DataPackage class isn't working like I thought it would...

[Raigne]

Okay, I have the following class cDataPackage. It basically is just a basic class for Creating/Saving/Loading dynamic resources.

class cDataPackage
{
protected:
    // Data buffer and size
    void *m_Buf;
    unsigned long m_Size;
public:
    cDataPackage() { m_Buf = NULL; m_Size = 0; }
    ~cDataPackage() { Free(); }
    void *Create(unsigned long Size)
    {
        // Free a previously created buffer
        Free();
        // Allocate some memory and return a pointer
        return (m_Buf = (void*)new char[(m_Size = Size)]);
    }
    // Free the allocated memory
    void Free() { delete m_Buf; m_Buf = NULL; m_Size = 0; }
    BOOL Save(char *Filename)
    {
        FILE *fp;
        // Make sure there’s something to write
        if(m_Buf != NULL && m_Size) {
            // Open file, write size and data
            if((fp=fopen(Filename, “wb”)) != NULL) {
                fwrite(&m_Size, 1, 4, fp);
                fwrite(m_Buf, 1, m_Size, fp);
                fclose(fp);
                return TRUE;
            }
        }
        return FALSE;
    }
    void *Load(char *Filename, unsigned long *Size)
    {
        FILE *fp;
        // Free a prior buffer
        Free();
        if((fp=fopen(Filename, “rb”))!=NULL) {
            // Read in size and data
            fread(&m_Size, 1, 4, fp);
            if((m_Buf = (void*)new char[m_Size]) != NULL)
                fread(m_Buf, 1, m_Size, fp);
            fclose(fp);
            // Store size to return
            if(Size != NULL)
                *Size = m_Size;
            // return pointer
            return m_Buf;
        }
        return NULL;
    }
};

He is a working example

typedef struct {
    char Name[32];
} sName;


int main()
{
    cDataPackage DP;
    DWORD Size;
    // Create the data package (w/64 bytes) and get the
    // pointer, casting it to an sName structure type.
    sName *Names = (sName*)DP.Create(64);
    // Since there are 64 bytes total, and each name uses
    // 32 bytes, then I can have 2 names stored.
    strcpy(Names[0].Name, "Jim");
    strcpy(Names[1].Name, "Adams");
    // Save the names to disk and free the data buffer
    DP.Save("names.dat");
    DP.Free();
    // Load the names from disk. Size will equal 64
    // when the load function returns.
    Names = (sName*)DP.Load("names.dat", &Size);
    // Display the names
    MessageBox(NULL, Names[0].Name, "1st Name", MB_OK);
    MessageBox(NULL, Names[1].Name, "2nd Name", MB_OK);
    // Free up the data package
    DP.Free();
}

That example works flawlessly. Though if I try making a struct with more data. The pointer doesn't save right. I was wondering if anyone knew how to fix this, or a suggestion to keep the basic functionality the same. Thank you so much for any help.

[tabstop]

I don't know what you mean by "making a struct with more data. The pointer doesn't save right." Do you mean that the data isn't written entirely or correctly to the file? Or what?

My hat is going to take a wild guess and say that you're making a struct with multiple members, trying to count the number of bytes yourself instead of using sizeof, and not getting it right due to padding. But that's just a guess.

[Sebastiani]

the problem with this approach is (among other things) it won't work for structures containing pointers and thus many non-pod types (ie: std:string, etc). I would recommend storing data in textual format, which is much easier to work with, more portable, etc. otherwise, consider using something such as the boost serialization library.

[Raigne]

I guess I will use XML. Thank you for the info.

Also, I was talking about adding more members to the struct. I do use sizeof for anything that requires size of data.