Question

The program runs smoothly and I have no errors or warnings when its compiled its just when it gets the end result I just get a load of random letters and numbers no matter what I put in.

Here is the code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
     int hold;
     int n;
     int * result = new int;
     int * price = new int;
     std::string items[6];

        for (n=0; n<6; n++)
        {
            cout << "Item#" << n+1 << ": ";
            cin >> items[n];
        }
        cout <<  "\nYou Entered: ";
        for (int n=0; n<6; n++)
            cout << items[n] << ", ";

    for (n=0; n<6; n++)
    {
        if (items[n] == "ab"){
        price[n] = 2650;
        }

        else if (items[n] == "ae"){
        price[n] = 1925;
        }

        else if (items[n] == "ie"){
        price[n] = 3850;
        }

        else if (items[n] == "bt"){
        price[n] = 3000;
        }

        else if (items[n] == "pd"){
        price[n] = 2850;
        }

        else if (items[n] == "ga"){
        price[n] = 2600;
        }

    }

    for (n=0; n<6; n++)
    {
     result += price[n];
    }

    cout << "\nTotal gold for this build: " << result;
    cin >> hold;
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

Well, result is an int *. This kind of variable usually stores the address of another integer variable, which you get with new int in this specific case. However, with

 result += price[n];

you’ll modify that address, which would lead to segmentation faults if you were to actually write/read from *result. This is also the reason why you output is strange:

cout << "\nTotal gold for this build: " << result;

This prints the adress stored in result, not the value. Make result an integer and it should work.

Please note that price should be changed too, see Luchian’s answer.

Exercise

1. Change your code so that there is no use of new.
2. Your program could still fail. What is the initial value of result?
3. What happens if the user provides a code which is not in your list?