
std::cout << "I've got one. What do u think about " << localName << " age " << localAge << "?" << std::endl;
int decision;
do
{
std::cout << "Do you want hire him [1] or not [2] ? " << std::endl;
std::cin >> decision;
switch (decision)
{
case 1:
name = localName;
age = localAge;
decision = 0;
break;
case 2:
employees.erase(employees.end());
decision = 0;
break;
default:
std::cout << "Incorrect option. Try again" << std::endl;
}
} while (decision != 0);
}
public:
static void Employ()
{
employees.push_back(Employee::Employee());
}
};
int main()
{
Employee::Employ();
system("pause");
}

Answer 1

Your code didn't work when I ran it. In addition to adding includes and fixing some typos, I had to add this line:
std::vector<Employee> Employee::employee;
However, I don't think this is the best solution. For sweet clarity's sake, an Employee shouldn't contain a vector of Employees, but should be, well, an employee. If you want a vector of employees, you can declare one in main (or elsewhere). If you want your vector of employees to have some added features like the interactive employee-adding function you wrote, you can do it like this:
class EmployeeForce: public std::vector<Employee>
{
void interactivelyAddEmployee ();
...
};
...
EmployeeForce myStaff;

Answer 2

I've changed entire the concept. The problem was that I unnecessary wanted to put inside the class the container of objects (in this case: std::vector). I know now that class should only contain informations about the single object; it shouldn't know about anything about others one.
class Employee
{
public:
std::string name;
int age;
};
std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& out, const std::vector<Employee>& v)
{
out << "[";
for (size_t i = 0; i < v.size(); ++i)
{
out << "Name: " << v[i].name << " age: " << v[i].age;
if (i != v.size() - 1)
out << ", ";
}
out << "]";
return out;
}
Employee generate_random_employee(Employee obj)
{
obj.name = "Marek"; //GenerateName();
obj.age = 21; //these function is not ready yet. it'd be just a rand()
return obj;
}
int main()
{
int decision;
std::string name;
std::vector<Employee> employees;
Employee some_new_employee;
std::cout << "Welcome mrs. manager. What do you want to do today, sir?" << std::endl << std::endl;
do
{
std::cout << "Hire sombody [1], Fire somebody [2], Exit [0] " << std::endl;
std::cin >> decision;
switch (decision)
{
case 1:
some_new_employee = generate_random_employee(some_new_employee);
if (should_i_employ(some_new_employee))
{
employees.push_back(some_new_employee);
}
break;
case 2:
std::cout << "Who do you want to fire?" << std::endl;
std::cin >> name;
if (is_the_employee_exist(employees, name))
{
if (are_u_sure())
{
}
}
else
std::cout << "" << std::endl;
break;
case 3:
std::cout << employees << std::endl;
break;
case 0:
std::cout << "Good bye, sir" << std::endl;
break;
default:
std::cout << "There is not these option. Try again " << std::endl;
}
} while (decision != 0);
system("pause");
}