Set functions won't work for some reason

Question

I'm working on a simple console application to prototype a method of calculating battle between two large units of medieval soldiers. The idea is I'll set up the calculations, and run the program several times with different parameters to get a feel for it and if it's what I want. Anyways, on to the problem.

Each of the two units is represented by a Unit class. The class includes variables for "attack", "defense", "tactics", and "unit size" as well as a few others which I'm commenting out and ignoring until I fix this issue. Here's the code for the class header:

#ifndef UNITS_H
#define UNITS_H
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

class Unit
{
  public:
      int attack;
      int defense;
      int charge;
      int brace;
      int tactics;
      int unit_size;

  public:
      bool isAlive;
      std::string name;
      Unit(std::string name_target)
      {
          name = name_target;
          attack = 1;
          defense = 1;
          charge = 1;
          brace = 1;
          tactics = 1;
          unit_size = 1;
          isAlive = true;
      }

      float GetAttack() {return (float)attack;}
      float GetDefense() {return (float)defense;}
      float GetCharge() {return (float)charge;}
      float GetBrace() {return (float)brace;}
      float GetTactics() {return (float)tactics;}
      float GetSize() {return (float)unit_size;}

      void SetAttack(int change) {attack = change;}
      void SetDefense(int change) {defense = change;}
      void SetCharge(int change) {charge = change;}
      void SetBrace(int change) {brace = change;}
      void SetTactics(int change) {tactics = change;}
      void SetSize (int change) {unit_size = change;}

      void TakeCasualties (int casualties);
      int Defend(Unit enemy, float base_chance, float base_multiplier);
      void DisplayStats();

    };

#endif // UNITS_H

Sorry if it's sloppy, but I'm a bit of an amateur.

I would include the .cpp code for the class, but everything in there works fine. I've done test runs with just the default values with no issue. The only problem I have is changing the values after they're constructed.

In main.cpp I have a function AssignStats(Unit unit_target) which I call once the two Units are constructed. I call it on each one in turn. The code for that is as follows:

void AssignStats (Unit unit_target)
{
    int x;
    cout << unit_target.name << endl;
    cout << "Value for attack?" << endl;
    cin >> x;
    cout << x << endl;
    unit_target.SetAttack(x);

    cout << "Value for defense?" << endl;
    cin >> x;
    unit_target.SetDefense(x);

    //unit_target.SetCharge(x);
    //unit_target.SetBrace(x);

    cout << "Value for tactics?" << endl;
    cin >> x;
    unit_target.SetTactics(x);

    cout << "Value for size?" << endl;
    cin >> x;
    unit_target.SetSize(x);
}

As far as I can tell, this code should work. However, when I display the stats of each Unit afterwards, it shows the default values put in by the constructor. For the life of me I can't figure out why my Set functions aren't working. I rewrote the code a little earlier to check if they were getting input right, like so:

void Unit::SetAttack()
{
    int x;
    std::cout << "Input target value for attack." << std::endl;
    std::cin >> x;
    std::cout << x;
    attack = x;
    std::cout << attack;
}

I would input 10, and each of the couts would show me 10 right back, even the one that supposedly displayed the attack variable of the class, but later on when I called DisplayStats(), it would show everything to be at default values again.

Can someone more experienced than me please clear this up?

Answer 1

I think that the problem is that function AssignStats accepts the argument by value

void AssignStats (Unit unit_target);

That is the function deals with a copy of the original object. The original object itself is not changed.

Change it the following way

void AssignStats (Unit &unit_target);