Why This doesn't work and the other one works?

**chottachatri** · 03-24-2008

Hello,
i am posting the code. Please tell me why is one of the function defintion working and one is not??even though they both look identical!

i have written the comments also like which one is working and which one is not. Please have a look at them and give me the reason!

Code:

#include <iostream.h>
#include <string.h>
class student
{
  char *name,roll[3];
  public:
	student()
	{
		name=new char[20];
	}
	student(char *n,char *r)
	{
		strcpy(name,n);
		strcpy(roll,r);
	}
   friend void sort(student []); //Why This Doesn't Work?

   friend void sort(student *); //This Works Perfectly??..

};
void sort(student a[])         //Why Not Working??
{
  int j;
  student temp;
  for(int i=0;i<3;i++)
  {
	for(j=0;j<2;j++)
	{
	if(strcmp(a[j].roll,a[j+1].roll)>0)
		{
			temp=a[j];
			a[j]=a[j+1];
			a[j+1]=temp;
		}
	}
  }
}


int main(void)
{

 student a[3];
 a[0]=student("abc","1");
 a[1]=student("def","2");
 a[2]=student("hij","3");

 sort(a);

 return 0;
}

**Prelude** · 03-24-2008

>Please tell me why is one of the function defintion working and one is not??
Please define "working" and "not working". The way I see it, your code is not working period, because you don't ever allocate memory to name and then proceed to copy a string to the memory you never allocated. This will likely cause a crash in all cases.

**chottachatri** · 03-24-2008

what exactly are you talking??
can't you see the memory allocated in default? constructor??and can't you read the //program comments written in function??which says which one is working and which one's not?
the program is running perfectly. Please dont try to teach me false things i have allocated the memory in constructor. You may see it properly

**vart** · 03-24-2008

can't you see the memory allocated in default?

Can't you see that you do not call a default constructor? And call the constructor that does not allocates memory?

You should learn a little respect before talking in public...

**chottachatri** · 03-25-2008

Ok you're right vart
Sorry Prelude! my tone was not proper

But what i mean to say is that won't the default constructor be called automatically?i mean it should. Shouldn't it?because i have defined default constructor??then why is it not calling?

when i create a single object the default constructor is called but when i create array of objects as i created in the above case it's not calling. Why so??

and also apart from that please tell me why is the friend void sort(student []); not working??in the above example

**nvoigt** · 03-25-2008

The default constructor is only called if you specify it or if you don't specify any constructor. If you have another constructor and call it, the default constructor is not called behind the scenes. Only the constructor that is called gets executed, in your case the one taking two parameters. And that one is not allocating any memory.

Concerning your problem, please specify what "Doesn't work" means for you. Does it compile ? Does it link ? Does it produce the desired results ? Where does it fail ? And if it fails to compile or link, what is the error message ?

**chottachatri** · 03-25-2008

The error message is "undefined structure result"

**iMalc** · 03-25-2008

This line creates 3 students initialised with the default constructor - no problem:

Code:

 student a[3];

This line of code constructs another student using only the two-parameter constructor you provided. (That would normally fail, for the reasons stated). Assuming you were very lucky that this happened to not cause an access violation, but instead successfully wrote some garbage over some random memory location instead, it then copy-constructs the newly created student over top of the student at a[0], directly overwriting the value of the name pointer with the uninitialised garbage from the screwed up temporary object, leaking the memory allocated by the default constructor of the original item in a[0].

Code:

 a[0]=student("abc","1");

The bug has nothing to do with your sort function implementation or prototype.

Incidentally, you will be able to do what you wanted I believe, in the next revision of C++ that allows constructor delegation:

Code:

	student(char *n, char *r) : student()
	{
		strcpy(name,n);
		strcpy(roll,r);
	}

**chottachatri** · 03-25-2008

But i am still not able to understand why will the default constructor not be called automatically??
if i have defined default constructor shouldn't it be called implicitly at the time of declaring objects itself?
when i create a single object like --

student b;
its calling the default constructor implicitly and when i create array of objects it doesn't call default constructor! Why??what's the reason ?Why not with array of objects?

**Elysia** · 03-25-2008

No, it does.

student a[3];

Creates 3 student objects, and calls the default constructor for each of them.

a[0]=student("abc","1");

Creates a new temporary object student and calls the (char*, int) constructor (not the default one). Then, because they are the same type, the constructor calls the implicit copy constructor which does a shallow copy, that is, copies all of the variables from your temporary student to your a object, hence overwriting your pointer with memory.
And it's also bad in that the (char*, int) constructor never allocates any memory, so you copy into an uninitialized pointer.

**chottachatri** · 03-25-2008

Ok now things are getting clear to me!
But elysia you mean explicit call to constructor always creates a new temporary object?

**Elysia** · 03-25-2008

I mean because you are doing
a[0] = student("abc","1");
What does this do? It calls the constructor and creates a temporary object, that's all.
Then it is assigned to the left side, which is another object of the same type.

You could also do
student my_student("abc", 1);
No temporaries because you created a new object named my_student.
It's called a temporary because its life will not last very long. Once the compiler has assigned it to a[0], it will destruct and get rid of the object. Thus, a temporary.

**chottachatri** · 03-25-2008

Ok great!!! elysia good job!
now i understood!

you cleared all my doubts!

and now the main question. These were all problems pointed to by vart and now other doubt i have is why can't we use sort(student []); in the above example?
why can i only use only sort(student *);

These both function declarations mean the same thing. Don't they?then when i call sort(student []); i get a error like undefined structure student
WHy SO???

**chottachatri** · 03-26-2008

Nobody there to help me out?

**matsp** · 03-26-2008

Explain "Not working", as that can cover anything from "not compiling", "sorts in the wrong order" or "crashes when I run the code" - along with probably 100 other things.

--
Mats

Thread: Why This doesn't work and the other one works?

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Display

Why This doesn't work and the other one works?