List of items, in c++ - c++

Question

http://ideone.com/UlHrxS
I made a list of items and i don't know what i did wrong. Please correct me and post the link from ideone. I tried to make a list of game objects in a array but it doesn't work.
Thanks.
#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
using namespace std;
class item{
private:
public:
item(){
//constructor
}
int id;
};
class sword:public item{
private:
public:
int damage;
string type = "Sword";
};
class potion:public item{
private:
public:
int PlusHealth;
string type = "Potion";
};
class shield:public item{
private:
public:
int armor;
string type = "Shield";
};
int main()
{
item *v[10];
bool run = true;
int aux;
int i = 0;
while(run == true && i<10) {
cout << "1- Sword 2-Shield 3-Potion -- ";
cin >> aux;
switch(aux){
case 1: v[i] = new sword;
cout << "Sword created!\n";
break;
case 2: v[i] = new shield;
cout << "Shield created!\n";
break;
case 3: v[i] = new potion;
cout << "Potion created!\n";
break;
default: run = false;
break;
}
i++;
}
system("cls");
cout << "List of items: \n";
for(int x=0;x=i-1;x++){
cout << v[x]->type;
if(type=="Sword"){
cout << " Damage: " << v[x].damage;
} else if(type=="Shield"){
cout << " Armor: " << v[x].armor;
} else if(type=="Potion") << v[x].PlusHealth;
}
return 0;
}

Answer 1

You are breaking some concepts here.
You have vector of pointers to parent class, item. You should only use the methods and members in the item class.
This is not proper implementation:
for(int x=0;x=i-1;x++){
cout << v[x]->type;
if(type=="Sword"){
cout << " Damage: " << v[x].damage;
} else if(type=="Shield"){
cout << " Armor: " << v[x].armor;
} else if(type=="Potion") << v[x].PlusHealth;
}
Try adding something like this:
class Item
{
public:
// A generic function for child classes to print
// their specific details.
virtual void print_details(std::ostream& out) const = 0;
};
class Sword : public Item
{
public:
void print_details(std::ostream& out) const
{
out << " Damage: " << damage << "\n";
}
};
class Shield : public Item
{
public:
void print_details(std::ostream& out) const
{
out << " Armor: " << armor << "\n";
}
};
class Potion : public Item
{
public:
void print_details(std::ostream& out) const
{
out << " Health: " << PlusHealth << "\n";
}
};
//...
for (unsigned int x = 0; x < v.size(); ++x)
{
cout << "\n"
<< v[x]->type
<< "\n";
// Get the child to print the specifics.
v[x]->print_details(cout);
}
The key point is that you can only access item methods and members directly. You can create item methods, that the child classes will need to implement, for specialized behavior. In the above case, printing specific details.
The item base class contains common methods and members for each child. Keep the concept generic and remember that container of items should be treated generically.

Answer 2

Thanks!, but if i want to access set and get functions of derived classes from the base class ? How i can do that generically? because i have different attributes on every item
Example: v[1].setPlusHealth it works because v[1] is a potion but v[1].setArmor it doesn't work because isn't a armor. How i can do that ?