Vector cannot be overwritten - c++

Question

I'm trying to write a program for university. The goal of the program is to make a nurse schedule for a hospital. However, i'm really stuck for the moment. Below you can find one function of the program.
The input for the function is a roster which consists of the shift each nurse has to perform on each day. In this example, we have 32 rows (32 nurses) and 28 columns (representing 28 days). Each cell contains a number from 0 to 6, indicating a day off (0) or a certain shift (1 to 6).
The function should calculate for each day, how many nurses are scheduled for a certain shift. For example, on the first day, there are 8 nurses which perform shift 2, 6 shift 3 and so forth. The output of the function is a double vector.
I think the function is mostly correct but when I call it for different rosters the program always gives the first roster gave.
void calculate_nbr_nurses_per_shift(vector<vector<int>> roster1)
{
for (int i = 0; i < get_nbr_days(); i++)
{
vector<int> nurses_per_shift;
int nbr_nurses_free = 0;
int nbr_nurses_shift1 = 0;
int nbr_nurses_shift2 = 0;
int nbr_nurses_shift3 = 0;
int nbr_nurses_shift4 = 0;
int nbr_nurses_shift5 = 0;
int nbr_nurses_shift6 = 0;
for (int j = 0; j < get_nbr_nurses(); j++)
{
if (roster1[j][i] == 0)
nbr_nurses_free += 1;
if (roster1[j][i] == 1)
nbr_nurses_shift1 += 1;
if (roster1[j][i] == 2)
nbr_nurses_shift2 += 1;
if (roster1[j][i] == 3)
nbr_nurses_shift3 += 1;
if (roster1[j][i] == 4)
nbr_nurses_shift4 += 1;
if (roster1[j][i] == 5)
nbr_nurses_shift5 += 1;
if (roster1[j][i] == 6)
nbr_nurses_shift6 += 1;
}
nurses_per_shift.push_back(nbr_nurses_shift1);
nurses_per_shift.push_back(nbr_nurses_shift2);
nurses_per_shift.push_back(nbr_nurses_shift3);
nurses_per_shift.push_back(nbr_nurses_shift4);
nurses_per_shift.push_back(nbr_nurses_shift5);
nurses_per_shift.push_back(nbr_nurses_shift6);
nurses_per_shift.push_back(nbr_nurses_free);
nbr_nurses_per_shift_per_day.push_back(nurses_per_shift);
}
}
Here you can see the program:
Get_shift_assignment() and schedule_LD are other rosters.
void test_schedule_function()
{
calculate_nbr_nurses_per_shift(schedule_LD);
calculate_nbr_nurses_per_shift(get_shift_assignment());
calculate_coverage_deficit();
}
One more function you need to fully understand the problem is this one:
void calculate_coverage_deficit()
{
int deficit = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < get_nbr_days(); i++)
{
vector<int> deficit_day;
for (int j = 0; j < get_nbr_shifts(); j++)
{
deficit = get_staffing_requirements()[j] - nbr_nurses_per_shift_per_day[i][j];
deficit_day.push_back(deficit);
}
nurses_deficit.push_back(deficit_day);
}
cout << "Day 1, shift 1: there is a deficit of " << nurses_deficit[0][0] << " nurses." << endl;
cout << "Day 1, shift 2: there is a deficit of " << nurses_deficit[0][1] << " nurses." << endl;
cout << "Day 1, shift 3: there is a deficit of " << nurses_deficit[0][2] << " nurses." << endl;
cout << "Day 1, shift 4: there is a deficit of " << nurses_deficit[0][3] << " nurses." << endl;
}
So the problem is that each time I run this program it always gives me the deficits of the first roster. In this case, this is Schedule_LD. When I first run the function with input roster get_shift_assignment() than he gives me the deficits for that roster.
Apparently the nbr_nurses_per_shift_per_day[][] vector is not overwritten the second time I run the function and I don't know how to fix this... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Let me try to summarize the comments:
By using global variables to return values from your functions it is very likely, that you forgot to remove older results from one or more of your global variables before calling functions again.
To get around this, return your results from the function instead.
Ex:
vector<vector<int>> calculate_nbr_nurses_per_shift(vector<vector<int>> roster1)
{
vector<int> nbr_nurses_per_shift_per_day; // Create the result vector
... // Do your calculations
return nbr_nurses_per_shift_per_day;
}
or if you do not want to return a vector:
void calculate_nbr_nurses_per_shift(vector<vector<int>> roster1, vector<vector<int>> nbr_nurses_per_shift_per_day)
{
... // Do your calculations
}
But clearly, the first variant is a lot less error-prone (in the second example you can forget to clear nbr_of_nurses again) and most compilers will optimize the return nbr_nurses_per_shift_per_day so the whole vector does not get copied.
The second possible issue is that ´get_nbr_days()´ might return numbers that are larger or smaller than the actual size of your vector. To work around this, use either the size() method of vector or use iterators instead.
Your first function would then look like this:
vector<vector<int>> calculate_nbr_nurses_per_shift(vector<vector<int>> roster1)
{
vector<vector<int>> nbr_nurses_per_shift_per_day;
for (vector<vector<int>>::iterator shiftsOnDay = roster1.begin(); shiftsOnDay != roster1.end(); ++shiftsOnDay)
{
vector<int> nurses_per_shift(6, 0); // Create vector with 6 elements initialized to 0
for (vector<int>::iterator shift = shiftsOnDay->begin(); shift != shiftsOnDay->end(); ++shift)
{
if (*shift == 0)
nurses_per_shift[5]++;
else
nurses_per_shift[*shift - 1]++; // This code relies on shift only containing meaningful values
}
nbr_nurses_per_shift_per_day.push_back(nurses_per_shift);
}
return nbr_nurses_per_shift_per_day;
}