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

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.