For-loop to assign values to objects in array [BEGINNER]

[Mr. I Need Help]

Hello,

This is my first time using this forum, and I'm very new to programming in C++. Please forgive any misuse of terminology, and feel free to correct me on my verbiage mishaps, as I appreciate anything that I can learn from.

I've just learned about stack and heap, and I'm fairly adequate with basic for-loops, arrays, and somewhat sufficient with pointers.

My task is to create a primitive array of objects belonging to my 'Planet' class that is not shown here. I am to allocate memory for 26 objects in the array as shown in this line:

Planet *pArray = new Planet[26];

and name each element in pArray by the corresponding letter in the alphabet... [0] = A, and so on...

I figured the best way I could do this was to use a char array and a for loop, as seen in the entire snippet of code below:

char alpha[] = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVQXYZ";


int nChar = sizeof(alpha)-1;      // equals 26


Planet *pArray = new Planet[nChar];  // array initialization


for (int p = 0; p<=nChar; p++) {     // loop 26 times

        *pArray[p] = alpha[p];            // error line

}

I am getting error on the last line there:

error: no match for 'operator*' (operand type is 'Planet')

I am usually decent at figuring errors our, but I'm stumped on this one. I tried removing the asterisk on *pArray in the for-loop, although I believe it's needed. It errors either way! Please help me.

The main point of the practice is that I leave the object array alone, as that was how it was taught in the lesson to be done. The rest of it was my own and fine to change.

My apologies if I left anything out that I shouldn't have. I am a certified noob. Let me know about it and I'll include it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and more so if you're able to help!

[john.c]

In the future, remember that it is best to post a complete program (headers,main,etc) so that we can easily run (or try to compile) it.

The compiler does not know how to set a Planet to a char. If you want to be able to assign a char to a Planet then you need to define an operator= overload for that purpose.

Alternatively if the char that Planet stores is public then you can directly assign to it:

    planets[p].ch  = alpha[p];

Here's the operator= overload (and an operator<< overload for output).

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
 
class Planet {
    char ch;
 
public:
    Planet() : ch(0) {}
 
    Planet& operator=(char c) { ch = c; return *this; }
 
    friend ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const Planet& p) {
        return out << p.ch;
    }
};
 
int main() {
 
    char alpha[] = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVQXYZ";
    int nPlanets = sizeof(alpha) - 1;
 
    Planet *planets = new Planet[nPlanets];
 
    for (int p = 0; p < nPlanets; p++)
        planets[p] = alpha[p];
 
    for (int p = 0; p < nPlanets; p++)
        cout << planets[p] << '\n';
 
    delete[] planets;
}

[Salem]

> My task is to create a primitive array of objects belonging to my 'Planet' class that is not shown here.
Well without it, it's impossible to say what could possibly make sense of your assignment.

Does this make sense to you?
Planet mars = 'M';

Because that's what you're trying to do.

Oh, and your loop iterates 27 times (and falls of the ends of your allocated space).

for (int p = 0; p<nChar; p++) {     // loop 26 times
        pArray[p] = alpha[p];            // error line
}

If there is something meaningful to be done with the assignment.

[Mr. I Need Help]

Thank you both for the help! I'll post correctly next time, sorry for making you type the rest out.

Salem, thank you for pointing out my incorrect operator there!

[Mr. I Need Help]

In case either of you care about my remedial level code, here is the finished script. After much searching and reviewing past lessons, it works. For readability's sake, I stripped all code unrelated to the essential Planet class, and the aforementioned task in main function. Once I had it working, I polished it up with toupper() function which I just learned about as well.

Embarrassingly, I had that setName method in Planet class already coded in the entire time, and I did not even think to invoke it. Salem, I now see what you meant with your your Mars statement. Huge oof...

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Planet {
private:
    string name;

public:
    Planet() {
        this->name = "Unnamed";
    }
    ;
    void setName(string name) {
        cout << "Planet name changed to '" << name << "'." << endl;
        this->name = name;
    }
    ;

};

int main() {

    Planet *planets = new Planet[26];

    char c = toupper('a');

    for (int p = 0; p < 26; p++, c++) {
        string n(1, c);
        planets[p].setName(n);

    }

    return 0;
}

[laserlight]

That's a good attempt, but instead of using new[], you should use a std::vector. For example:

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

using namespace std;

class Planet {
public:
    explicit Planet(const std::string& new_name = "Unnamed") : name(new_name) {
        cout << "Planet initialised with the name of '" << name << "'." << endl;
    }

    void setName(const std::string& name) {
        cout << "Planet name changed to '" << name << "'." << endl;
        this->name = name;
    }

    // ...
private:
    string name;
};

int main() {
    vector<Planet> planets;
    planets.reserve('Z' - 'A' + 1);

    for (int c = 'A'; c <= 'Z'; ++c) {
        planets.emplace_back(string(1, c));
    }

    // ...

    return 0;
}

Compared to your version, this:

• Makes use of the constructor to initialise the Planet with the name that you want, and if no name is provided, it defaults to "Unnamed" like your version, except that it does initialisation instead of assignment.
• Changes the parameter type of setName to a const reference because conceptually you want to copy the string once, not twice.
• Has no worries related to manual memory management: in your version, you should delete[] what you new[], and then you need to worry about exceptions being thrown or propagated in between.
• More efficiently constructs the vector of Planets by populating it with the Planet objects initialised to their desired name, rather than default constructing them and then assigning them with their desired names.