Thread: A question about constructors...

Hi everyone. I've been learning C as my hobby for about 2 years now, and I've just recently decided that I've consumed enough knowledge to start working with C++ . Anyhow the question at hand is regarding constructors and inheritance.

Assume that I had:

Code:

class Player
.
.
.

class Elemental : public Player
.
.
.

Now the problem that I'm having understanding is, when an Elemental object is created it also calls the Player class's constructor. For instance, maybe I don't want Player's constructor called every single time I create an Elemental object. Is there any way to get around this? I'm sure that there has to be a better way than how I'm doing this, because I'm a fledgling c++ programmer, lol.

Here's a little snippet of code so that you can see what I'm talking about.

Code:

    const int MAXP = 4; // Max count in Player array.
    const int MAXE = 15; // Max count in Elem array.
    
    Player pParty[MAXP] = { // Create array of characters.  With different values.
             // Name   Status  Shield  Health  Mana
        Player("Paul", IsAlive,  2000,  150,    -1),
        Player("Joe"),
        Player("Bob"),
        Player("Jason"),
    };        
    
    Elem pElem[MAXE] = {
        Elem("Fire"),
        Elem("Blaze"),
        Elem("Flare"),
        Elem("Burn",BURNING),
        Elem("Ice"),
        Elem("Blizzard"),
        Elem("FlashFreeze"),
        Elem("Freeze",FROZEN),
        Elem("Wind"),
        Elem("MicroBurst"),
        Elem("Tornado"),
        Elem("Confuse",CONFUSED),
        Elem("Water"),
        Elem("Geyser"),
        Elem("Flood")
    };

The output I get from the constructors on the console looks like this:

Code:

Constructing Player object Paul
        Negative found (-1) -- correcting.
Constructing Player object Joe
Constructing Player object Bob
Constructing Player object Jason
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Fire
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Blaze
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Flare
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Burn
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Ice
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Blizzard
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object FlashFreeze
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Freeze
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Wind
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object MicroBurst
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Tornado
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Confuse
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Water
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Geyser
Constructing Player object Default
Constructing Elem object Flood
Constructing Player object Default

"Default" is a default name given to the object if a string wasn't specified as an argument when the object got created.

Any ideas on how to get around this?