Newbie - Could not convert to bool error

I keep receiving the following compiling error when trying to print a data structure from within an array:

could not convert 'new_vehicle[t].vehicles_in::inVin' to 'bool'

If anyone can offer any insight about this error, I'd really appreciate it!

Here is the code that defines the data structure within the array:

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
#include <cctype>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <string>
#include "Vehicle.cpp"
#include "maxarray.h"

using std::cout;
using std::cin;
using std::endl;
using namespace std;

const int IN_VEHICLE = 100;

struct vehicles_in{
 string inVin;
 int inPassengerCount;
 string inLuxury;
 int inMpg;
 char inType;
}new_vehicle [IN_VEHICLE];

This is the code where I am calling the function to print the data structure:

Code:

void listVehicles()
{
  int in;

  for (in=0; in<IN_VEHICLE; in++)
  printVehicle();
}

And here is the code for the function that is printing the data within the array.

Code:

void printVehicle()
{
  int t;

  for (t=0;t<IN_VEHICLE;t++)
  {
  if (new_vehicle[t].inVin)
  {
  cout << new_vehicle[t].inVin;
  cout <<  new_vehicle[t].inPassengerCount;
  cout << new_vehicle[t].inLuxury;
  cout <<  new_vehicle[t].inMpg;
  cout << new_vehicle[t].inType;

}

Code:

if (new_vehicle[t].inVin)

What exactly does this mean?

This is supposed to be checking to see if something has been entered into inVin to see if there is something to print out; however, this statement is similar to an example I had in a book so I'm not sure if I did it right.

I presume that's talking about the if (new_vehicle[t].inVin) statement. Try changing it to

if (new_vehicle[t].inVin!=0)

if it's a number.

This is supposed to be checking to see if something has been entered into inVin to see if there is something to print out; however, this statement is similar to an example I had in a book so I'm not sure if I did it right.

Then you should write:

Code:

if (!new_vehicle[t].inVin.empty())

if it's a number.

It's a string.

or change struct to char * inVin;

you also don't have enough closing braces.

Originally Posted by Shal

or change struct to char * inVin;

Very bad idea without understanding all the implications. (And a bad idea even then.)

Y is it bad to use char *?

1. It's a pointer to char and therefore shouldn't be used to hold an array of char.
2. Yet you can make a pointer to a char array and it works as long as it's in scope.
3. The confusion that arises when you want to return a string but you have to return char * instead because arrays decay into pointers when calling functions.
... 73. The array might not be big enough.
866. To get an array big enough you have to do a lot of footwork to dynamically allocate memory
1234. ...and reallocating if that isn't big enough.

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