Question

I keep on receiving odd unexpected values for my bool testValue. I keep receiving random numbers as I believe it is trying to access another region of memory. I predict it is how my code is setup within my testNumber() function, but I am unsure of how to solve it. This is my logic.

I have set ok to true. Now I assign the memory address of ok to pOk.

void TextBox::lengthTest(bool *pOk, int length) {
  bool ok;

  if (length < MAX_LENGTH) {
    ok = true;
    pOk = &ok;
  } else {
    ok = false;
    pOk = &ok;
  }
}

bool lengthTestBool = lengthTest(*pOk, length);
cout << lengthTestBool <<;

output:

85

Answer 1

You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how one uses pointers to implement reference semantics. You want to change thing that is pointed to by the pointer:

*pOK = ok;

However, C++ actually supports references semantics natively through reference types, which may be preferable:

void testNumber(bool & OK, int n)
{
    OK = true;
    // ... 
}

Even better, though, is to simply return a bool:

bool testNumber(int n) { /* ... */ }

if (testNumber(x)) //... etc.