This question already has answers here:
What is object slicing?
(18 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
I have the following setup:
main.cpp:
int main()
{
vector <Tour> tourList;
Tour* tour_ptr;
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < tourList.size(); i++)
{
tour_ptr = &tourList[i];
tour_ptr->display();
}
}
Tour.h:
class Tour
{
public:
virtual void display();
};
Tour.cpp:
void Tour::display()
{
cout << "Tour ID: " << getID() << "\n";
cout << "Description: " << getdescription() << "\n";
cout << "Tour Fee: $" << getfee() << "\n";
cout << "Total Bookings: " << getbookings() << "\n\n";
}
GuidedTour.h:
class GuidedTour : public Tour
{
public:
void display();
};
GuidedTour.cpp:
void GuidedTour::display()
{
Tour::display();
cout << "Max Tour Group Size: " << getMaxTourists() << "\n";
cout << "Tour Guide: " << getGuideName() << "\n";
cout << "Tour Date: " << getTourDate() << "\n\n";
}
GuidedTour inherits from the Tour class, and I've specified the display() function as virtual in the base Tour class, but for some reason, the GuidedTour display() function never gets called, only the base function gets called every time. What am I doing wrong?
Your code actually doesn't print anything as the std::vector would initially be empty. Other than that, your problem is caused by object slicing (I'm assuming that you are push_back()ing GuidedTours into the vector).
When object slicing takes place, you are storing only the Tour part of your GuidedTour object(s), and that's the reason why you are seeing the output of Tour::display().
To solve your problem, you need to store the objects polymorphically, by using (smart) pointers and dynamically-allocating your objects.
int main()
{
vector <std::unique_ptr<Tour>> tourList;
for(...) {
tourList.push_back(std::make_unique<GuidedTour>(/* constructor parameters */));
...
tourList.push_back(std::make_unique<Tour>(/* constructor parameters */));
}
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < tourList.size(); i++)
{
tourList[i]->display();
}
}
Notice that I am using std::unique_ptr/std::make_unique and not raw newed pointers. Using them would greatly ease you of the problem of manually managing and deleteing your objects, which sometimes[understatement] are the cause of bugs and undefined behavior.
Note that some people might suggest you to use boost::ptr_vector or something similar. Listen to them, especially if they give you arguments on why they are better than the alternatives.
Your problem has nothing to do with your classes, rather how you are creating the object. Each element in the tourList vector is a tour, and nothing at compile time or runtime is there to determine that they are GuidedTours. In effect, GuidedTour is never called, because I don't see a GuidedTour object in your main anywhere.
I am agree with "It'sPete". because you haven't used the GuidedTour class. It will work if you use the following method.
int main()
{
vector <GuidedTour> tourList;
Tour* tour_ptr;
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < tourList.size(); i++)
{
tour_ptr = &tourList[i];
tour_ptr->display();
}
}
Related
This question already has answers here:
explicit call to destructor is not destroying my object why?
(7 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
I'm new to destructors, and the tutorials i've been following have been pretty clear up until this point. What actually happens when a destructor is called? Why do I still get values from a destroyed object?
class Box {
public:
Box(double l = 2.0, double b = 2.0, double h = 2.0) { //Constructor
cout << "Box Created" << endl;
length = l;
breadth = b;
height = h;
}
~Box() {
cout << "Box Destroyed" << endl; // Box Destructor
}
double volume() {
return length*breadth*height;
}
private:
double height;
double breadth;
double length;
};
void main() {
Box Box1(10, 15, 5); //Constructors used
Box Box2(5, 15, 20);
cout << "Box1.volume: " << Box1.volume() << endl;
cout << "Box2.volume: " << Box2.volume() << endl;
Box1.~Box(); //Destructors called
Box2.~Box();
cout << "Box1.volume after destruction: " << Box1.volume() << endl;
cout << "Box2.volume after destruction: " << Box2.volume() << endl;
}
You never call a destructor explicitely, unless you know very well you need to because you're handling the life-time and allocation of your objects yourself, which, typically, is a not very C++-like approach.
Destructors are meant to be called automatically, when the lifetime of a C++ objects ends, for example, when an object goes out of scope.
A destructor's job is to "clean up" before the C++ runtime frees the memory associated with that object. Calling a destructor explicitly doesn't "remove" the object – it just brings the object into some kind of "Zombie" state.
As a beginner, generalizing: Don't call destructors explicitely.
I've searched on the web and can't find any solutions to my problem I hope you can help.
So I have constructed an abstract base class and have two derived classes that represents different experiments. (one is actually a derived derived class of my base class) And I made a map as such in a separate header file to store different types of experiments.
//Map class template to store name of experiment and the experiment within a project
typedef map <string, baseData <double>*> ExpContainer;
void search(string searchName, ExpContainer exps) {
ExpContainer::iterator Iter;
Iter = exps.find(searchName); //finds the entry corresponding to searchName and returns the iterator
if (Iter != exps.end()) { //need this as if entry is not found, the return will be end iter.
cout << "Found the experiment " << Iter->first << "." << endl;
Iter->second->print();
}
else {
cout << "Sorry, experiment " << searchName << " is not found" << endl;
}
}
The print() function is different for each experiment type and I know there's a problem called slicing so I've made sure that print() is virtual in the base class. Here's my base class:
namespace mynmsp {
//base class of data can be measurements or errors
template < class T> class baseData {
public:
virtual void print() =0;
virtual ~baseData() {
cout << "Destructor called for the base class." << endl;
}
};
}
Then in my main.cpp I've constructed different types of experiment and I want to print them. Each experiment class has different implementation of the print function that overrides the print function from the base class, like:
void print(){ //do something };
And in my main.cpp I have the map defined as:
ExpContainer project;
And after I have constructed each experiment, I've asked the user for the name of the experiment (expName) and inserted into project as such:
project[expName] = &expC;
I think the insertion is fine as I tested the size of project and it was correct.
However, a runtime error occured when my search function was called like this:
search(name, project);
I don't know if there's a problem with slicing or with my pointers?
I tried to make print() a virtual function in each derived class but that doesn't seem to work either.
Apologies for the long question, please help!
Edit: I've constructed my experiments inside a do while loop while project is declared outside. The whole code is very long but its basics is something like this:
string repeatstr; //user input whether to repeat do while loop or not
bool repeat = true; //condition for staying inside do while loop
ExpContainer project; //declared project to store experiments
do {
string expName;
string ans1; //character to store user input
cout << "What is the name of your experiment? " << endl;
cin >> expName;
cout << "Is this a experiment C ? (y/n)" << endl;
cin >> ans1;
if(ans1 =="y"){
//call the constructor for expC
project[expName] = &expC;
}else {
//call the constructor for expB
project[expName] = &expB;
}
cout << "Do you want to enter another experiment? (y/n)" << endl;
cin >> repeatstr;
if (repeatstr == "n") { repeat = false; }
}while (repeat); //loop over this do-while loop while repeat is true
cout << "There are " << project.size() << " in this database." << endl;
//to retrieve info from a certain experiment
string input, name;
cout << "Would you like to retrieve any experiments (y/n)? " << endl;
input = EitherInput("y", "n");
if (input == "y") {
cout << "Please enter the name of the experiment you want to retrieve: " << endl;
cin >> name;
search(name, project); //code breaks down here!
}
You are saving a pointer to the object that was already destroyed. You can check the addresses that you have in the map, most probably they are the same. You should store your experiment object in dynamic memory
if(ans1 =="y")
{
project[expName] = new expC();
} // Scope ends here and all variable created in it will be destroyed.
else
{
project[expName] = new expB();
} // Scope ends here and all variable created in it will be destroyed.
And after you are done with them you need to call delete on each pointer to avoid memory leak. Also you need to check if the items in the map are already existing, otherwise you will loose pointers to allocated memory which is automatically a memory leak.
I would recommend you to use std::share_ptr< baseData<double> > instead of bare baseData<double>*. Here you can read more about it. And also consider using typedef in order to have more clear syntax.
P.S.
The function
void search(string searchName, ExpContainer exps)
will copy whole map to its body. Use constant reference instead
void search(string searchName, const ExpContainer& exps)
But then you'll also need to declare function print as const:
virtual void print() const = 0;
and override it with const modifier:
virtual void print() const override;
And use constant iterator ExpContainer::const_iterator Iter
I am just started learning OOP concepts and to help myself learning, I have created a Characters class. From this class I have made instance called main and an instance called monster. Here is the code for the class:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
class Character {
public:
string name;
float health;
int attackLevel;
int defenseLevel;
void setAttr(string sName,float sHealth, int sAttackLevel, int sDefenseLevel) {
name = sName;
health = sHealth;
attackLevel = sAttackLevel;
defenseLevel = sDefenseLevel;
}
void attack(int whatInstanceToAttack) {
whatInstanceToAttack.hitpoints -= 20; //obviously not valid but how do i do this?
return whatInstanceToAttack;
}
int defend(string defend) {
int damageRelieved = defenseLevel * 2;
return damageRelieved;
}
};
int main() {
Character main;
Character monster;
main.setAttr("Rafael",200,100,30);
monster.setAttr("Monster1",30,40,30);
cout << "Default Values for Raf are;" << endl;
cout << main.name << endl;
cout << main.health<< endl;
cout << main.attackLevel << endl;
cout << main.defenseLevel << endl;
cout << "Default values for monster are" << endl;
cout <<monster.name << endl;
cout <<monster.health << endl;
cout << monster.attackLevel<< endl;
cout << monster.defenseLevel << endl;
return 0;
}
Basically what I want to do is somehow access the monster instance via the main instance. I want to do this by running the attack method. So if I run
main.attack(monster);
then I want the monster to lose 20 hitpoints.
How do I go about doing this?
All you need is to pass reference of Character in attack method.
I think you must be aware of pass by value and pass by reference concept. If not you can read it here
void attack(Character &whatInstanceToAttack) {
whatInstanceToAttack.hitpoints -= 20; //obviously not valid but how do i do this?
}
Yes you can access the variables of an instance from another instance of the same class. You need to use a reference to the object to ensure the changes are reflected in the other instance. So here is what your attack function should look like.
void attack(Character &c)
{
c.hitpoints - = 20;
}
Now when you call main.attack(monster) from the main() function, the hitpoints of monster will get decremented by 20.
As a side note, it is considered a good practice to make the data members of a class private, to avoid illegal access/modification of the data. Always use the member functions as an interface to your class instances.
overload the method attack and you can pass by value or reference as per your requirement.
void attack(Character chr)
or
void attack(Character &chr)
I can start wit hsaying that I'm kind of new to programming.
I got an assigment to create first a class bank account that holds one singel bank account, and also a class Bank that holds all bankaccounts in a vector or array.
One method that had to be included was that it should print out all the accounts in a specific Bank vector.
What I don't understand is what arguments I should pass in to such a method and also how do I call it from the main function where the vector is created.
This is what I've got so far:
void skriv_kontolista(vector <Konto>& nyttKonto)
{
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < nyttKonto.size(); i++)
{
cout << "Konto: " << i << endl;
cout << "Innehavarens kontonummer: " << nyttKonto[i].nummer << endl;
cout << "Innehavarens namn: " << nyttKonto[i].innehavare << endl;
cout << "Innehavarens saldo: " << nyttKonto[i].saldo << endl;
cout << "Innehavarens r\x84ntesats: " << nyttKonto[i].rantesats << endl;
}
}
Is that the right way to do it, and if so, how do I call this method from my main function?
Sorry if my english is bad, it's not my native language.
Thanks in advance.
The code looks OK; it should work. However, this
One method that had to be included was that it should print out all
the accounts in a specific Bank vector.
leads me to believe that skriv_kontolista should be a method in class Bank. Your skriv_kontolista function looks like it's not a method in class Bank (but I don't know for sure).
If indeed it should be a method of class Bank, you should have it in your code like this:
class Bank
{
...
void skriv_kontolista(vector <Konto>& nyttKonto)
{
...
}
...
}
In addition, a method has access to all the fields of the class. One of the fields is the vector that the method must print, so there is no need to send it as a parameter to the function!
class Bank
{
void skriv_kontolista() // no need to have any parameters
{
...
cout << "Innehavarens namn: " << nyttKonto[i].innehavare << endl;
...
}
vector <Konto>& nyttKonto; // a field of the class
}
How to call it from the main function:
int main()
{
Bank bank1, bank2, bank3;
...
bank1.skriv_kontolista();
bank2.skriv_kontolista();
bank3.skriv_kontolista();
}
I have a C++ vector. I want the vector to hold a variable number of objects.
Visual Studio 2012 is giving me an error:
Error: type name is not allowed
From this C++ code:
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
class testObject{
private:
int someInt;
public:
testObject(int a){ someInt=a; }
void show() { cout<<someInt<<endl; }
};
int main()
{
vector<testObject> testVector;
cout << "Initial size: " << testVector.size() <<endl;
for ( int i = 0; i < 3; i++ )
testVector.push_back(testObject(3));
cout << "New size: " << testVector.size() << endl;
for ( int j = 0; j < 3; j++ )
testVector[ j ].show();
system("pause");
}
But here's another sample of code that looks the same but it's not working.
void Dealer::setNumberOfPlayers( const int tNumber )
{
for ( int i = 0; i < tNumber; i++ )
vectorOfGamers.push_back(Player); // Player is a class that I created
}
Can I create vector to hold objects of Dealer, Bot and Player at the same time? How do I do that? As I know, all objects in vector should be of one type.
To answer the first part of your question, you must create an object of type Player before you can use it. When you say push_back(Player), it means "add the Player class to the vector", not "add an object of type Player to the vector" (which is what you meant).
You can create the object on the stack like this:
Player player;
vectorOfGamers.push_back(player); // <-- name of variable, not type
Or you can even create a temporary object inline and push that (it gets copied when it's put in the vector):
vectorOfGamers.push_back(Player()); // <-- parentheses create a "temporary"
To answer the second part, you can create a vector of the base type, which will allow you to push back objects of any subtype; however, this won't work as expected:
vector<Gamer> gamers;
gamers.push_back(Dealer()); // Doesn't work properly!
since when the dealer object is put into the vector, it gets copied as a Gamer object -- this means only the Gamer part is copied effectively "slicing" the object. You can use pointers, however, since then only the pointer would get copied, and the object is never sliced:
vector<Gamer*> gamers;
gamers.push_back(new Dealer()); // <-- Allocate on heap with `new`, since we
// want the object to persist while it's
// pointed to
Question 1:
vectorOfGamers.push_back(Player)
This is problematic because you cannot directly push a class name into a vector.
You can either push an object of class into the vector or push reference or pointer to class type into the vector. For example:
vectorOfGamers.push_back(Player(name, id))
//^^assuming name and id are parameters to the vector, call Player constructor
//^^In other words, push `instance` of Player class into vector
Question 2:
These 3 classes derives from Gamer. Can I create vector to hold objects of Dealer, Bot and Player at the same time? How do I do that?
Yes you can. You can create a vector of pointers that points to the base class Gamer.
A good choice is to use a vector of smart_pointer, therefore, you do not need to manage pointer memory by yourself. Since the other three classes are derived from Gamer, based on polymorphism, you can assign derived class objects to base class pointers. You may find more information from this post: std::vector of objects / pointers / smart pointers to pass objects (buss error: 10)?
You cannot insert a class into a vector, you can insert an object (provided that it is of the proper type or convertible) of a class though.
If the type Player has a default constructor, you can create a temporary object by doing Player(), and that should work for your case:
vectorOfGamers.push_back(Player());
I know the thread is already all, but as I was checking through I've come up with a solution (code listed below). Hope it can help.
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
class Box
{
public:
static int BoxesTotal;
static int BoxesEver;
int Id;
Box()
{
++BoxesTotal;
++BoxesEver;
Id = BoxesEver;
std::cout << "Box (" << Id << "/" << BoxesTotal << "/" << BoxesEver << ") initialized." << std::endl;
}
~Box()
{
std::cout << "Box (" << Id << "/" << BoxesTotal << "/" << BoxesEver << ") ended." << std::endl;
--BoxesTotal;
}
};
int Box::BoxesTotal = 0;
int Box::BoxesEver = 0;
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
std::cout << "Objects (Boxes) example." << std::endl;
std::cout << "------------------------" << std::endl;
std::vector <Box*> BoxesTab;
Box* Indicator;
for (int i = 1; i<4; ++i)
{
std::cout << "i = " << i << ":" << std::endl;
Box* Indicator = new(Box);
BoxesTab.push_back(Indicator);
std::cout << "Adres Blowera: " << BoxesTab[i-1] << std::endl;
}
std::cout << "Summary" << std::endl;
std::cout << "-------" << std::endl;
for (int i=0; i<3; ++i)
{
std::cout << "Adres Blowera: " << BoxesTab[i] << std::endl;
}
std::cout << "Deleting" << std::endl;
std::cout << "--------" << std::endl;
for (int i=0; i<3; ++i)
{
std::cout << "Deleting Box: " << i+1 << " (" << BoxesTab[i] << ") " << std::endl;
Indicator = (BoxesTab[i]);
delete(Indicator);
}
return 0;
}
And the result it produces is:
Objects (Boxes) example.
------------------------
i = 1:
Box (1/1/1) initialized.
Adres Blowera: 0xdf8ca0
i = 2:
Box (2/2/2) initialized.
Adres Blowera: 0xdf8ce0
i = 3:
Box (3/3/3) initialized.
Adres Blowera: 0xdf8cc0
Summary
-------
Adres Blowera: 0xdf8ca0
Adres Blowera: 0xdf8ce0
Adres Blowera: 0xdf8cc0
Deleting
--------
Deleting Box: 1 (0xdf8ca0)
Box (1/3/3) ended.
Deleting Box: 2 (0xdf8ce0)
Box (2/2/3) ended.
Deleting Box: 3 (0xdf8cc0)
Box (3/1/3) ended.
// create a vector of unknown players.
std::vector<player> players;
// resize said vector to only contain 6 players.
players.resize(6);
Values are always initialized, so a vector of 6 players is a vector of 6 valid player objects.
As for the second part, you need to use pointers.
Instantiating c++ interface as a child class