Question

This one class I have has only protected variable attributes like int health and int level, but no methods. Is this bad practice? I am using this for a save game function and it only needs to use variables, but requires no methods. The files look like this:

Human.h:

// Human.h - Johnny P

#pragma once

namespace SharpEngine {
    class Human {
    protected:
        std::string name;
        int level;
        int health;
        int defense;
        int strength;
        int experience;
        int money;
        int inventory[10];
    };
}

Human.cpp

// Human.cpp - Johnny P

#include <string>
#include "Human.h"

Answer 1

Well, “bad practice” is a somewhat laden term.

Let’s rather say that a common pattern is “Dumb Data” where the class/struct is just there to contain the data. This is not quite the same as “Plain Old Data” (POD), which is a C-compatible struct.

Having said that, using “protected” is not typical of a Dumb Data pattern. In using “protected” you imply that you will derived from it, which then implies at the very least a virtual destructor.