Re-calling an object's constructor

[Ameji72]

What I am interested in is a way to recall and object's constructor after it is built; something like this:

  Enemy enemy(player);
  ...
  enemy(player);

I know that you can do this with a pointer:

  Enemy *enemy = new Enemy();

However, the rest of my code is already set up to use normal Enemy objects, so I don't want to change everything.

[LB]

Why do you have a need for this? You have a design flaw in your code.

It is possible, but you need to destruct the object first.

enemy.~Enemy();
new (&enemy) Enemy(player);

Note that you should never need to do this. Please don't do this.

[MiiNiPaa]

A proper ^{in most cases} way to recall an object constructor is to move-assign a temporary: enemy = Enemy(player);

[Ameji72]

Why? I just don't want a bunch of objects created... I only have one running at a time and when it calls a function, which I guess I should move to its destructor, another one is made.

Note:
It's an RPG-style code... so an Enemy is someone you fight and when it dies another one is made in it's place... or just call it's constructor. But I guess if it works, it is fine; I am not trying to be professional.

[Peter87]

Create a function called reset (or something like that) and move everything from the constructor to this function. Call reset from the constructor, and other places where you want it to run.

[LB]

Ameji72 wrote:

I just don't want a bunch of objects created...

Don't worry about this. Computers from ten years ago are far more powerful than you seem to think today's computers are.

[nubforce]

one way to create another one once it dies it to understand how scope works. for example

bool game_over = false;
while (!game_over) {
    Enemy enemy();//1 enemy will be created until it dies then it will be deleted and then remade
    while (enemy.isAlive()) { //will exit this loop if the enemy is dead.
        //Enemy attack
        //Player attack
    }//Enemy is dead here
    //oh look we're at the end of the Enemy instance called "enemy"'s life span in this program
    //   it's about to be deleted. But if the bool game_over is not true, the program will create
    //   another enemy until it is.
    if (!continue_playing())
        game_over = true; 
}

shoot i always forget that continue is a keyword xD

[akash16]

If at time only one instance of class you need to create, then better you should make that class as singleton class.

[LB]

akash16 wrote:

If at time only one instance of class you need to create, then better you should make that class as singleton class.

This is certainly not a valid use case for the singleton pattern. In my opinion the only valid use case for a singleton is ensuring that global resources are not duplicated in memory.