hi,

i have 14 variables that are integers. i would like to "hard code" them into my c++ code. is there a way to declare them all as integers (as a group) with one command or do i have to declare them each individually as ints in the "usual way"?

please forgive me if i'm not explaining my question very well. i'm very new to coding

thanks!

But anyway, usually 12 variables should be organized into a struct (or class).

hi Pan64

yea the way you showed is what i would call "the usual way".

i don't know enough about structures to do it that way, but i do know it's the better way to do it.

In c you would declare it like this I think. Then you only have to pass a single pointer to the struct instead of each int separately. I think C++ would be the same. An object isn't hugely different from a struct as I've learned thus far. Initialize the struct in the code with the values and off you go.

Or, if they are the monthly financial data, use an array `int monthly_income[12];

Do you already know about arrays and vectors?

Well, if you simply have "a bunch of variables and things," a struct is indeed a very convenient way to handle them. For instance, many of my applications will define a static struct common. And I just put "everything that everyone needs to know about and use" in there.

Now, you'll see throughout the code references to things like common.blahblahblah. And this immediately clues the next programmer that blahblahblah is a "common variable," and where to find it. In other words, it's descriptive.

If you go in my code to the place where this struct is defined, you will there find comments. Lots of them. Explaining what each element is and what it's used for. (I'm a very "gabby" coder, and it has served me very well.)

1 members found this post helpful.

i know a little bit about vectors, but i'm not very good with them, same for structures.

i don't think these are really variables, per se. they have a constant/unchanging value, separated by white space. even though it's not the most eloquent way, i'd like to "hard code" them.

those are constants, and you can check here:
https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/co...const-keyword/

If they are constants, as they certainly appear to be, then they are usually just declared in a mutually-included file. And they traditionally use ALL_UPPERCASE names. Various languages have various accepted ways to deal with "constants."

pan64, i think that's exactly what i want to do. now i just have to figure out how to use them in the rest of my code.

from another part of the code, i will get an integer value, and then i need to correlate that integer value with the description string. so if the code gives me a 2 i will correlate it with C.

do i need to write the #define statement as

sundialsvcs, yours is probably the preferred way of doing it. with the #define method i know it's just brute force, but i think that will be the easiest way to do it for a beginner like me.

a friend of mine who knows some c++ says that the compiler won't let me use a number to look up a string even if i do flip them as in post #11.

he said that i should be using a mapping. so now i get to go learn about making a mapping...

It works, with a little change:

Basically with a #define as posted the preprocessor will replace all instances of A with 0 in your source code.

Just a few ideas. Without knowing anything about what you are trying to accomplish mapping in your case can be as simple as:
char string[] = "ABCD...";

So that string[0]=A, string[1]=B and so on. If you have a description string of more then one character you can create an array of strings i.e.

char arr[3][10] = {"string 1", "string 2 ", "string 3"};
so that
arr[0]="string 1"