Accessing member variables through member functions

[hinesro]

I thought I understood how to access private/protected class member variables using public functions in the same class. But in this case I'm getting compiler errors. Can anyone help?

Errors:
member 'attackDieSides' is a protected member of class 'Character'
member 'die1' is a protected member of class 'Character'
etc...

void dieRoll(Character attacker, Character defender)
{
	srand (time(0));

	// attacker
	if(attacker.attackDieSides == 6)
	{
		attacker.die1 = rand() % 6 + 1;
		attacker.die2 = rand() % 6 + 1;
		attacker.die3 = rand() % 6 + 1;

		if(attacker.attackDie == 3)
		{
			attack = attacker.die1 + attacker.die2 + attacker.die3;
		}
		else if(attacker.attackDie == 2)
		{
			attack = attacker.die1 + attacker.die2;
		}
	}
	else if(attacker.attackDieSides == 10)
	{
		attacker.die1 = rand() % 10 + 1;
		attacker.die2 = rand() % 10 + 1;

		attack = attacker.die1 + attacker.die2;
	}	

	// defender
	defender.die1 = rand() % 6 + 1;
	defender.die2 = rand() % 6 + 1;
	defender.die3 = rand() % 6 + 1;

	if(defender.defenseDie == 3)
	{
		defense = defender.die1 + defender.die2 + defender.die3;
	}
	else if(defender.defenseDie == 2)
	{
		defense = defender.die1 + defender.die2;
	}
	else if(defender.defenseDie == 1)
	{
		defense = defender.die1;
	}
}

[Zhuge]

I don't see a use of a public method to try to get those members. You are just accessing them normally with the dot operator. Could you explain how you think you are doing that?

[hinesro]

This is a public member function of class Character. All the variables it is accessing with the dot operator are also in the Character class, in the private section.

[wildblue]

Is this dieRoll function defined within the class definition in a header file? Or is it in a separate cpp file?

[hinesro]

dieRoll() is declared in a header file, and defined in an implementation file Character.cpp, which is where this was taken from.

[hinesro]

Hah, I see where you're going with that. I forgot 'Character::' before the function definition. :P Thanks for your help guys!