Thread: Inherited classes cannot call constructor

Hello, I have an assignment that generally deals with Inherited classes and I'm stuck at a problem where I'm getting an error when I try calling the constructor:

error: cannot call constructor ‘HourlyEmployee::HourlyEmployee’ directly [-fpermissive]
employee = HourlyEmployee::HourlyEmployee(sfirstname, slastname, semployeeId, srate, shours);

This is my parser class where I get the error. The comments are what I tried already:

Code:

#include <string>
#include "StaffMember.h"
#include "HourlyEmployee.h"
using namespace std;
#ifndef STAFFMEMBERPARSER_H

#define STAFFMEMBERPARSER_H

class StaffMemberParser
{
 
    public:
    static StaffMember* parseStringToMember(string lineToParse)
    {
    string stype, sfirstname, slastname, semployeeId, srate, shours, sbonus; //I initialize the data here
    int pos, pos2, pos3, pos4, pos5, pos6;                           // because it would give me an error otherwise. 
    
        pos = lineToParse.find("/"); 
        stype = lineToParse.substr(0,pos);
        
        pos2 = lineToParse.find("/", pos+1); 
        sfirstname = lineToParse.substr(pos+1,pos2-pos-1);
        
        pos3 = lineToParse.find("/", pos2+1); 
        slastname = lineToParse.substr(pos2+1,pos3-pos2-1);
        
        pos4 = lineToParse.find("/", pos3+1); 
        semployeeId = lineToParse.substr(pos3+1,pos4-pos3-1);
     
        if(stype == "Volunteer")
        {
        //   Volunteer:Volunteer(sfirstname,slastname, semployeeId);
        }
     
        if(stype == "FullTimeEmployee")
        {
        pos5 = lineToParse.find("/", pos4+1); 
        srate = lineToParse.substr(pos4+1,pos5-pos4-1);
       
        pos6 = lineToParse.find("/", pos5+1); 
        sbonus = lineToParse.substr(pos5+1,pos6-pos5-1);
        
        }
        
        if(stype == "HourlyEmployee")
        {
         pos5 = lineToParse.find("/", pos4+1); 
        srate = lineToParse.substr(pos4+1,pos5-pos4-1);
       
        pos6 = lineToParse.find("/", pos5+1); 
        shours = lineToParse.substr(pos5+1,pos6-pos5-1);
        
      //  HourlyEmployee::HourlyEmployee(sfirstname, slastname, semployeeId, srate, shours);
        StaffMember* employee;
       // employee = &(HourlyEmployee(sfirstname, slastname, semployeeId, srate, shours));
        employee =  HourlyEmployee::HourlyEmployee(sfirstname, slastname, semployeeId, srate, shours);   //happens at this line
        //return employee;
        }
    }
};
#endif

Here is the hourlyemployee class:

Code:

// Child class
#include "StaffMember.h" //include the parent class header
using namespace std;
#ifndef HOURLYEMPLOYEE_H

#define HOURLYEMPLOYEE_H

class HourlyEmployee : public StaffMember
{
    
private:
double rate;
int hoursWorked;

public:

HourlyEmployee(string firstName, string lastName, string memberId, double newRate, int newHoursWorked) : StaffMember(firstName, lastName, memberId)
{
    
    rate = newRate;
    hoursWorked = newHoursWorked;
} 

void computePay()
{
    pay = rate*hoursWorked;
}

//overriding the printInfo function from the parent class
virtual void printInfo()
{
cout << "\nHourly Employee:";
StaffMember:printInfo();
cout << "Rate:\t\t\t$" << rate << endl;
cout << "Hours:\t\t\t$" << hoursWorked << endl;
}
};
#endif

Staffmember class:

Code:

#include <string>
using namespace std;
#ifndef STAFFMEMBER_H

#define STAFFMEMBER_H

class StaffMember
{
    protected:
    string firstName;
    string lastName;
    string memberID;
    double pay = 0.0;
    
    public:
    StaffMember(string newfirstName, string newlastName , string newmemberID)
    {
        firstName = newfirstName;
        lastName = newlastName;
        memberID = newmemberID;
        pay = 0.0;
    }
    
    string getMemberId()
    {
        return memberID;
    }

    virtual void computePay() = 0;
    
    virtual void printInfo()
    {
        cout << "\nFirst name:\t\t" << firstName << endl;
        cout << "Last name:\t\t" << lastName << endl;
        cout << "Member ID:\t\t" << memberID << endl;
        cout << "Pay:\t\t\t$" << pay << endl;
    }
    
};
#endif

Main class:

Code:

// Assignment #: 7
//         Name: 
// EmailAddress:
//  Description: It displays a menu of choices
//               (add volunteers, full time employees, or hourly employees,
//               compute their pay, search a member, list members,
//               quit, display menu) to a user.
//               Then it performs the chosen task. It will keep asking a user to
//               enter the next choice until the choice of 'Q' (Quit) is
//               entered.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <vector>
#include "StaffMember.h"
#include "StaffMemberParser.h"

using namespace std;

void printMenu();


int main()
{
    char input1;
    string inputInfo;
    bool operation;

    vector<StaffMember *> memberList;


    printMenu();     // print out menu


    do
    {
        cout << "What action would you like to perform?" << endl;
        cin >> input1;

        switch (input1)
        {
        case 'A':   //Add Member
            cout << "Please enter a member information to add:\n";
            cin >> inputInfo;
  /***********************************************************************************
  ADD your code here to create a pointer to an object of one of child classes of 
  StaffMember class and add it to the memberList
  ***********************************************************************************/
            StaffMemberParser::parseStringToMember(inputInfo); 
 
            break;
        case 'C':   //Compute Pay
  /***********************************************************************************
  ***  ADD your code here to compute the pay for all members the memberList.
  ***********************************************************************************/
             for (int j=0; j < memberList.size(); j++)
            {
                 memberList.at(j)->computePay();
            }
            
            cout << "pay computed\n";
            break;
        case 'D':   //Search for Member
            cout << "Please enter a memberID to search:\n";
            cin >> inputInfo;
            operation = false;
  /***********************************************************************************
  ***  ADD your code here to search a given memberID. If found, set "found" true,
  ***  and set "found" false otherwise.
  ***********************************************************************************/
            for (int j=0; j < memberList.size(); j++)
            {
                 if (inputInfo == memberList.at(j)->getMemberId())
                 {
                       operation = true;
                 }
                 else
                 {
                       operation = false;
                 }
            }
        
            if (operation == true)
                cout << "member found\n";
            else
                cout << "member not found\n";
            break;
        case 'L':   //List Members
  /***********************************************************************************
  ***  ADD your code here to print out all member objects. If there is no member,
  ***  print "no member\n"
  ***********************************************************************************/
            if (sizeof(memberList) == 0)
             {
                 cout << "no member\n" << endl;
             }
             else
             {
                 cout << "there are members" << endl;

                 for (int j=0; j < memberList.size(); j++)
                 {
                     memberList.at(j)->printInfo();
                 }   
             }
            
            break;
        case 'Q':   //Quit
            for (int j=0; j < memberList.size(); j++)
            {
                delete memberList.at(j);
            }
            break;
        case '?':   //Display Menu
            printMenu();
            break;
        default:
            cout << "Unknown action\n"  <<endl;
            break;
        }

    } while (input1 != 'Q' && input1 != 'q'); // stop the loop when Q is read

}

/** The method printMenu displays the menu to a user **/
void printMenu()
{
    cout << "Choice\t\tAction\n"; 
    cout << "------\t\t------\n"; 
    cout << "A\t\tAdd Member\n"; 
    cout << "C\t\tCompute Pay\n"; 
    cout << "D\t\tSearch for Member\n"; 
    cout << "L\t\tList Members\n"; 
    cout << "Q\t\tQuit\n"; 
    cout << "?\t\tDisplay Help\n\n";
}

Originally Posted by GReaper

Remove the "HourlyEmployee::" and it should work. Remember, you don't call the constructor, you create an object. The object, upon its creation, calls the constructor.

Still though, that would be wrong too, because "employee" is a pointer. I don't know what you're trying to do, but if you want to assign a new object to employee you should delete the old object and make a new one.

When I tried to remove the "HourlyEmployee::" ,it gave me another error:

StaffMemberParser.h: In static member function ‘static StaffMember* StaffMemberParser::parseStringToMember(std::string )’:
StaffMemberParser.h:56:85: error: no matching function for call to ‘HourlyEmployee::HourlyEmployee(std::string&, std::string&, std::string&, std::string&, std::string&)’
employee = HourlyEmployee(sfirstname, slastname, semployeeId, srate, shours);

The employee pointer is only a temporary and it returns the values that I passed on.

Originally Posted by laserlight

The error message seems pretty clear: cannot call constructor ‘HourlyEmployee::HourlyEmployee’ directly

That is, you should have written:
However, this does not solve the problem entirely: you may create an object, but the destination is a pointer. Hence, you would need to write something like this:

Code:

StaffMember* employee = new HourlyEmployee(sfirstname, slastname, semployeeId, srate, shours);

Unfortunately I am getting the same error as I described above when I try to change it.

One other thing: sizeof(memberList) gives you the size of the vector object itself, which is a compile-time constant. It's never 0, even when the vector contains no elements. You need to use memberList.size() (which you do in the for loop a few lines down) to get the number of elements in the vector.

Originally Posted by christop

One other thing: sizeof(memberList) gives you the size of the vector object itself, which is a compile-time constant. It's never 0, even when the vector contains no elements. You need to use memberList.size() (which you do in the for loop a few lines down) to get the number of elements in the vector.

Thank you. I figured out that problem well while i was doing debugging. I additionally forgot to add the Staff pointer to the vectorlist which is why the list function wouldn't work. So now it's working all great! Thanks for your help.