Question about classes and structures.

I am making the base values for the stats for each race in my text base rpg. Right now I have a stucture set up for it, which I though would be able to house all the information. Either I do not understand how class's and structures work or its not meant to do what I am wanting it to do. Here is what I have so far:

Code:

struct RaceStats {
       int h_basehp;
       int h_basemp;
       int h_basestr;           // h = human
       int h_baseagi;
       int h_basearmor;
       int e_basehp;
       int e_basemp;          // e = enchanter
       int e_basestr;
       int e_baseagi;
       int e_basearmor;
       int b_basehp;
       int b_basemp;             // b = brute
       int b_basestr;
       int b_baseagi;
       int b_basearmor;
     
       };

I found out that I can not initialize the values of these variables from inside the structure without getting an error. I tried this

Code:

struct RaceStats {
 int h_basehp = 200;
}

and it gives me an error.
ISO C++ forbids initialization of member `h_basehp'
So I assume either I am doing it wrong or you just cant initialize values from inside the structure. Which would defeat the whole purpose of me using a structure.

Im I just doing it wrong or would it be better to just make these in the global scope and give them values like this?

Code:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int h_basehp = 200;

int main {
//code here
}

It wouldn't make sense to do so. You could want different initial values for each instance.

You can stuff your initializations in a constructor's [i]initializer list[/i[, though.

Code:

struct RaceStats {
   RaceStats() : h_basehp(200), h_basearmor(100), ... etc ... { }
   // more stuff ...
};

Cheers

In MY text-based rpg (unfinished, but playable), I define the struct and declare instances of the struct globally, then in the function that creates a character, it saves values to an instance of the struct depending on the class you chose. Here's my code...

Code:

    struct statistics {
           string nam; //Name
           int lev; //Level
           int att; //Attack
           int def; //Defense
           int tempdef; //To heighten defense for a turn.
           int agi; //Agility (not currrently used in the program)
           int mon; //Money
           int sta; //Stamina
           int tempsta; //To keep track of player health while regenerating it after battle.
           float gloc; //To keep track of your location in Story Mode.
           float exp; //Experience (for leveling up, not currently used)
    };
    statistics player; //For players stats
    statistics opponent; //For enemy stats during battle

And my createdata() function:

Code:

void createdata(string rac) {
     if (rac == "d" || rac == "D")
     {
             string dnam;
             
             ofstream char1("dnam.txt"); //Name
             ofstream char2("dlev.txt"); //Level
             ofstream char3("datt.txt"); //Attack
             ofstream char4("ddef.txt"); //Defense
             ofstream char5("dagi.txt"); //Agility
             ofstream char6("dmon.txt"); //Money
             ofstream char7("dexp.txt"); //Experience
             ofstream char8("dsta.txt"); //Stamina
             ofstream char9("dtst.txt"); //Stamina for use in battles;
                                         //refills to value of sta after battle().
             ofstream char10("dglo.txt"); //See gloc in struct statistics.
             cout << endl << "What is your character's name? ";
             cin >> dnam;
             char1 << dnam;
             char2 << "1"; //Starting level
             char3 << "100"; //Starting attack
             char4 << "95"; //Starting defense
             char5 << "100"; //Starting agility
             char6 << "0"; //Starting money
             char7 << "1"; //Starting experience
             char8 << "25"; //Starting stamina
             char10 << "1"; //Starting game loc
             char1.close();
             char2.close();
             char3.close();
             char4.close();
             char5.close();
             char6.close();
             char7.close();
     }
     else if (rac == "e" || rac == "E")
     {
             string enam;
             
             ofstream char1("enam.txt"); //Name
             ofstream char2("elev.txt"); //Level
             ofstream char3("eatt.txt"); //Attack
             ofstream char4("edef.txt"); //Defense
             ofstream char5("eagi.txt"); //Agility
             ofstream char6("emon.txt"); //Money
             ofstream char7("eexp.txt"); //Experience
             ofstream char8("esta.txt"); //Stamina
             ofstream char9("etst.txt"); //Stamina for use in battles;
                                         //refills to value of sta after battle().
             ofstream char10("eglo.txt"); //See gloc in struct statistics.
             cout << endl << "What is your character's name? ";
             cin >> enam;
             char1 << enam;
             char2 << "1"; //Starting level
             char3 << "50"; //Starting attack
             char4 << "40"; //Starting defense
             char5 << "65"; //Starting agility
             char6 << "0"; //Starting money
             char7 << "1"; //Starting experience
             char8 << "20"; //Starting stamina
             char10 << "1"; //Starting game loc
             char1.close();
             char2.close();
             char3.close();
             char4.close();
             char5.close();
             char6.close();
             char7.close();
     }
     else if (rac == "h" || rac == "H")
     {
//...
//You get the idea.

linkofazeroth, about your createdata function it looks like you are sending each individual statistic to its own file....I may be wrong but thats what it looks like to me. Wouldn't it be better to send all that information to the same file? The reason I ask is because I am working with a 'profile.txt' file that I want to send all the stats for the player to that one specific file. Is there any benifits for sending each stat to its own file or am I misunderstanding the code you wrote for that function?

Originally Posted by linkofazeroth

In MY text-based rpg (unfinished, but playable), I define the struct and declare instances of the struct globally, then in the function that creates a character, it saves values to an instance of the struct depending on the class you chose. Here's my code...

Code:

    struct statistics {
           string nam; //Name
           int lev; //Level
           int att; //Attack
           int def; //Defense
           int tempdef; //To heighten defense for a turn.
           int agi; //Agility (not currrently used in the program)
           int mon; //Money
           int sta; //Stamina
           int tempsta; //To keep track of player health while regenerating it after battle.
           float gloc; //To keep track of your location in Story Mode.
           float exp; //Experience (for leveling up, not currently used)
    };
    statistics player; //For players stats
    statistics opponent; //For enemy stats during battle

And my createdata() function:

Code:

void createdata(string rac) {
     if (rac == "d" || rac == "D")
     {
             string dnam;
             
             ofstream char1("dnam.txt"); //Name
             ofstream char2("dlev.txt"); //Level
             ofstream char3("datt.txt"); //Attack
             ofstream char4("ddef.txt"); //Defense
             ofstream char5("dagi.txt"); //Agility
             ofstream char6("dmon.txt"); //Money
             ofstream char7("dexp.txt"); //Experience
             ofstream char8("dsta.txt"); //Stamina
             ofstream char9("dtst.txt"); //Stamina for use in battles;
                                         //refills to value of sta after battle().
             ofstream char10("dglo.txt"); //See gloc in struct statistics.
             cout << endl << "What is your character's name? ";
             cin >> dnam;
             char1 << dnam;
             char2 << "1"; //Starting level
             char3 << "100"; //Starting attack
             char4 << "95"; //Starting defense
             char5 << "100"; //Starting agility
             char6 << "0"; //Starting money
             char7 << "1"; //Starting experience
             char8 << "25"; //Starting stamina
             char10 << "1"; //Starting game loc
             char1.close();
             char2.close();
             char3.close();
             char4.close();
             char5.close();
             char6.close();
             char7.close();
     }
     else if (rac == "e" || rac == "E")
     {
             string enam;
             
             ofstream char1("enam.txt"); //Name
             ofstream char2("elev.txt"); //Level
             ofstream char3("eatt.txt"); //Attack
             ofstream char4("edef.txt"); //Defense
             ofstream char5("eagi.txt"); //Agility
             ofstream char6("emon.txt"); //Money
             ofstream char7("eexp.txt"); //Experience
             ofstream char8("esta.txt"); //Stamina
             ofstream char9("etst.txt"); //Stamina for use in battles;
                                         //refills to value of sta after battle().
             ofstream char10("eglo.txt"); //See gloc in struct statistics.
             cout << endl << "What is your character's name? ";
             cin >> enam;
             char1 << enam;
             char2 << "1"; //Starting level
             char3 << "50"; //Starting attack
             char4 << "40"; //Starting defense
             char5 << "65"; //Starting agility
             char6 << "0"; //Starting money
             char7 << "1"; //Starting experience
             char8 << "20"; //Starting stamina
             char10 << "1"; //Starting game loc
             char1.close();
             char2.close();
             char3.close();
             char4.close();
             char5.close();
             char6.close();
             char7.close();
     }
     else if (rac == "h" || rac == "H")
     {
//...
//You get the idea.

Considering it would be unwise to read the file containing the data every time you wanted to find out how much health the player had, I would make sure if you did it how linkofazeroth does it.. to do it the way Zach L. does it also, and then pass the variables to write to the file, and not just '20'.

Code:

struct RaceStats {
       int h_basehp;
       int h_baselvl;
       int h_basemp;
       int h_basestr;           // h = human
       int h_baseagi;
       int h_basearmor;
       int e_basehp;
       int e_baselvl;
       int e_basemp;          // e = enchanter
       int e_basestr;
       int e_baseagi;
       int e_basearmor;
   RaceStats() : h_basehp(200), h_basearmor(100), ... etc ... { }
   // more stuff ...
} Player, Enemy;

void createdata(string rac) {
     if (rac == "d" || rac == "D")
     {
             string dnam;
             
             ofstream char1("dnam.txt"); //Name
             ofstream char2("dlev.txt"); //Level
             ofstream char3("datt.txt"); //Attack
             ofstream char4("ddef.txt"); //Defense
             ofstream char5("dagi.txt"); //Agility
             ofstream char6("dmon.txt"); //Money
             ofstream char7("dexp.txt"); //Experience
             ofstream char8("dsta.txt"); //Stamina
             ofstream char9("dtst.txt"); //Stamina for use in battles;
                                         //refills to value of sta after battle().
             ofstream char10("dglo.txt"); //See gloc in struct statistics.
             cout << endl << "What is your character's name? ";
             cin >> dnam;
             char1 << dnam;
             char2 << Player.h_baselvl; //Starting level
             char3 << Player.h_baseatk; //Starting attack
             char4 << Player.h_basedef; //Starting defense
             char5 << Player.h_baseagi; //Starting agility
             char6 << Player.h_basemon; //Starting money
             char7 << Player.h_baseexp; //Starting experience
             char8 << Player.h_basesta; //Starting stamina
             char10 << Player.h_baseloc; //Starting game loc
             char1.close();
             char2.close();
             char3.close();
             char4.close();
             char5.close();
             char6.close();
             char7.close();
     }
     else if (rac == "e" || rac == "E")

I would also consider using classes for the player data, instead of a struct. Have one class be Race, then derive the different type of races from that, 'class Elf : public Race {};'. That way any similar starting variables (ie. baseloc //location) that all races share can be in the Race class, and the others that differ can overload in the derived Elf/Human/etc. classes.

Just ideas, if you dont understand just ignore me.

No, you understood it right. I don't know how to make the program search in a file for a certain value and pull it up (I have a function called load()), so I'm stuck with separate files. Like, if I have a file that looks like this...

Code:

1
5
5
4
6
0
0
1

...I can't (or don't know how to) make the program search for a specific number. Maybe if I could tell a function to look at a certain line in the file and pull that line's value out, that'd be helpful, but I don't know how.

Did my previous post help you with your problem at all, though?

Originally Posted by linkofazeroth

Did my previous post help you with your problem at all, though?

Not really, but your sturct statistics(); function was nice and will help me to shorten my code in the long run. It's a nice structure that I will probably use, and modify a bit, to help create random encounter mobs.

I think I am gonna stick with the initializer list that Zach L. posted.

I created my own function for that, too, called monst(). It's incomplete, buuut...
(Oh, and struct statistics isn't a function, it's a struct. Similar to a class, actually.)

Code:

void monst() {
     int rando = 1+rand()%50;
     if (player.lev >= 1 && player.lev <= 3)
     {
            if (rando <= 5 && rando >= 0)
            {
                    opponent.nam = "Bug";
                    opponent.lev = 1;
                    opponent.att = 3;
                    opponent.def = 2;
                    opponent.agi = 2;
                    opponent.mon = 10;
                    opponent.sta = 10;
                    opponent.exp = 5;
            }
            else if (rando > 5)
            {
                 opponent.nam = "Rabbit";
                 opponent.lev = 1;
                 opponent.att = 3;
                 opponent.def = 3;
                 opponent.agi = 3;
                 opponent.mon = 5;
                 opponent.sta = 15;
                 opponent.exp = 10;
            }
     }
}

Originally Posted by Dae

Considering it would be unwise to read the file containing the data every time you wanted to find out how much health the player had, I would make sure if you did it how linkofazeroth does it.. to do it the way Zach L. does it also, and then pass the variables to write to the file, and not just '20'.

Why would it be unwise to read the file every time you wanted to pull information from it?

Mostly it's memory usage (I think. I'm not too knowledgable on that subject). Keeping an ifstream open, or repeatedly closing and opening one, could potentially use more memory than you want.

I wrote a program with lots of hard-coded information. The executable was about 30KB. Then I removed the info and read it in from a file. The exe was 16KB. There is no loss in speed, and some gain in flexibility.

Originally Posted by dwks

I wrote a program with lots of hard-coded information. The executable was about 30KB. Then I removed the info and read it in from a file. The exe was 16KB. There is no loss in speed, and some gain in flexibility.

I'm unable to decipher what the point is. Do you mean reading in from files and leaving the ifstream open is good, or that it's better to use the ifstream quickly (like you open, use, then close)?

Thank you to all who posted, I think I have it working the way I want to now.

Just saying that I like to read information in from a file. You can leave the stream open or close it, I don't think it would make too much difference. Unless another program is using the same file or something.

No difference from reading from say a struct, or loading a struct from a file and using it? I'll keep that in mind and check that out, that would be nice. But I would assume the stream and functions going on in the background cause some slow effect.