Thread: passing value into an array

I am writing a program for a poker game.. I created a class to get cards and create deck.. the problem I am having now is how to deal 5 cards to an array to be evaluated later. I want to call the array player1[5]. So I tried to create a pointer called GetCard, and was hoping to then pass the value into the player1[] array. I tried to use pointer but I get the following error

49 31[Error] void value not ignored as it ought to be

Code:

 #include <stdlib.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;

const char* FaceString[13] = {"Ace", "2", "3", "4",
                              "5", "6", "7", "8",
                              "9", "10", "Jack", "Queen", "King"};

const char* SuitString[4] = {"Spades", "Hearts", "Diamonds", "Clubs"};
string player1[5];

class Card
{
public:
    int face;
    int suit;

    void toString() {
        cout<<FaceString[face]<<" of "<<SuitString[suit]<<endl;
    }

};

int main()
{    char *getCard;
	getCard = new char;
	
    // Create a deck of cards
    Card deck[52];

    for (int i = 0; i < 52; i++) {    
        deck[i].face = i % 13;
        deck[i].suit = i % 4;    
    }

    // Shuffle
    srand (unsigned(time(0)));
    random_shuffle(&deck[0], (&deck[0]+52));   

    // Display cards
    for (int j = 0; j < 52; j++) {  
        cout<< "Card_" << (j+1) << ": ";
        deck[j].toString();
    }

	for (int j = 0; j < 5; j++) {  
     getCard=deck[j].toString();//<<====Problem here trying to pass value to a pointer. 
         }



    return 0;
}

There's several things wrong:
1)toString should presumably return the card information as a string, not print it to cout. This is the main cause of your error.
2)I have no clue what the getCard variable is supposed to do, but whatever it is, it's not what it's doing. Likely you want an array of cards that represents each hand, not a char *.
3)You initialize the cards in a weird order. This is not strictly an error.
4)You call new but never delete. Here you shouldn't be calling new at all, it doesn't make sense to initialize getCard like that.

player1 is an array of 5 char, therefore player[1] is a char, and a char does not have a toString member function.

Originally Posted by Darius Dempsey

Well I tried the array as a string too string player1[5], but It still didn't work..

You can't just try giving the array a type, cross your fingers, and hope that it works. You need to understand what you are doing.

Why did you name this array player1? What is this array for? What does this array have to do with the Card class? Why are you trying to call toString on an element of this array?

Originally Posted by Darius Dempsey

I named the array Player1 because it is where I will store the 5 cards for player1

Well, that's great. The array is an array that "will store the 5 cards for player1". So why are you trying to store chars or strings instead of Card objects (or (smart) pointers to Card objects)?

More errors:
1) As laserlight says, a player's hand should be a hand of cards, or card pointers, not a hand of chars or strings. or anything like it.
2)std::string is better that having an array of chars. use it if you need a string. It means you don't have to muck with strcat and friends.
3)You're returning reference to a local array. This is not allowed. Arrays can only be used by reference -- this idiosyncrasy why using raw C arrays is a bad idea. Use std::array if you need an array generally, because that behaves like other objects in C++. Except for strings you want an std::string. You probably should use std::array for your deck, and for the player hand.
4)It makes no sense to convert a card to a player. This is related to #1, but sane naming is the issue here.