How does one create and use a pointer to an array of an unknown number of structures inside a class?
- by user1658731
Sorry for the confusing title...
I've been playing around with C++, working on a project to parse a game's (Kerbal Space Program) save file so I can modify it and eventually send it over a network. I'm stuck with storing an unknown number of vessels and crew members, so I need to have an array of unknown size.
Is this possible? I figured having a pointer to an array would be the way to go.
I have:
class SaveFileSystem
{
string version;
string UT;
int activeVessel;
int numCrew;
??? Crews; // !!
int numVessels;
??? Vessels; // !!
}
Where Crews and Vessels should be arrays of structures:
struct Crew
{
string name;
//Other stuff
};
struct Vessel
{
string name;
//Stuff
};
I'm guessing I should have something like:
this->Crews = new ???;
this->Vessels = new ???;
in my constructor to initialize the arrays, and attempt to access it with:
this->Crews[0].name = "Ship Number One";
Does this make any sense??? I'd expect the "???"'s to involve a mess of asterisk's, like "*struct (*)Crews" but I have no real idea. I've got normal pointers down and such, but this is a tad over my head...
I'd like to access the structures like in the last snippet, but if C++ doesn't like that I could do pointer arithmetic.
I've looked into vectors, but I have an unhealthy obsession with efficiency, and it really pains me how you don't know what's going on behind it.
