Question

I am wondering how would I deal with a call to a function when an integer is passed into a function that accepts a pointer? In my case hasPlayedInTeam() accepts a pointer to Team, however, received an int. This causes the Q_ASSERT to hang.

In addition, is my problem also known as a null pointer? My professor has used that term several times in lecture, but I am not sure what he was referring to.

//main.cpp
Person p1("Jack", 22, "UCLA");
Q_ASSERT(p1.hasPlayedInTeam(0) == false);


//person.cpp
bool Person::hasPlayedInTeam(Team *pTeam) {
  bool temp = false;
  foreach (Team* team, teamList) {
    if (team->getName() == pTeam->getName() {
      temp = true;
    }
  }
  return temp;
}

Answer 1

In your call:

p1.hasPlayedInTeam(0)

the integer literal 0 is converted to a NULL pointer. So, you are not actually “receiving” an integer; you are passing an integer, the compiler can automatically cast it to the null pointer (given the definition for NULL).

I think you can fix the definition of hasPlayedInTeam by either asserting that its argument is not NULL, or by returning a default value when NULL is passed in:

//person.cpp
bool Person::hasPlayedInTeam(Team *pTeam) {
    assert(pTeam!=NULL); //-- in this case, your program will assert and halt

or:

//person.cpp
bool Person::hasPlayedInTeam(Team *pTeam) {
    if (pTeam == NULL)
         return false; //-- in this case, your program will not assert and continue with a sensible (it actually depends on how you define "sensible") return value