Question

Have a homework assignment in which I’m supposed to create a vector of pointers to objects

Later on down the load, I’ll be using inheritance/polymorphism to extend the class to include fees for two-day delivery, next day air, etc. However, that is not my concern right now. The final goal of the current program is to just print out every object’s content in the vector (name & address) and find it’s shipping cost (weight*cost).

My Trouble is not with the logic, I’m just confused on few points related to objects/pointers/vectors in general. But first my code. I basically cut out everything that does not mater right now, int main, will have user input, but right now I hard-coded two examples.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;

class Package {
public:
    Package(); //default constructor
    Package(string d_name, string d_add, string d_zip, string d_city, string d_state, double c, double w);
    double calculateCost(double, double);
    ~Package();

private:    
    string dest_name;
    string dest_address;
    string dest_zip;
    string dest_city;
    string dest_state;
    double weight;
    double cost;

};

Package::Package()
{
    cout<<"Constucting Package Object with default values: "<<endl;
    string dest_name="";
    string dest_address="";
    string dest_zip="";
    string dest_city="";
    string dest_state="";
    double weight=0;
    double cost=0;
}
Package::Package(string d_name, string d_add, string d_zip, string d_city, string d_state, string r_name, string r_add, string r_zip, string r_city, string r_state, double w, double c){

    cout<<"Constucting Package Object with user defined values: "<<endl;
    string dest_name=d_name;
    string dest_address=d_add;
    string dest_zip=d_zip;
    string dest_city=d_city;
    string dest_state=d_state;
    double weight=w;
    double cost=c;
}
Package::~Package()
{
    cout<<"Deconstructing Package Object!"<<endl;
    delete Package;
}
double Package::calculateCost(double x, double y){
    return x+y;
}
int main(){
    double cost=0;
    vector<Package*> shipment;
    cout<<"Enter Shipping Cost: "<<endl;
    cin>>cost;
    shipment.push_back(new Package("tom r","123 thunder road", "90210", "Red Bank", "NJ", cost, 10.5));
    shipment.push_back(new Package ("Harry Potter","10 Madison Avenue", "55555", "New York", "NY", cost, 32.3));
    return 0;

}

So my questions are:

1. I’m told I have to use a vector
   of Object Pointers, not Objects.
   Why? My assignment calls for it
   specifically, but I’m also told it
   won’t work otherwise.
2. Where should I be creating this
   vector?
   Should it be part of my Package
   Class? How do I go about adding
   objects into it then?

3. Do I need a copy constructor? Why?

4. What’s the proper way to deconstruct
   my vector of object pointers?

Any help would be appreciated. I’ve searched for a lot of related articles on here and I realize that my program will have memory leaks. Using one of the specialized ptrs from boost:: will not be available for me to use. Right now, I’m more concerned with getting the foundation of my program built. That way I can actually get down to the functionality I need to create.

Thanks.

Answer 1

A vector of pointers can be reused for storing objects of sub-classes:

class Person
{
    public:
    virtual const std::string& to_string () = 0;
    virtual ~Person () { } 
};

class Student : public Person
{
   const std::string& to_string ()
   {
       // return name + grade
   }
};

class Employee : public Person
{
   const std::string& to_string ()
   {
      // return name + salary
   }
};

std::vector<Person*> persons;
person.push_back (new Student (name, grade));
person.push_back (new Employee (name, salary));
person[0]->to_string (); // name + grade
person[1]->to_string (); // name + salary

Ideally the vector should be wrapped up in a class. This makes memory management easier. It also facilitates changing the support data structure (here an std::vector) without breaking existing client code:

class PersonList
{
   public:
   Person* AddStudent (const std::string& name, int grade)
   {
       Person* p = new Student (name, grade);
       persons.push_back (p);
       return p;
   }

   Person* AddEmployee (const std::string& name, double salary)
   {
       Person* p = new Employee (name, salary);
       persons.push_back (p);
       return p;
   }
    
   ~PersonList ()
   {
      size_t sz = persons.size ();
      for (size_t i = 0; i < sz; ++i)
          delete persons[i];
   }

   private
   std::vector<Person*> persons;
};

So we can re-write our code as:

{
   PersonList persons;
   Person* student = persons.AddStudent (name, grade);
   Person* employee = persons.AddEmployee (name, salary);
   student.to_string ();
   employee.to_string ();
} // The memory allocated for the Person objects will be deleted when
  // `persons` go out of scope here.

Getting familiar with the Rule of Three will help you decide when to add a copy constructor to a class. Also read about const correctness.