Programming Forums - View Single Post - Problem assigning a string to a class object.

omdown · Oct 3rd, 2005, 8:54 PM

So I'm trying to teach myself C++, but I've stumbled across a programming exercise that I can't figure out. The general idea is this: create a class called Dog which has a string field for the dog's name. In main(), create a dog and assign a name to it. The problem is, it doesn't seem to work the same way as assigning a string in a normal fashion. The way I've been going about it is:

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       // this is the class
       class Dog
             {
             public:
	          char dogName[5];
              };

      // then skipping down to the main () section where I assign a name

	Dog oneDog;
	oneDog.dogName = {"Spot"};

Which produces errors indicating that the { } should not be there. When I remove the braces:

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	Dog oneDog;
	oneDog.dogName = "Spot";

It gives me the error that "left operand must be l-value." How can I assign a string value to this? I'm also a little confused as to how you would pass an object's value to a function as well. The book I bought has a bad habit of going over how you would do something in an ideal situation but not if it's anything more complicated. Would it be the same as a regular variable like this:

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function_name(oneDog.dogName)

Thanks in advance.

Oct 3rd, 2005, 8:54 PM	#1
omdown Newbie Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	Problem assigning a string to a class object. So I'm trying to teach myself C++, but I've stumbled across a programming exercise that I can't figure out. The general idea is this: create a class called Dog which has a string field for the dog's name. In main(), create a dog and assign a name to it. The problem is, it doesn't seem to work the same way as assigning a string in a normal fashion. The way I've been going about it is: (Toggle Plain Text) // this is the class class Dog { public: char dogName[5]; }; // then skipping down to the main () section where I assign a name Dog oneDog; oneDog.dogName = {"Spot"}; // this is the class class Dog { public: char dogName[5]; }; // then skipping down to the main () section where I assign a name Dog oneDog; oneDog.dogName = {"Spot"}; Which produces errors indicating that the { } should not be there. When I remove the braces: (Toggle Plain Text) Dog oneDog; oneDog.dogName = "Spot"; Dog oneDog; oneDog.dogName = "Spot"; It gives me the error that "left operand must be l-value." How can I assign a string value to this? I'm also a little confused as to how you would pass an object's value to a function as well. The book I bought has a bad habit of going over how you would do something in an ideal situation but not if it's anything more complicated. Would it be the same as a regular variable like this: (Toggle Plain Text) function_name(oneDog.dogName) function_name(oneDog.dogName) Thanks in advance.