passing arguments

Hey,
See below for sourcecode. The program will eventually be a locate like the one from the UNIX shell. Function CreateDataBase() needs to know what drives it should include in the DataBase. There are three options:
1) All harddisks (default)
2) All logical drives (activated by /a command-line argument)
3) Specified drives (activated by /d followed by drive-letters in the command-line)

The CreateDataBase() function calls LogicDrives() for the first two options. For the third option, DrivesFromArgs() is called. Obviously, DrivesFromArgs() needs the command-line arguments to function. I've thought of a couple of ways to provide DrivesFromArgs() these variables, but they're not too pretty. This is what I thought of:

1) Make argc and *argv[] global variables
2) Pass argc and *argv[] to CreateDataBase, then pass them on to DrivesFromArgs() (if needed)
3) Create a special function that extracts the specified drives from the arguments, passes the variable on to CreateDataBase, and then pass it on to DrivesFromArgs()

I don't like the last two because it will make CreateDataBase() have more arguments than normally needed.
Is there a better method to do this than the three I thought of, or should I just use one of those?

Thanks!

-Joris

Code:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream.h>
#include <math.h>

DWORD OptionFlags = 0;

inline bool BitTrue(DWORD a, DWORD b) { return (a & (1 << b)) ? true : false; } //Is bit 1?
inline void DefBit(DWORD &a, DWORD b) { a = (a | (1 <<  b)); } //define bit
inline void UnDefBit(DWORD &a, DWORD b) { a = DWORD(4294967295 - pow(2, b)) & a; } //undefine bit

DWORD LogicDrives(bool HDsOnly) //All Logical drives or Harddisks only
{	
	DWORD Drivelist = GetLogicalDrives();
	
	if (HDsOnly)
	{
		char DriveCheck[4] = "*:\\";
		for (int a = 0; a < 26; a++)
		{	
			if (BitTrue(Drivelist, a)) 
			{
				DriveCheck[0]= 'A'+a;
				UnDefBit(Drivelist, a);
				if (GetDriveType(DriveCheck)==3) DefBit(Drivelist, a); //Check if it's a HD
			}
		}
	}
	
	return Drivelist;
}

DWORD DrivesFromArgs() //Drives from arguments
{
	DWORD Drives = 0;
	for(int a = 0; a < 26; a++) DefBit(Drives, a); //Sets all drives
	return Drives;
}



DWORD Options(int argc, char *argv[]) //Get Options from arguments
{	
	DWORD Flags=0;
	for(int a = 1; a < argc; a++)
	{
		if (argv[a][0] == '/')
		{
			switch (argv[a][1])
				{
					case 'C': case 'c': DefBit(Flags, 0); break; //Create DB
					case 'V': case 'v': DefBit(Flags, 1); break; //Verbose mode
					case 'D': case 'd': DefBit(Flags, 2); break; //Specified drives in args
					case 'A': case 'a': DefBit(Flags, 3); break; //All logical drives
				}
		}
	}
	return Flags;
}



void Say(int LineNum, int a=0,DWORD Flags=0) //Output a line
{
	int b = 0;

	switch (LineNum) //will always be said
	{
		case 0: cout << "Start of program" << endl; return;
		case 1: cout << "End of program" << endl; return;
	}
	
	
	if (BitTrue(OptionFlags, 1)) //will only be said in verbose mode
	{
		switch (LineNum)
		{
			case 100: cout << a << " arguments: "; for(;b < 10;b++) cout << BitTrue(Flags, b); cout << endl; return;
			case 101: cout << "Creating database" << endl; return;
			case 102: cout << "Drives to index: "; for(;b < 26;b++) cout << BitTrue(Flags, b); cout << endl; return;
		}
	}
}


void CreateDatabase() //Creates a database
{
	Say(101);
	DWORD DrivesToIndex;
		
	if (BitTrue(OptionFlags, 2)) DrivesToIndex = DrivesFromArgs(); //Get drives from arguments
	else if (BitTrue(OptionFlags, 3)) DrivesToIndex = LogicDrives(false); //Do All logic drives
	else DrivesToIndex = LogicDrives(true); //Do all HDs
	
	Say(102,0,DrivesToIndex);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) //main
{
	Say(0);	
	OptionFlags = Options(argc, argv); //get options
	Say(100, argc-1, OptionFlags);
	if (BitTrue(OptionFlags, 0)) CreateDatabase();
	Say(1);
	return 0;
}

>1) Make argc and *argv[] global variables
Not the best idea.

>2) Pass argc and *argv[] to CreateDataBase, then pass them on to DrivesFromArgs() (if needed)
I see nothing wrong with this.

>3) Create a special function that extracts the specified drives from the arguments, passes the variable on to CreateDataBase, and then pass it on to DrivesFromArgs()
The logic is a little too backward for my taste.

>Is there a better method to do this than the three I thought of
Have you considered using a class to bundle all of this up into a single object?

With "all of this" you mean argc and *argv[]? Might be a good idea, hadn't thought about that one. But what I don't like about solutions like this one and my personal second and third, is that CreateDataBase() needs another argument that it won't need for itself (it only needs to pass it on to another function) and in most cases won't be needed at all (only when /d is used).
But maybe I'm just too obsessed by efficiency. I justed started programming C++ for two weeks or so and this is the first program I'm building so this is the first time I'm calling functions from within functions.

> With "all of this" you mean argc and *argv[]?

She means put it all in a class. You can pass argc and **argv as constructor arguments and then store them as member variables so that all of your functions will have access to them. It might look something like this:

Code:

// .. class definition
class LocateClass
{
public:
  LocateClass(int argc_, char** argv_)
  : argc(argc_), argv(argv_)
  {}

  void locate()
  {
    Say(0);
    ParseOptions();
    if (BitTrue(OptionFlags, 0)) CreateDatabase();
    Say(1);
  }
  // .. other functions

private:
  int argc;
  char** argv;
  DWORD OptionFlags;
};


int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
  LocateClass locator(argc, argv);
  locator.locate();
  return 0;
}