operator= overloading, terminator called recursively

Question

I am having an issue with overloading the assignment operator. I am getting a "terminator called recursively" error in the console.

I am relatively new to data structures and I'm having trouble debugging this issue.

Here is the class declaration:

class Player
{
public:
    Player(const unsigned int x_, const unsigned int y_, const char i_);
    Player(const Player& p_);
    ~Player();

    unsigned int getX() const;
    unsigned int getY() const;
    char getI() const;

    void updatePosition(int newX, int newY);

    Player& operator=(const Player& p_);
private:
    struct Position{
        unsigned int x;
        unsigned int y;
    };

    Position* pos;

    char i;
};

And here is the implementation of the operator= function:

Player& Player::operator=(const Player& p_)
{
    delete pos;
    pos = nullptr;

    pos = new Position();
    pos->x = p_.getX();
    pos->y = p_.getY();

    i = p_.getI();

    return *this;
}

Unrelated: There is no good reason for `pos` to be a pointer. It's only complicating things and forcing the need for the copy and assignment operators. No pointer, no problems. Or at least not the one you're currently fighting with. — user4581301, Aug 05 '20 at 00:18
best guess -- you're trying to assign a Player to itself: `Player p;` ... `p = p;` or something equivalent. — Chris Dodd, Aug 05 '20 at 00:19
Warning: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12015156/what-is-wrong-with-checking-for-self-assignment-and-what-does-it-mean — Alberto Sinigaglia, Aug 05 '20 at 00:26

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 05 '20 at 09:19

I think that using Position* pos is not a good choice. You always have to initialize it by constructor.

Although you did so, in Player& operator=(const Player& p_), i think there is trouble with first line and second line. You already removed pos in memory by delete pos but you're trying to set pos to nullptr.

operator= overloading, terminator called recursively

1 Answers1