passing an array of character to function c++

Question

Let's say I have the following:

char cipan[9];

then what should I pass to the function? how about the get and set method??

I'm currently doing like this

set method

void setCipan(char cipan[]){

this->cipan = cipan;
}

and the get method

char getCipan(){
return cipan;
}

and I get an error when compiling??

Im totally blur.. can someone explain what should i pass to the function??

    class userData{
private:
    string name;
    char  dateCreate[9];

    void userDataInput(string name,char dateCreate[]){
        this->name = name;
        this->dateCreate = dateCreate;

    }
public:
    //constructor
    userData(string name){
        userDataInput(name,dateCreate);
    }
    userData(string name,char dateCreate[]){
        userDataInput(name,dateCreate);
    }
    //mutator methods
    void changeName(string name){this->name = name;}
    void changeDateCreate(char *dateCreate){this->dateCreate = dateCreate;}
    //accesor methods
    string getName(){return name;}
    char *getDateCreate(){return dateCreate;}


};

See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4810664/how-do-i-use-arrays-in-c — AProgrammer, Apr 14 '11 at 15:56
The get method will need to be declared as `char*` won't it? — tom502, Apr 14 '11 at 15:58
Why go through all troubles of using a char array ? Use a string instead and get all the library functions for free. — DumbCoder, Apr 14 '11 at 16:01
@user: Better, but still not quite there. Please edit your post to show a **minimally complete** example that I can copy-paste in to my compiler. Also include the exact compiler error you're getting an an indication of where the error occurs. — John Dibling, Apr 14 '11 at 16:04
Hello BumbCoder, im using array because i wanna use which _strdate(array of char); — Iqbal, Apr 14 '11 at 16:05
@user well you could use a string and at the point of the call to _strdate do `str.c_str()` — tom502, Apr 14 '11 at 16:06

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 14 '11 at 16:07

I'd do the following:

void setCipan(const char* new_cipan)
{
    strcpy(cipan, new_cipan);
}

const char* getCipan() const
{
    return cipan;
}

Of course, the better approach is to use std::string:

void setCipan(const string& new_cipan)
{
    cipan = new_cipan;
}

string getCipan() const
{
    return cipan;
}

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 14 '11 at 16:16

Constructor's purpose is to initialize class variables. I think it's unnecessary to call another method in the constructor to do initialization.

void userDataInput(string name,char dateCreate[]){
    this->name = name;
    this->dateCreate = dateCreate; // Both the dateCreate are class variables.
}

userData(string name){
    userDataInput(name,dateCreate); // dateCreate is already a class variable.
}

dateCreate is the class scope variable. You are just passing it to a method, and re-assigning the same to dateCreate. Assignment operation doesn't copy elements of one array to another and are invalid operations.

To copy array elements, use std::copy instead.

passing an array of character to function c++

2 Answers2