pointers and functions

I've been having a bit of trouble with a piece of code, where I'm trying to call a function on the object being pointed to.

I'm afraid I may be using these incorrectly (I've been programming in c# for the last year or so, and am pretty rusty with c++ pointers) and I would welcome any help or insight anyone may be able to provide.

I will post three snippits of code, first a function which is giving me an issue (it is either telling me the left hand operand must be a struct/class/union, or if i use the deference operator it tells me that I have a syntax error '.') the second will the be trinaryGraph specification file and the third will be my node specification file. The code is a bit sloppy, It is meant to be used with a few other data containers not yet finished.


~Problem Code

Code:

---

template <class item>
Node<item> TrinaryGraph<item>::getNodeByPos(int x,int y,int z)//will be cleaned up by a data container containing 3 float values
{
        Node<item> *tempNode;
        tempNode=rootNode;

        if (x==0 && y==0 && z==0)
                return *rootNode;

        while(int iX=0 <= x)
        {
                if (tempNode.getLeftNode()==NULL)
                        return NULL;
                tempNode=tempNode.getLeftNode();
                iX++;
        }
       
        while(int iY=0 <= y)
        {
                if (tempNode.getDownNode()==NULL)
                        return NULL;
                tempNode=tempNode.getDownNode();
                iY++;
        }


        while(int iZ=0 <= z)
        {
                if (tempNode.getRightNode()==NULL)
                        return NULL;
                tempNode=tempNode.getRightNode();
                iZ++;
        }

        return tempNode;

}

---

~TrinaryGraph Specification

Code:

---

template <class item>
class TrinaryGraph
{
public:

        ///////CONSTRUCTORS///////

        TrinaryGraph(int xDim,int yDim,int Zdim, float step=1);

        ~TrinaryGraph();


        /////MODIFICATION MEMBER FUNCTIONS/////////

        Node<item> getNodeByPos(int x,int y,int z);
        void createGraph(Node<item> current,int x=0,int y=0,int z=0);


        //data to fill must be hardcoded at this time
        void fillGraphFaces(int x=0,int y=0,int z=0);
       
        void fillGraph(Node<item> currentNode);
        void fillNodeAtLocation(int x,int y,int z);


        void swap(Node<item> first,Node<item> second);
        void swap(int x1,int y1, int z1, int x2, int y2, int z2);


        ///TODO: faux random-access, matching(recursively)
private:
        struct dims
        {
                int x,y,z;
        };

        dims dimensions;

        Node<item>* rootNode;

        void fillGraphFaces(Node<item> currentNode, int x,int y,int z);

};

---

~Node specification

Code:

---

template <class item>
class Node
{
public:

        /////CONSTRUCTORS//////
        Node();
        Node(item idata);

        ~Node();

        //MODIFICATION MEMBER FUNCTIONS///
        void setData(item data);

        void setLeftNode(Node<item> newNode);
        void setDownNode(Node<item> newNode);
        void setRightNode(Node<item> newNode);

        void createLeftNode(item idata);
        void createDownNode(item idata);
        void createRightNode(item idata);

        void createLeftNode( );
        void createDownNode( );
        void createRightNode( );

        void operator = (Node<item> source);
        void Node<item>::operator == (Node<item> source);

        //CONSTANT MEMBER FUNCTIONS//
        item getData() const;
        Node<item> getLeftNode() const;
        Node<item> getDownNode() const;
        Node<item> getRightNode() const;



private:
        item data;
        Node<item>* leftNode;
        Node<item>*downNode;
        Node<item>* rightNode;
       

};

---

I thank you for your time.

You declare tempNode as a pointer and to access it you use ->
However, you are

Code:

---

tempNode=tempNode.getLeftNode();

---

getLeftNode() does not return a pointer according to your Node specification, thats why you are getting an error. If you change it to

Code:

---

tempNode=&tempNode->getLeftNode();

---

It will compile, but this is probably not what you want.
Generally when dealing with nodes, everything is pointers.

wonderful, that would most likely be my oversight, thank you very much. Ill try changing that first thing in the morning.