I am trying to initialise instances as members of a class, but am having an error I'm sure how to fix. Here's the Board class header: #ifndef _BOARD_H_ #define _BOARD_H_ #include "SexyAppFramework/Widget.h" #include "Graph.h" #include "Pacman.h" #include "Resources.h" #include "TileBackground.h" class Node; namespace Sexy { class GameApp; class Graphics; class Board : public Widget { private: GameApp* mApp; Graph theGraph; TileBackground theTileBackground(32, 22); // Problematic Line Pacman thePacman(0, PACMAN, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 32, 32); // Problematic Line void buildGraph(); public: Board(GameApp *theApp); virtual ~Board(); virtual void Update(); virtual void Draw(Graphics *g); }; } #endif Heres the TileBackground header: #ifndef _TILEBACKGROUND_H_ #define _TILEBACKGROUND_H_ #include <list> #include <vector> namespace Sexy { class Graphics; } class Tile; class TileBackground { private: int mX, mY; int mTileCountX, mTileCountY; std::vector<Tile*> mTiles; public: TileBackground(int tileCountX, int tileCountY); void draw(Sexy::Graphics *g); void buildTileBG(std::list<int> theList); bool isTileJunction(Tile *theTile, bool &up, bool &down, bool &left, bool &right); void removeSection(const int &section); std::vector<Tile*>::iterator firstTile() { return mTiles.begin(); } std::vector<Tile*>::iterator lastTile() { return mTiles.end(); } }; #endif Here's my error output: 1>------ Build started: Project: Pacman, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------ 1>Compiling... 1>GameApp.cpp 1>e:\programming\pacmangame\pacman\barebones\Node.h(29) : warning C4244: '=' : conversion from 'const int' to 'float', possible loss of data 1>e:\programming\pacmangame\pacman\barebones\Board.h(25) : error C2059: syntax error : 'constant' 1>e:\programming\pacmangame\pacman\barebones\Board.h(26) : error C2059: syntax error : 'constant' 1>Board.cpp 1>e:\programming\pacmangame\pacman\barebones\Node.h(29) : warning C4244: '=' : conversion from 'const int' to 'float', possible loss of data 1>e:\programming\pacmangame\pacman\barebones\Board.h(25) : error C2059: syntax error : 'constant' 1>e:\programming\pacmangame\pacman\barebones\Board.h(26) : error C2059: syntax error : 'constant' 1>.\Board.cpp(74) : error C2228: left of '.buildTileBG' must have class/struct/union 1>.\Board.cpp(80) : error C2228: left of '.setCurrentNode' must have class/struct/union 1>.\Board.cpp(137) : error C2228: left of '.draw' must have class/struct/union 1>.\Board.cpp(169) : error C2228: left of '.firstTile' must have class/struct/union 1>.\Board.cpp(170) : error C2228: left of '.lastTile' must have class/struct/union 1>.\Board.cpp(180) : error C2228: left of '.isTileJunction' must have class/struct/union 1>.\Board.cpp(201) : warning C4244: 'initializing' : conversion from 'double' to 'float', possible loss of data 1>.\Board.cpp(212) : warning C4244: 'initializing' : conversion from 'double' to 'float', possible loss of data 1>Generating Code... 1>Build log was saved at "file://e:\Programming\PacmanGame\Pacman\BareBones\Debug\BuildLog.htm" 1>Pacman - 10 error(s), 4 warning(s) ========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 1 up-to-date, 0 skipped ========== The syntax error constant is what i'm worried about because it seems to all stem from that. I am a bit iffy in having Instances as member variables, how does one go about initialising them if I want them to be initialised with variables. I will be changing to pointers in the mean time but that kind of defeats the purpose as pointers are not needed and for clarity...

You can't initialise variables like that, you need to do it from the constructor.

Those two lines should be:
TileBackground theTileBackground;
Pacman thePacman;

And then your constructor will need to be (in the .cpp file):

(Plus any other initialisation you're doing).

You can't initialize members where you declare them, you have to do it in the constructor initializer list.

class Example{    SomeType x;public:    Example(int a, int b) : x(a, b) {}}

Thankyou very much for the quick response guys, I knew it was something simple, I just got into the habit of using pointers so I hadn't come accross this before!!!

I have a similarish problem, so I'll start a new thread shortly. :)

Quote:Original post by swiftcoder
If you also need to initialise a base-class (in this case, Widget) in the constructor's initialiser list, you need to do so before initialising any member variables.

You don't NEED to (the order in the initializer list does not matter), though good compilers will warn you.

struct Base{    int x;    Base(int x) : x(x) {}};struct Derived : Base{    int y;    Derived(int x, int y) : y(y), Base(x) {} // Base will still be initialized before y};