Expected primary-expression before '{' token error

Question

Followed codes runs properly with Eclipse but when i run on Dev C++ IDE i am getting followed error;

City.cpp:6: error: expected primary-expression before '{' token

City.h

#include <string>

using namespace std;

#ifndef CITY_H
#define CITY_H

class City
{
    public:
        City();
        string arrCity[10];
};

#endif // CITY_H

City.cpp

#include <string>
#include "City.h"

City::City()
{
    arrCity[10] = {"Tbilisi", "Batumi", "Kutaisi", "Gori", "Poti"};        
}

Please [get rid of the `using namespace std;` habit](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1452721/why-is-using-namespace-std-considered-bad-practice). Thanks! — Quentin, Apr 27 '17 at 08:16
Yes, that's a tangent subject. songyuanyao's answer is the correct one though -- if it doesn't work, we're missing some information from you. What version and flags of your compiler are you using? — Quentin, Apr 27 '17 at 08:23
Yeah, that's apparently from 2004, so C++03. I'm adding the tag. Please tag your questions carefully when you're using an older version of C++ :) — Quentin, Apr 27 '17 at 08:33
In your case (C++03), you have to initialize each array member separately, that is a[0] = x, a[1] = y. Or, even better, upgrade to C++11. — Outshined, Apr 27 '17 at 09:21

songyuanyao · Answer 1 · 2017-04-27T08:46:18.190

3

arrCity[10] = {"Tbilisi", "Batumi", "Kutaisi", "Gori", "Poti"}; doesn't do what you expected. It's trying to assign arrCity[10] (i.e. a std::string) by a braced initializer list; that won't work. And it's getting out of the bound of the array.

Note that array can't be assigned directly, you can use member intializer list to initialize it like:

City::City() : arrCity {"Tbilisi", "Batumi", "Kutaisi", "Gori", "Poti"}
{
}

or use default member initializer:

class City
{
    public:
        City();
        string arrCity[10] = {"Tbilisi", "Batumi", "Kutaisi", "Gori", "Poti"};
        // or
        string arrCity[10] {"Tbilisi", "Batumi", "Kutaisi", "Gori", "Poti"};
};

Note that both the above solutions needs C++11 supports, otherwise, you might need to assign every element one by one in the constructor's body.

edited Apr 27 '17 at 08:46

answered Apr 27 '17 at 07:58

songyuanyao

169,198
16
310
405

Firstly, thank you for your help, unfortunately it doesn't work. also it returned new error City.cpp: In constructor `City::City()': City.cpp:4: error: expected `(' before '{' token City.cpp:4: confused by earlier errors, bailing out – Goran Zooferic Apr 27 '17 at 08:15
@GoranZooferic [DEMO](http://rextester.com/VANOK33865) Does your compiler support C++11? – songyuanyao Apr 27 '17 at 08:32

Expected primary-expression before '{' token error

1 Answers1