Question

I have a program that creates a random amount of points interspersed throughout the program. While it runs, I would also like to create an object for each point and store it in a vector. I have created a Point class with various attributes but I have no idea on how to implement the above. When looking at other questions that deal with similar, yet nonidentical problems, pointers are used, but again, I have no idea on how to implement them.

Answer 1

Im not quite sure what you really want to achieve, but i hope this will help you though.

To create an object dynmically use the new operator. The new operator always returns a pointer:

Point* pointObj = new Point();

If you have specified a constructor the call is very similar to normal construction on stack:

Point* pointObj = new Point(x,y);

A std::vector stores objects at runtime (dynamically in the heap), but instead of creating them by it own it simply copies them:

std::vector<Point> vec; //if this object is destructed it contents are destructed aswell

Point pointObj(x,y); //point on stack; will get destructed if it gets out of scope
vec.push_back(pointObj) //copy pointObj to a dynamic location on the heap