Add "this" to a vector on class instantiation in C++ - c++

Question

I'm coming from a Python background, so forgive me on this one. Though I will provide the Python equivalent of what I'm looking for.
I'm creating a list of network nodes, so I wanted to create a class, "Node", that stores their MAC, IP address, and Hostnames, along with a function that prints them out prettily. The following is my code:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
class Node {
string MAC, IP, Hostname;
public:
void set_values(string M, string I, string H);
string list() {return "MAC: "+MAC+"\nIP: "+IP+"\nHostname: "+Hostname+"\n";}
};
void Node::set_values(string M, string I, string H) {
MAC = M;
IP = I;
Hostname = H;
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
Node firstnode;
firstnode.set_values("C0:FF:EE:C0:FF:EE","192.168.1.60","My-PC");
cout<<firstnode.list();
}
Which prints this out when I run it:
MAC: C0:FF:EE:C0:FF:EE
IP: 192.168.1.60
Hostname: My-PC
What I want is to have these objects automatically added to a vector called NodeList upon creation. For example, here is how I did that in Python:
RecordersList=[]
class Recorder:
def __init__(self, ARecorder, BRecorder, CRecorder):
self.ARecorder = ARecorder
self.BRecorder = BRecorder
self.CRecorder = CRecorder
RecordersList.append(self)
I tried a similar move, where I put the line:
vector<Node> NodeList; before the class declaration (and NodeList.push_back(this); as a Public function), and tried after the class declaration, but either way the compiler isn't aware of the Node class by the time the vector is declared, or vice versa the Node class isn't aware of the NodeList vector.
Is there a way to do this? It would be self-referencial class appending to an existing vector whose type is of that class.

Answer 1

Sure: declare and define a static member in the class, push the this pointer onto it:
class Foo; // forward declaration to make vector happy
class Foo {
private:
static std::vector<Foo *> store;
public:
Foo() { store.push_back(this); }
};
std::vector<Foo *> Foo::store;

Answer 2

Do it explicitly:
std::map<std::string, Node> map;
map[mac1] = Node(mac1,...);
map[mac2] = Node(mac2,...);

Answer 3

In my experience, this sort of design will often not end well due to having to manually manage memory in C++. this is a raw pointer to the object and it is not managed.
You can do this:
class Node; // forward declaration
std::vector<Node*> NodeList;
class Node
{
public:
Node()
{
NodeList.push_back(this); // pass a POINTER to this object
}
};
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
Node* node1 = new Node(); // allocated a Node
Node* node2 = new Node(); // allocated a Node
// ...
// deallocate ALL nodes
std::vector<Node*>::iterator it = NodeList.begin();
while (it != NodeList.end())
{
delete *it;
++it;
}
NodeList.clear();
}
The problem with this solution is if you have pointers pointing to indivual nodes. You could end up with dangling pointers and memory corruption.
And alternative solution is:
class Node
{
public:
Node();
};
std::vector<Node> NodeList;
Node::Node()
{
NodeList.push_back(*this); // pass a REFERENCE to this object
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
Node node1; // create a node
Node node2; // create a node
// ...
}
The problem with this alternative design is that each node passed to NodeList will be a new COPY of that node. So if you do:
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
Node node1; // NodeList[0] is logically equal to node1
node1.DoStuffThatModifiesTheContent();
// At this point, node1 is no longer a logical equivalent of NodeList[0]
}
A better design would involve creating a NodeManager class of some sort, and creating and accessing nodes through this manager, which would control the lifetime of all the node objects.