[FIXED] How to Access a Struct in a Class through a Function in Main?

Issue

I'm using a function void displayStudent(Student stu), which displays the student's info. In my main(), I did this (all the parameters have been created in main() respectively already, and Student is my class):

Student student1(name1, id1, dept1, year1);

displayStudent(student1);

Now, in my display function, here is my syntax which works for everything correctly besides the name of the student:

void displayStudent(Student stu) {

    // Does not work, gives error saying "no type named 'type"
    // and no operator "<<" matches these operands.
    cout << "Name: " << stu.getName() << endl;

    cout << "ID Number: " << stu.getidNumber() << endl;
    cout << "Department: " << stu.getDepartment() << endl;
    cout << "Year: " << stu.getYear() << endl;;
}

Furthermore, for info here are my getter/setter functions for the name in Student.cpp, and the struct Name in Student.h, which looks like this:

struct Name {
    string firstName;
    string lastName;
};

The variables in this instance of Student have already been initialized with random info from another function in this Student.cpp file:

void Student::setName(Name n) {
    name.firstName = n.firstName;
    name.lastName = " " + n.lastName;
}

Name Student::getName() const {
    return name;
}

Essentially, what I can't figure out is, why can I display everything but the name in my main()? How do I fix this to access elements of the name struct in this instance of Student? I initialized them earlier like this:

Student::Student(Name a, int b, string c, Year d) {

    // Assigns student info to the 4 parameter variables 
    a.firstName = "Roger";
    a.lastName = "Federer";
    b = 12345;
    c = "Art";
    d = SENIOR;

    name.firstName = a.firstName;
    name.lastName = " " + a.lastName;

    idNumber = b;

    department = c;

    year = d;
}

Solution

On this line:

cout << "Name: " << stu.getName() << endl;

stu.getName() returns a Name struct, but by default the compiler doesn't know how to print a Name struct to an std::ostream, like std::cout, when using operator<<. So you need to implement your own operator<< overload for printing a Name, eg:

struct Name {
    string firstName;
    string lastName;
};

// add this!
ostream& operator<<(ostream &out, const Name &name) {
    return out << name.firstName << " " << name.lastName;
}

---

On a side note, there is code in your Student constructor that does not belong there:

Student::Student(Name a, int b, string c, Year d) {

    /* these assignments do not belong here!!! The caller
       is responsible for providing the appropriate values
       when it calls Student()...

    // Assigns student info to the 4 parameter variables 
    a.firstName = "Roger";
    a.lastName = "Federer";
    b = 12345;
    c = "Art";
    d = SENIOR;

    For example:

    Name name1;
    name1.firstName = "Roger";
    name1.lastName = "Federer";
    int id1 = 12345;
    string dept1 = "Art";
    Year year1 = SENIOR;

    Student student1(name1, id1, dept1, year1);
    */

    name.firstName = a.firstName;
    name.lastName = /*" " +*/ a.lastName; // <-- the space character does not belong, either!
    // which can be simplified to just this!
    // name = a;

    idNumber = b;

    department = c;

    year = d;
}

And same with setName():

void Student::setName(Name n) {
    name.firstName = n.firstName;
    name.lastName = /*" " +*/ n.lastName; // <--

    // or, simply:
    // name = n;
}

Answered By - Remy Lebeau

Answer Checked By - David Marino (PHPFixing Volunteer)