Need helping determining a return statement

[Merriak]

Hey everyone!

I am almost done with this program, but I am unable to determine what one of the functions returns outside of the 'for' loop.

The specific place in the code I am having trouble at is at line 74.

Here's the code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;


class Tweet
{
public:
    Tweet(); //constructor
    Tweet(string s, string m); //constructor
    string getmessage(); //accessor
    string getsubject(); //accessor
    void newmessage(string newmessage);
private:
    string message;
    string subject;
};

Tweet::Tweet()
{
    message = "";
    subject = "";
}

Tweet::Tweet(string s, string m)
{
    subject = s;
    message = m;
}

string Tweet::getmessage()
{
    return message;
}

string Tweet::getsubject()
{
    return subject;
}

void Tweet::newmessage(string newmessage)
{
    message = newmessage;
}

class Twitter
{
public:
    Twitter(); //creates empty twitter
    void addtweet(Tweet newmessage);
    Tweet gettweet(string subject);
private:
    vector<Tweet> messages;
};

void Twitter::addtweet(Tweet newmessage)
{
    messages.push_back(newmessage);
}

Tweet Twitter::gettweet(string subject)
{
    for(int i=0;i<messages.size();i++)
    {
        if(messages[i].getsubject() == subject)
        {
            return messages[i];
        }
    }
//what can I put as a return statement here? Help!
    
}

int main()
{
    Twitter t;
    Tweet m("Finished program","Works perfectly!");
    t.addtweet(m);
}

[AbstractionAnon]

Since you've that declared gettweet returns type Tweet, the correct thing to return is an object of type Tweet. In this case, since you didn't find a match on subject, you probably want to return an empty Tweet.

Another option would be to change the type of gettweet to return a pointer to a Tweet. If you don't find a tweet matching the subject, return NULL. Then where you call gettweet, test if the returned pointer is NULL and act accordingly.

[Merriak]

I understand that I will be returning an object of type Tweet, but I am confused as to how to return the empty Tweet. Maybe I am over thinking it. O.o

[Lowest0ne]

Give Twitter it's own Tweet:

class Twitter
{
public:
    Twitter(); //creates empty twitter
    void addtweet(Tweet newmessage);
    Tweet gettweet(string subject);
private:
    vector<Tweet> messages;
    Tweet emptyTweet;  //Here
};

You may want this in your constructor:
Twitter() :emptyTweet("Error", "Could Not Find Subject") {/* other code? */}

Then your problem is solved:

Tweet Twitter::gettweet(string subject)
{
    for(int i=0;i<messages.size();i++)
    {
        if(messages[i].getsubject() == subject)
        {
            return messages[i];
        }
    }
    return emptyTweet;
}

[Merriak]

Ah thank you much kind sir/ma'am! :)