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  #1  
Old 05-May-2006, 12:19
earachefl earachefl is offline
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Not sure I understand this assignment....

Here's the (abbreviated) code for a simple string class - I've deleted most of the member functions for this post. An assignment asks

Quote:
Modify the constructor to store the null character ('\0') in every character position of a new object of type simpleString.

What I don't get is that the constructor (as copied from the book) initializes with a length of 0, so there aren't any character positions to store into, right?

If the constructor either initialized with a length greater than 0 or accepted an argument for the length, then the assignment would make sense to me.

Am I being dense, or is this assignment bogus?

Header:
CPP / C++ / C Code:
/*
 *  simpleString.h
 *  C10.7 (String class)
 *
 */

#ifndef SIMPLESTRING_H
#define SIMPLESTRING_H

class simpleString
{
    public:
        //Member functions
        //Constructor
        simpleString();
        
                
    private:
        //Data members
        enum {capacity = 255};
        char contents[capacity];
        int length;
};
#endif
Implementation:
CPP / C++ / C Code:
/*
 *  simpleString.cpp
 *  C10.7 (String class)
 *
 */

#include "simpleString.h"
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

//Member functions
//Constructor
simpleString::simpleString()
{
    length = 0;
}
  #2  
Old 05-May-2006, 12:31
Sokar Sokar is offline
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Re: Not sure I understand this assignment....

Quote:
Originally Posted by earachefl
Here's the (abbreviated) code for a simple string class - I've deleted most of the member functions for this post. An assignment asks

Quote:
Modify the constructor to store the null character ('\0') in every character position of a new object of type simpleString.

What I don't get is that the constructor (as copied from the book) initializes with a length of 0, so there aren't any character positions to store into, right?

If the constructor either initialized with a length greater than 0 or accepted an argument for the length, then the assignment would make sense to me.

Am I being dense, or is this assignment bogus?
In your quote it says to "Modify the constructor". So you need to change "constructor" to "store the null character ('\0') in every character position of a new object".
  #3  
Old 05-May-2006, 12:33
earachefl earachefl is offline
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Re: Not sure I understand this assignment....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sokar
In your quote it says to "Modify the constructor". So you need to change "constructor" to "store the null character ('\0') in every character position of a new object".
But each new object has a length of 0, so how can you store any character anywhere?
  #4  
Old 05-May-2006, 12:40
Sokar Sokar is offline
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Re: Not sure I understand this assignment....

Quote:
Originally Posted by earachefl
But each new object has a length of 0, so how can you store any character anywhere?
Not trying to give you a hard time but that is part of the problem the assignment wants you to fix.
  #5  
Old 05-May-2006, 12:46
earachefl earachefl is offline
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Re: Not sure I understand this assignment....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sokar
Not trying to give you a hard time but that is part of the problem the assignment wants you to fix.
Well, that makes sense, except the assignment doesn't state that.

I tend to get into trouble when I read more into the assignment than is explicitly stated, so am tending to be more conservative and sticking to whatever is explicitly stated.

In every other assignment so far, when they want you to modify the constructor to accept an argument, they tell you.

Anyway, thanks for your response(s).
  #6  
Old 05-May-2006, 12:59
Sokar Sokar is offline
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Re: Not sure I understand this assignment....

Quote:
Originally Posted by earachefl
Well, that makes sense, except the assignment doesn't state that.

I tend to get into trouble when I read more into the assignment than is explicitly stated, so am tending to be more conservative and sticking to whatever is explicitly stated.

In every other assignment so far, when they want you to modify the constructor to accept an argument, they tell you.

Anyway, thanks for your response(s).
You are welcome.
  #7  
Old 05-May-2006, 16:15
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TreyAU21 TreyAU21 is offline
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Re: Not sure I understand this assignment....

Quote:
Originally Posted by earachefl
But each new object has a length of 0, so how can you store any character anywhere?

Look at the variables associated with each object... the length is only an integer storing the length of the string.

The attribute holding the actual data is the character array 'contents'. This array is initialized to hold 255 characters as is stated in the enum. So, just because the length variable is set to 0 doesn't mean that the allotted space for that string is 0... it is in fact 255.

Hope that helped.
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  #8  
Old 05-May-2006, 17:12
Sokar Sokar is offline
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Re: Not sure I understand this assignment....

Ack!
I obviously have to much on mind to give any good help. So I think I will take a break for a while.
 
 
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