Passing array of objects to a class - c++

Question

#include "average.c++"
#include "name.c++"
class Grade {
public:
Grade() {}
void searcharray(Name *array[]) {
int i;
for(i = 0; i <= 10; i++){
printf("%s", array->name);
}
}
};
int main() {
int i;
char line[64];
Name *names[10];
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++){
scanf("%s", &line);
names[i] = new Name(line);
}
Grade *test;
test = new Grade();
test->searcharray(names);
}
This code gives the error
"grade.c++ in member function 'void Grad::searcharray(Name*)':
grade.c++:11:25: error: request for member 'name' in ' array', which is of pointer type 'Name*' (maybe you meant to use '->' ?)"
I need help making this work. I am guessing it is something simple like extending the class like you would in Java but not sure how this works in c++.
I am assuming you can pass an array of objects to a class like you would in C with just an array.
The root to my question is to find a solution and to get a reason for this code being wrong.

Answer 1

Your code can be substantially improved by taking advantage of the Standard library. The problem with your initial code was that you were doing array->name where array was a C-style array (technically the pointer into which it decayed). An expression like that isn't possible unless you obtain the pointer at the index first:
array[i]->name;
Moreover, the for loop in which that line was written is traversing the array 1 too many times. The conditional statement i <= 10 should be i < 10 so you won't dereference an address past the end of the array.
Anyway, instead of showing your code with the corrections, I thought I might as well show you what it should look like if you use vectors, memory-management, and std::string. I hope this helps:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <memory>
class Grade
{
public:
Grade() { }
static void searcharray(const std::vector<std::unique_ptr<Name>>& array)
{
for (const auto& obj : array)
{
std::cout << obj->name;
}
}
};
int main()
{
std::string name;
std::vector<std::unique_ptr<Name>> names;
while (std::cin >> name)
names.push_back(std::unique_ptr<Name>(new Name(name)));
// names.push_back(std::make_unique<Name>(name))
Grade::searcharray(names);
}
Note that I also made searcharray static since it has nothing to do with a given instance of Grade.

Answer 2

As others have pointed out the problem is that you're using a parameter declared Name *array[] like array->name.
Remember that C++ built on top of C, which follows a rule 'declaration mimics use', which means that the way a variable is declared looks like the way it is used. So with the declaration:
Name *array[]
The way you get a name out of this is:
*array[i]
And name is a member of Name so you have to get a Name object first. Then you can tack on member access:
(*array[i]).name
And then you can use the -> shortcut where (*x).y is the same as x.y:
array[i]->name
Other issues:
Your code appears to be heavily influenced by the style of code required for the 1989 or 1990 version of C. You should try to avoid that as it makes writing C++ code much worse than it has to be.
You declare a Grade * and allocate it immediately. You can combine the declaration with initialization into:
Grade *test = new Grade();
But you don't need to use a pointer anyway: use Grade test; (and if you did need a pointer then you should use a smart pointer. Never use 'naked' new.)
Similarly you can avoid new when you create Names.
Name names[10]; // assuming that Name is default constructible
for(...) {
...
name[i] = Name(line);
}
You should avoid a fixed size array here. Instead you should default to using std::vector:
std::vector<Name> names;
for (...) {
...
names.push_back(Name(line)); // or in C++11 names.emplace_back(line);
}
You should declare the variable i as part of the for loop, not as a variable outside it:
for (int i=0; i<10; ++i)
When you read input you should avoid scanf and fixed sized buffers. Instead, if you're reading lines you should probably start off with std::getline and std::string.
std::string line;
while (std::getline(std::cin, line)) { // read as many lines as there are, not just 10 no matter what
names.emplace_back(line);
}