Thread: C++ language, What the shortest way to compare two structures?

i know structures cant be compared wholly, like:

Code:

asd p1, p2
if(p1==p2){cout<<"compared";}

it can only be compared like

Code:

persondetails p1, p2;
if (p1.name == p2.name &&
p1.gender == p2.gender &&
p1.age == p2.age &&
p1.height == p2.height &&
p1.weight == p2.weight &&
p1.occupation == p2.occupation 
... many more......
){cout<<"p1 is p2";}

what if i have many many variables in the structure, maybe hundreds, is there a special function to compare them, that i can also use on any two structure objects?(assuming they are from the same "struct{};")

You could treat the pointers to the two structures as just pointers to memory and use memcmp().
memcmp - C++ Reference

If you are just doing it to save writing out the comparisons in full then, personally, I would fail you for doing it.

Another possibility would be to keep a checksum/hashcode for all the data in the object. You can update this whenever you modify any of the members of the structure (assuming you are doing it properly and making all accesses via get/put type functions). Then all you need to do is compare the hash codes for two data structures. If you use standard data structures, they may already include support this (but I'm not sure; my C++ is fairly rusty now).

Write a comparison function and you'll only have to code it once. Then you can focus on doing that once right.

i think operator overloading is what you are looking for

a struct is basicly a public class, it works the same as a class

its a method you have to overload like this

Code:

bool operator== (const asd & Rvalue){..}

is there any operator that can be used to compare any two same structure-types?
an operator that can compare any two structures (assuming any two structures' insides{...} have the same variable types)?

Originally Posted by RamenNoodles

is there any operator that can be used to compare any two same structure-types?
an operator that can compare any two structures (assuming any two structures' insides{...} have the same variable types)?

No, because the operator would need to know the internal details of each structure and how to compare the contents. Possibly recursively. Or maybe not, depending on the definition of equality (and, if relevant, ordering operators).

You need to define your own, as Drumstig suggests.

is there a way to know if a variable is a double, float, or integer in an "if" statement?

e.g.

Code:

double myvar;
if(myvar==a double variable){
cout<<"Its a double";
}
else if(myvar== an integer variable){
cout<<"Its an integer";
}

any ways to find out

You need to look at the typeof or typeid operators.
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infoce...d_operator.htm
type_info - C++ Reference

You can use this structure, code..........
if(p1==p2)
{
cout<<"compare";
}

Have you actually tried using that with a complex structure? Hint: it won't (always) work like you expect.

In more detail, and IIRC, that only works with POD structures (plain old data, an actual technical term in C/C++).