Class constructor question about non-class type requests error

[nurrByte]

Ive been programming for sometime now so Im not a complete beginner but I just encountered a problem I don't understand.

I was getting the following error:

In file included from inc/Board.hpp:8:0,
                 from main.cpp:5:
inc/TemplateLoader.hpp: In member function ‘std::vector<{anonymous}::ChessPiece> {anonymous}::TemplateLoader::getPiecesData()’:
inc/TemplateLoader.hpp:72:8: error: request for member ‘setCoordinates’ in ‘{anonymous}::cp’, which is of non-class type ‘{anonymous}::ChessPiece({anonymous}::ChessPiece::Color_t, {anonymous}::ChessPiece::Type_t)’

My class ChessPiece.hpp looked like this:

class ChessPiece
{
  public:
    enum Color_t
    {
        BLACK = 0,
        WHITE
    }color;

    enum Type_t
    {
         ROOK = 0,
         KNIGHT,
         BISHOP,
         QUEEN,
         KING,
         PAWN
    }type;

    ChessPiece() {}
    ChessPiece(const Color_t& c, const Type_t& t)
    {
        this->color = c;
        this->type = t;
    }

    void setCoordinates(const int& x, const int& y, const int& z)
    {
        this->x = x;
        this->y = y;
        this->z = z;
    }

  private:
    int x, y, z;
};

and my TemplateLoader.hpp class:

class TemplateLoader
{
    // ... Constructos / Destructors not shown
    
    std::vector<ChessPiece> getPieceData()
    {
        std::vector<ChessPiece> pieces;

        // there is a for loop here (which is omitted to save me from typing...) it contains the following:
        ChessPiece cp(ChessPiece::Color_t(c), ChessPiece::Type_t(t)); // Just an example, the color and type values are pulled from variables that are a part of the TemplateLoader class
        cp.setCoordinates(x, y, z); // again just an example but produces the same error

        pieces.push_back(cp);
        // end for loop

        return pieces; 
    }
};

I fixed the error by changing the TemplateLoader.hpp class's getPieceData() function to:

// once again, lazy and dont want to type out the class again
std::vector<ChessPiece>* TemplateLoader::getPieceData()
{
    // inside for loop...
    ChessPiece cp = ChessPiece(ChessPiece::Color_t(c), ChessPiece::Type_t(t)); // Suddenly the error is gone and my program compiles all because I used the operator = in construction rather than constructing the class normally...
}

My code now compiles and works fine. Although it is far from pretty or in use of good programming practices (everything I know is self taught so yeah... Any suggestions on improving my programming are welcome by Im mostly interested in the title question.)

What I don't understand is why it was giving me that error in the first place and why my solution solved it. Please explain, thank you.

[vlad from moscow]

Is it a typo that there is no a closing parenthesis?

ChessPiece cp(ChessPiece::Color_t(c), ChessPiece::Type_t(t);

[nurrByte]

Oops sorry, that was a typo, It would have given me an error like: expected ')' before ';' if that was my problem. (The typo didn't exist in my actual code.)

Thanks for pointing that out though.

[Cubbi]

The error message is saying that there is no member called "setCoordinates" in the function called "cp" (because functions are non-class types)

ChessPiece cp(ChessPiece::Color_t(c), ChessPiece::Type_t(t)); // Just an example

That's a function declaration (if you don't see why, google for "most vexing parse"). If your compiler supports enough C++11, use braces, not parentheses, to avoid such errors when initializing objects, or give c and t correct types so that you could write ChessPiece cp(c, t);

because I used the operator = i

you didn't use operator=, you used copy initialization, which is another form of initialization that is immune to MVP

[nurrByte]

Thanks, that explained a lot. I should have known that was the copy constructor... derp.
I didn't know anything about MVP thanks for the information!