Is this sort of thing possible? Suppose I have 100 some variables in a file, if I were to put these in a .cpp or a .h file and link it with the main file, they would be global (right??).
I was wondering if there was a way to make them local to the main function inside the main file.
Or what's an alternative (like using file reading from a text file instead of .cpp and .h or using namespaces or whatever).
Cheers!
Just define the variables at the global scope, outside of any function, within their implementation file. Then from your main driver declare them with the "extern" keyword. (Just don't try to initialize them to any value from there. That's done inside the implementation file.)Originally Posted by Nwb
Is this sort of thing possible? Suppose I have 100 some variables in a file, if I were to put these in a .cpp or a .h file and link it with the main file, they would be global (right??).
I was wondering if there was a way to make them local to the main function inside the main file.
Or what's an alternative (like using file reading from a text file instead of .cpp and .h or using namespaces or whatever).
Cheers!
Oh I assumed doing that would still give them global scope status. Guess not thanks.
100+ global variables sounds like a very bad place to be.
Can you show what you're trying to achieve?
If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.
True. Usually synonymous with "not thread safe".
No usually considered a non-maintainable mess.usually usually synonymous with "not thread safe".
No doubt, but the effect on thread safety is still a much bigger problem.
If you're thinking of 100 variables and reading from a file, perhaps you have in mind some kind of registry of configuration variables? These don't necessarily have to be a hundred different variables, e.g., perhaps a single registry consisting of a std::unordered_map<std::string, std::string> object would work to map configuration variable names to their values. You could have a file in an INI-style format to store the names and corresponding values.
This unordered_map object could be declared in main, populated in a function called from main, and then passed around as needed, or if you really want you could make it global, but if you do that and you presumably don't want to modify the original configuration values after reading from file, you could apply the singleton pattern such that the global access only provides a const-view of the values.
Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Not global variables, that was my misconception. I assumed that when you use extern variable; they are entered into global scope, which I didn't want to happen.
Anyways for the 100 variables part, I am making was making a quiz game. Now keep in mind that I just recently started learning about C++ in school a few months ago and we're still learning about one dimensional arrays, I was just playing around with this quiz.
But I would really appreciate pointers. And for that I will post my quiz soon as it's done.. which it will and soon.
So the idea is, I used a char* array for each Questions, Answers, OptionA, OptionB, OptionC, OptionD which held 50 some different variables separately which held text. Why did I use text variables? Because I wanted the order in which the questions and options are read out to be random.
Why did I use char* (I don't even know what char* is.. my compiler told me I couldn't convert char to char* and since just adding an asterix made things work I just went with it)
instead of just using one array and shuffling the elements? Because it would be harder to enter new Questions and for the most part it would be messy.
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So before, the variable definitions would take up majority space of the code. So I had to figure out how to put the variables into a different file so the code is more neat for other users. That's where all of this came into picture.
( I brought up file i/o because I thought you could not attach variables that are local to the main function from another .cpp file (which I found out to not be so at all).
Cheers and thanks to everybody that replied!
Last edited by Nwb; 09-19-2018 at 08:47 AM.
Honestly, before writing such a game you should learn about string, struct and vector which would easily solve your problems with the variables.
Code:struct QuizEntry // one variable for each question { string question; vector<string> answers; int correct_answer; }; vector<QuizEntry> quiz; // one variable for all questions
