ifstream/ofstream to save variables

Hi
I am haphazardly learning C++ on my own/through tutorials
I am trying to write a program that has you input values, writes those values to a .txt file, and then can read them/assign them back to the variables if you execute it again (i.e. saving/loading)

The relevant pieces of code are

Code:

---

#include<iostream>
#include<fstream>

#define screensize 25

using namespace std;

void clearScreen()
{
        for (int x = 0; x < screensize; x++)
                cout << "\n";
        return;
}

class Hero
{
        public:
        string name;
        int hp;
        int mp;
        int gold;
        int exp;
        int level;

        void setName (string x)
        {
                name = x;
                return;
        }

        void setValues (int a, int b, int c, int d, int e)
        {
                  hp = a;
                  mp = b;
                  gold = c;
                  exp = d;
                  level = e;
                return;
        }         

        void showStats()
        {
                    clearScreen();
                    cout << "\t\t\tSTATS" << endl;
                cout << "Name : " << name << endl;
                  cout << "Level: " << level << endl;
                    cout << "HP: " << hp << endl;
                    cout << "MP: " << mp << endl;
                    cout << "EXP: " << exp << endl;
                    cout << "Gold: " << gold << endl;
                    cout << "<Press enter to return!>";
                    cin.get();
                    return;
        }
};

void saveGame(Hero player)
{
        ofstream save ("save.txt", ios::trunc);
        save << player.name << " ";
        save << player.hp << " ";
        save << player.mp << " ";
        save << player.gold << " ";
        save << player.exp << " ";
        save << player.level << " ";
        save.close();
        return;
}

void loadGame(Hero player)
{
        string x;
        int a, b, c, d, e;
        ifstream load ("save.txt");
        load >> x >> a >> b >> c >> d >> e;
        player.setName(x);
        player.setValues(a, b, c, d, e);
        load.close();
        player.showStats();
        return;
}

int main()
{
        clearScreen();
        Hero player;
        cout << "1. Start" << endl;
        cout << "2. Load" << endl;
        int selection;
        cin >> selection;
       
        switch (selection)
        {
                case 1:
                        clearScreen();
                        cout << "Name: ";
                        cin >> player.name;
                        cout << "Level: ";
                        cin >> player.level;
                        cout << "HP: ";
                        cin >> player.hp;
                        cout << "MP: ";
                        cin >> player.mp;
                        cout << "Gold: ";
                        cin >> player.gold;
                        cout << "EXP: ";
                        cin >> player.exp;
                       
                        cout << "<Press enter to check your stats page!>";
                        cin.get();
                        cin.get();
                        player.showStats();
                        clearScreen();
                        cout << "Saving stats...";
                        saveGame(player);
                        break;
                case 2:
                        loadGame(player);
                        break;
        }
}

---

Now this works, however
If I call player.showStats() from main instead of loadGame, like so

Code:

---

case 2:
                        loadGame(player);
                        player.showStats();
                        break;

---

It outputs (seemingly) random large values instead of the ones previously set
What does this mean :o

Changes made in a function, stay in the function. So the changes to player made in showStats stay there, and aren't "real". If you want changes made to a variable to "stick", you need to pass by reference instead of by copy (that is, by doing void loadGame(Hero &player)).

Aaaah, thanks a lot
I had actually considered a pass by reference/by copy issue but had erroneously narrowed the problem to setValues instead of loadGame :s

So you are trying to serialize and de-serialize objects to/from disk? You can overload the insertion and extraction operators relative to a class which makes serialization a snap.

Later have a look at boost::serialize. It makes serialization very productive.