Using inheritance to pass a non-static variable between classes - c++

Question

I'm researching UI's as a portfolio project and I ran into a little bit of trouble when it comes to inheritance. The problem I'm facing is this: I have two classes, R_GUI, in which I draw the form, and Button, where I draw the buttons. I want the Buttons to be positioned inside the FORM. I store the FORM position as form_x, and form_y. Here are my two classes:
class R_GUI
{
private:
bool get_pos_only_once;
bool move_form;
public:
int form_x, form_y;
int form_height, form_width;
int handle_bar_y;
inline void Form(int pos_x, int pos_y, int height, int width);
//inline void Button(int id, string ButtonText, int pos_x, int pos_y);
inline void Update_form(void);
inline void UPDATE(void);
inline ~R_GUI( );
inline R_GUI( )
{
d3dInit();
get_pos_only_once = false;
move_form = false;
form_x = 0;
form_y = 0;
handle_bar_y = 40;
}
};
and the Button class:
class Button: public R_GUI
{
private:
int b_form_x, b_form_y;
int b_handle_y;
int button_width, button_height;
public:
inline void Draw(string ButtonText, int b_pos_x, int b_pos_y);
Button()
{
b_form_x = R_GUI::form_x;
b_form_y = R_GUI::form_y;
b_handle_y = 20;
button_width = 90;
button_height = 35;
}
~Button();
};
As you can see, I'm trying to give b_form_x the value of form_x (which is a variable from R_GUI). form_x has a value, given in Form( );:
inline void R_GUI::Form(int pos_x, int pos_y, int height, int width)
{
if(get_pos_only_once == false)
{
form_x = pos_x;
form_y = pos_y;
form_height = height;
form_width = width;
get_pos_only_once = true;
}
//Create the form outline
d3dLine(pos_x,pos_y,pos_x+width,pos_y,dbRGB(50,50,50));
d3dLine(pos_x,pos_y,pos_x,pos_y+height,dbRGB(50,50,50));
d3dLine(pos_x+width,pos_y,pos_x+width,pos_y+height,dbRGB(50,50,50));
d3dLine(pos_x,pos_y+height,pos_x+width,pos_y+height,dbRGB(50,50,50));
//Create the handle bar
d3dLine(pos_x,pos_y+handle_bar_y,pos_x+width,pos_y+handle_bar_y,dbRGB(50,50,50));
//Fill the Handlebar;
d3dBox(pos_x,pos_y,pos_x+width,pos_y+handle_bar_y,dbRGB(3,3,3),dbRGB(3,3,3),dbRGB(3,3,3),dbRGB(3,3,3));
}
Yet, when I update the Form's Position, R_GUI::form_x value doesn't change. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

Answer 1

You don't want to have a second variable in your subclass (b_form_x). Eliminate it entirely. Instead, you want to use this->form_x, which in the Button will be inherited from R_GUI. The same applies for b_form_y.
this refers to the current instance of an object, and contains not only your local member variables but also any member variables inherited from classes all the way up the hierarchy as well.