Last function not displaying correct output - c++

Question

I am not getting the expected output for the program that I have coded, I know that the implementation for the last function is incorrect. I don't know how to implement this so that it returns the last entry into the array, and doesn't remove it. The second question that I have is on the pop_back function, its supposed to remove last entry pushed into the vector and reduce it by one, and if it's empty do nothing. The way it is now it just reduces the vector by one. Thanks for your help in advance.
Driver
#include <iostream>
#include "vectorHeader.h"
using namespace std;
int main()
{
const char START = 'A';
const int MAX = 12;
// create a vector of doubles
myVector<char> vectD;
// push some values into the vector
for (int i = 0; i < MAX; i++)
{
vectD.push_back(START + i);
}
// remove the last element
vectD.pop_back();
// add another value
vectD.push_back('Z');
// test memory management
myVector<char> vectD2 = vectD;
// display the contents
cout << "\n[";
for (int i = 0; i < vectD2.size() - 1; i++)
{
cout << vectD2[i] << ", ";
}
cout << "..., " << vectD2.last() << "]\n";
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}
Header
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <fstream>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <array>
//Declaring constant
const int VECTOR_CAP = 2;
template <class T>
class myVector
{
private:
//Setting data members
T* vectorData;
int cap;
int numElements;
public:
//Default constructor
//Purpose: Creates a vector
//Parameters: None
//Returns: None
myVector();
//Parameterized constructor
//Purpose: Creates a vector capacity of n
//Parameters: None
//Returns: None
myVector(const T&);
//Copy Constructor
//Purpose: Copy data into vector
//Parameters: myVector object
//Returns: None
myVector(const myVector& copy)
{
numElements = copy.numElements;
vectorData = new T [numElements];
for (int i = 0; i < numElements; i++)
{
this->vectorData[i] = copy.vectorData[i];
}
}
//Destructor
//Purpose:Deletes any dynamically allocated storage
//Parameters: None
//Returns: None
~myVector();
//Size function
//Purpose: returns the size of your vector
//Parameters: None
//Returns: The size of your vector as an integer
int size() const;
//Capacity function
//Purpose: Returns the capacity of the vector
//Parameters: None
//Returns: Maximum value that your vector can hold
int capacity() const;
//Clear function
//Purpose: Deletes all of the elements from the vector and resets its size to
// zero and its capacity to two; thus becoming empty
//Parameters: None
//Returns: None
void clear();
//push_back function
//Purpose: Adds the integer value n to the end of the vector
//Parameters: Takes a integer to be placed in the vector
//Returns: None
void push_back(const T& n)
{
//If statement to handle if array is full
if (numElements == cap)
{
//Doubling the capacity
cap = cap * VECTOR_CAP;
//Allocating new array
T* newVectorData = new T[cap];
//Copying data
for (int i = 0; i < numElements; i++) newVectorData[i] = vectorData[i];
//Deleting previous data
delete[] vectorData;
//Pointing to new data
vectorData = newVectorData;
}
//Storing data
vectorData[numElements++] = n;
}
//at function
//Purpose: Returns the value of the element at position n in the vector
//Parameters: None
//Returns: Returns your current place with the vector
T& at(std::size_t);
//assignment
//Purpose: Overload the = operator
//Parameters: The two myVector objects we want to assign
//Returns: The assignment
myVector operator=(const myVector&);
void pop_back();
int last();
T& operator[](std::size_t);
};
//Independant Functions
template <typename T>
myVector<T>::myVector()
{
//Setting the cap
cap = VECTOR_CAP;
//Creating the array
vectorData = new T[cap];
//Initializing the value
numElements = 0;
}
template <typename T>
myVector<T>::~myVector()
{
cap = 0;
//Delete array elements
delete[] vectorData;
//Allocate vectorData
vectorData = NULL;
}
template <typename T>
int myVector<T>::size() const
{
return numElements;
}
template <typename T>
void myVector<T>::pop_back()
{
numElements--;
}
template <typename T>
int myVector<T>::last()
{
return cap;
}
template <typename T>
int myVector<T>::capacity() const
{
return cap;
}
template <typename T>
T& myVector<T>::at(std::size_t n)
{
return vectorData[n];
}
template <typename T>
T& myVector<T>::operator[](std::size_t n)
{
return vectorData[n];
}
template <typename T>
myVector<T> myVector<T>::operator=(const myVector& rho)
{
//Test for assingment
if (this == &rho)
{
return *this;
}
//Delete lho
delete[] this->vectorData;
//Creating new array to fit rho data
cap = rho.cap;
this->vectorData = new int[cap];
//Copying data
for (int i = 0; i < numElements; i++)
{
this->vectorData[i] = rho.vectorData[i];
}
//Returning myVector object
return *this;
}
template <typename T>
std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& out, const myVector<T>& rho)
{
for (int n = 0; n < rho.size(); n++)
{
out << rho.at(n);
}
return out;
}

Answer 1

The last function should look like this:
template <typename T>
T myVector<T>::last()
{
return vectorData[numElements - 1];
}
A function that returns an element from the vector should have the return type the type of the vector elements, i.e. T in your case.
cout has different overloads for char and int. For char it prints the ASCII character of the code provided, for int it returns the code itself. So if your last element is Z and you return an int it would print the ASCII code of Z that is 90.
try this to get a sense of what I am saying:
cout << 'Z' << endl;
cout << (char) 'Z' << endl; // tautological cast as 'Z' is char
cout << (int) 'Z' << endl;
cout << 90 << endl;
cout << (int) 90 << endl; // tautological cast as 90 is int
cout << (char) 90 << endl;
As for pop_back all you have to do is:
if (numElements > 0)
numElements--;
Reason: there is no such thing as deleting memory. A cell of memory always has a value (be it one you set, 0, 1 or garbage). All you have to do is mark it as being available (or not used). That's what you do when you shrink numElements.
If you want to go a step further you could do the opposite of push_back, i.e. relocate the whole vector to a smaller allocated buffer. But this is not advised as these operations (allocating, copying) are expensive and you can do without them (unlike pus_back where you have to get a bigger size)