CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++compiler-errors
brisk172
brisk172

Reputation: 15

can't figure out this non static member reference error

I'm new to C++ and trying to figure this out. When I compile, I get the error a nonstatic member reference must be relative to a specific object. What's the correct way of writing the code? This is what I have where numShapes is giving me the error.

class Application
private:
     int numShapes;
public:
     Shapes * shapes[numShapes];

I then have this in another header as my virtual base class, if that's the correct term.

class Shapes
{
    virtual void draw(char letter);
    virtual ~Shapes() {}
};

Upvotes: 0

Views: 322

Answers (2)

R Sahu
R Sahu

Reputation: 206717

Instead of

 Shapes * shapes[numShapes];

I suggest the use of:

 std::vector<Shapes*> shapes;

Remove numShapes altogether since you can get the size from shapes.

Initialize shapes in the constructor. Something along the lines of the following should work.

Application::Application(std::size_t numShapes) : shapes(numShapes, nullptr) {}

Upvotes: 0

MotKohn
MotKohn

Reputation: 3965

The code Shapes * shapes[numShapes]; is requesting the compiler to reserve numShapes amount of space. The problem is that it does not have a known value at compile time. So either make numshapes a constant, or look into dynamic memory allocation.

Upvotes: 1

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