Question

Is there a way to work around this?Im declaring class objects in a switch statement and later using that variable outside the switch, it only works if i put the rest of my code in each case which isnt very efficient.Heres my code

switch (shape)
{
case 'q':
{
    Quad geo(a,b,c,d);
}
break;
case 'r':
{
    Rectangle geo(a,b,c,d);
}
break;
case 't':
{
    Trapezoid geo(a,b,c,d);
}
break;
case 'p':
{
    Parrelogram geo(a,b,c,d);
}
break;
case 's':
{
    Square geo(a,b,c,d);

}
break;
default:
    break;
}

 geo.print();//obviously wont work

Answer 1

Have an IPrintable interface, like this

struct IPrintable
{
    virtual ~IPrintable() {}
    virtual void Print() = 0;
};

Then, derive your types Quad, Rectangle, etc from IPrintable, i.e. implement that interface. Then your code looks like this:

std::unique_ptr<IPrintable> pShape;
switch(shape)
{
    case quad:
       pShape.reset(new Quad(...));
    case rect
       pShape.reset(new Rect(...));
}
if(pShape)
    pShape->Print();

Of course, if the common functionality is more than print, you can add those functions to the interface as well. Also take a look at the visitor pattern. It may or may not be of help to you depending on the specifics of your problem.