Question

I have a class which I want to use a preLoad boolean to prevent it being loaded twice in my loop.

I do that like this:

Sprite::Sprite(std::string& imagefile)
{
 if(!preload){
    if(!texture.loadFromFile(imagefile)){
        exit(2);
    }

    sprite = sf::Sprite(texture);
    width = sprite.getLocalBounds().width;
    height = sprite.getLocalBounds().height;
    preload = true;
 }
}

The problem is that preload seems to start off true rather than false. The variable is set in the class like so:

private:
bool preload;

But, I need to set it to false first but it won’t allow me to assign a false to it in the header. What can I do to set it to false initially?

Answer 1

use a static bool and set it in the cpp file.

private:
    static bool preload;

in .cpp file

//file declarations
bool Sprite::preload = false;

//class functions below...

the static keyword will make all object share this same variable, allowing you to call a function just once for the entire life of a program.