Question

I am having an issue when trying to populate a 2D array full of objects of a class I have created. The error is:

error C2679: binary '=' : no operator found which takes a right-hand operand of type 'Cell *' (or there is no acceptable conversion)

The code that generates the error is as follows:

Excerpt from main.cpp

Cell cells[80][72];

for(int x = 0; x < 80; x++){
    for(int y = 0; y < 72; y++){
        cells[x][y] = new Cell();
    }
}

Excerpt from cell.hpp

class Cell
{
public:
    Cell();
    int live;
    int neighbours;
};

Excerpt from cell.cpp

Cell::Cell()
{
    srand(time(0));
    this->live = rand() % 2;
    this->neighbours = 0;
}

I suspect that I need an overload of some kind on the constructor of the Cell class but I have no idea how to implement one for this case.

Answer 1

Since Cell has a parameterless constructor the statement

Cell cells[80][72];

defines an 80×72 array of Cell objects. The objects are already constructed for you so the nested for loops are unnecessary.

On the other hand if you declare Cell as a 80×72 array of pointers to Cell, i.e.

Cell* cells[80][72];

Then you have to go allocate each one like you’re trying to do.
If you don’t actually need to use pointers, then don’t.