Uninitrilized Variables

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#pragma warning ( disable : 4101 )

char file[] = "tsd.txt";


int main  ()
{
       
        std::fstream * fp;
        fp->open(file, fp->in | fp->out | fp->app);
        fp->get();
        fp->close();

}

---

The compiler is giving me back an error of fp being uninitrilized..

That's because it is. Why are you declaring a pointer and not making it point anywhere?

Why are you using a pointer in the first place?

>> uninitrilized
uninitialized

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MacGyver

That's because it is. Why are you declaring a pointer and not making it point anywhere?

---

Its pointing to a memory address, but I dont know what memory address, I would think it would be fstream, it gives me an error if I dont use a pointer so.

Nevermind, it works now, I just used the period instead of the object operand. :), but why does it do that?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bobbelPoP

Its pointing to a memory address, but I dont know what memory address, I would think it would be fstream, it gives me an error if I dont use a pointer so.

---

Declaring a pointer makes it point to something random. That means you're trashing memory when trying to use it.

If you create an object like this:

Code:

---

std::fstream fstr;

---

Then an object is constructed in memory saved for it on the stack. When the current block of code ends, then the object is destroyed automatically and the memory is automatically freed.

If you're using dynamic memory, then you use new to allocate memory for the object somewhere else and construct the object there.

Code:

---

std::fstream * fp = new fstream;

---

The result of the call to new is an address to the location of the new memory allocated. That's what you might normally assign to the fp pointer. When you just created the pointer, it wasn't pointing to an object anywhere, so calling functions on it wouldn't work correctly.

You should use the first version wherever possible in C++. The second version requires you to manually call delete to destroy the object and clean up the memory when you're done, which is easy to forget and error prone:

Code:

---

delete fp;

---

>> I just used the period instead of the object operand.
The period works on objects like fstr in the first example, but you need to use -> on pointers. It probably wasn't the period that fixed the problem, it was the switch to using a local object instead of a pointer.