C++ Newbie - Derived Class Issue

I'm doing an assignment for a C++ class and I'm having some serious issues understanding the topic. The assignment was to make a class called Employee..then make a class called Payroll that is derived from Employee. I think I am doing something wrong with my syntax but I can't figure out what it is. I have the employee class working.....but when I try to do anything with the derived class it gives a compile error. What am I doing wrong?

I know that the employee class is working and it doesn't seem to matter what I put into the payroll class (constructor or otherwise...it all gives the same error).

Here are my class declarations...

Thanks in advance!

Phil

p.s. The error I'm getting says "Unresolved External Symbol"
-------------------

Code:

---

class Employee{

protected:
char name[50];
char ssn[11];
char empId[5];
char hireDate[10];

public:
Employee();
Employee(char social[], char EmpId[], char HireDate[], char Name[]){
setSocial(social);
setEmpId(EmpId);
setHireDate(HireDate);
setName(Name);
}
bool setSocial(char[]);
void printSocial();
bool setEmpId(char[]);
void printEmpId();
bool setHireDate(char[]);
void printHireDate();
bool setName(char[]);
void printName();
};

class Payrollublic Employee{

protected:
float payRate;
float overtimeRate;
int hoursworked;

public:
Payroll(float rate,float overtime,int hours){
setPayRate(rate);
setovertime(overtime);
sethours(hours);
}

bool setPayRate(float);
bool setovertime(float);
bool sethours(int);

};

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Post the full error. It tells you which symbol is unresolved. It generally means that you didn't implement one of the functions you declared in the class. It could also mean that your source file wasn't compiled and linked in the project/makefile. Sometimes the error occurs when you forget to prefix the function definition with the class name.

BTW, publicly deriving Payroll from Employee sounds like poor design. Obviously you should do the assignment if that is what is asked, but in general you want to only publicly derive one class from another if it works like the base class. In this case, a Payroll is implemented in terms of an Employee, so it would normally use an Employee member variable rather than deriving from it.

Thanks for the reply!

Here is the full error:

error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "public: __thiscall Employee::Employee(void)" (??0Employee@@QAE@XZ) referenced in function "public: __thiscall Payroll::Payroll(float,float,int)" (??0Payroll@@QAE@MMH@Z) project5.obj

I have all three of the functions that I declared implemented in their own file. The Employee class that works is implemented in the same way and works so I'm assuming that that isn't the issue.

When I call the Payroll class I'm using the following

Code:

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Payroll stevesCheck(10,15,10);

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gipionocheiyort

Code:

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class Payrollublic Employee{

---

---

This looks like a typing error -

did you mean

Code:

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class Payroll : public Employee {

---

The problem is in your Employee class. Notice how you have a constructor that takes no arguments in the Employee class declaration:

Code:

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Employee();

---

Did you implement this function? The compiler is complaining that it cannot find the implementation for it.

The reason it is being used is because a derived class constructor always calls a base class constructor. Your Payroll class constructor doesn't tell the compiler which Employee constructor to use, so by default it uses the one with no parameters.

If it doesn't make sense to create an employee without specifying a name and other things, then you should specify the name, EmpId, hireDate, and social when creating the Payroll. Otherwise, just implement the default constructor and initialize those values to empty strings.


>> class Payrollublic Employee{
I'm assuming this is just because of the smiley that appears when you have : followed by p. There is a "Disable Smilies in this post" option in the advanced editor to remove the smilies and leave the code as is.

My two cents:

Now why would they have you derive a class from Employee called Payroll?

Is payroll an employee???

You would only derive payroll from employee if this were true.

This is a very sad way to demonstrate inheritance and flies in the face of object oriented design.

Derive - Is?

Code:

---

class Polygon { };
class Triangle:public Polygon { };
class Rectangle:public Polygon { };

---

• A triangle is a polygon. TRUE
• A triangle has a polygon. FALSE
• A rectangle is a polygon. TRUE
• A rectangle has a polygon. FALSE

Don't derive - Has?

Code:

---

class Wheel { };
class Engine  { };
class Car
{
  Wheel *pMyWheels;
  Engine *pMyEngine;
}

---

• A car has wheels. TRUE
• A car is a wheel. FALSE
• A car has an engine. TRUE
• A car is an engine. FALSE

Applied to your instance:

• An employee is a payroll. FALSE
• An employee has a payroll. FALSE (a business has a payroll)
• A payroll is an employee. FALSE (in the truest sense - A!=B)
• A payroll has an employee. TRUE (could have 1 or more employees)

So your structure based on these questions is:

Code:

---

class Employee { };

class Payroll
{
  Employee *pEmployees;
};

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So then, after having understood Bubba:

Code:

---

class Employee { };     
class Manager : public Employee { };    //a Manager IS an employee


class Payroll    // a payroll CONTAINS employees (some of which may be managers)
{
  Employee *pEmployees;
};

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IS or CONTAINS?
IS or HAS?

Same thing. Hehe.

If you had a constructor with no orguments in the class "Employee" then you should add a constructor in class "payroll". constructor with orguments work but how no orgument constructor will work in class "Employee"