Thread: newb question

Ok. I ll note post all the code not to make things complicated. I have two classes:

Code:

class Character
{
    ...
    Weapon rightHand;
    ...
};

class Weapon : public Item
{
    ...
}

I want to do this:

Code:

Character newb;
Weapon w;
newb.rightHand = w;

If I undestand correctly newb.rightHand will have a copy of w. Thus you will have double the memory for the a Weapon object. Is that bad programming? Would it make more sense having a pointer that will point to the object Weapon instead of copying the whole object?

I suppose it depends on what is going on within the Weapon function. Generally speaking this seems fine. If you are worried about the level of overhead in copying over a weapon then why not just use a (smart) pointer? Can I assume that rightHand is a public member of Character?

I'd suggest using a Factory.