passing array to a constructor

Suppose I have a class like this:

Code:

---

class Polygon
{
    public:
    Polygon(unsigned int, Vertex*, float, float, float);
    ~Polygon();
    void Render();
    protected:
    Vertex* vertices;
    unsigned int VertexCount;
};

---

In my constructor the second parameter is for an array of a structure called Vertex. Now I got to coding it, and I got to a crossroads. Do I need to call new on vertices, and then set it to equal the parameter, or do I just need to set it to be equal to the parameter. I think that if I just set it to equal the parameter, that when the array I passed to it went out of scope, it won't work right, because vertices won't be pointing to anything; however, I don't know if I dynamically allocate vertices, and then set it to equal the parameter, that it would work right.

I'd say make a copy to be safe.

I just did a test. If the variable goes out of scope, then it fails to work correctly, because the pointer has lost the variable.

The same thing happens even if I dynamically allocate the array.

Anyone got any ideas on how to get this to work?

As long as you create the copy *before* the array goes out of scope, it will work. Care to post some code?

how I usually do it:

Code:

---

Polygon::Polygon(Vertex* verts, int count) {
    if (count <= 0) {
        verts = NULL;
        return;
    }
    mVerts = new Vertex[count];
    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
        mVerts[i] = verts[i];
    }
}

Polygon::~Polygon(void) {
    if (mVerts) {
        delete [] mVerts;
    }
}

---

Always copy the passed pointer (verts), once I've written a similar class, I thought that I could make sure not to pass something on the stack to the constructor, it went fine for a while, then my program (a game engine) started to give error messages on exit, after lots of debugging nightmares I figured out that I was passing a static variable to the constructor.

I was thinking of doing that, but something compelled me not to for some reason, lol. Thx!

Use a std::vector...