Copy constructor should copy *string values

Question

I have a class:

class BankAccount
{
    string *name;
    string *number;
public:
    BankAccount(BankAccount &);
    ~BankAccount();
};

BankAccount::BankAccount(BankAccount &account)
{
    string nameS = account.name;
    this->name = new string(nameS);
    this->number = new string(account.*number);
}

I would like to that my copy constructor copy the strings (not the pointers, but strings pointed by pointers) to new object. I tried two different methods but I've never succeeded.

Compiler messages:

conversion from 'std::string* {aka std::basic_string<char>*}' to non-scalar type 'std::string {aka std::basic_string<char>}' requested

'((BankAccount*)this)->BankAccount::number' cannot be used as a member pointer, since it is of type 'std::string* {aka std::basic_string<char>*}'

Answer 1

As per the other comments and answers, in this case there is no need to use pointers as instance variables. You would be better off just making the instance variables actual strings. But just to explain your problem:

string nameS = account.name;

account.name is a pointer to a string, so you need this:

string nameS = *account.name;

In this statement:

this->number = new string(account.*number);

You are dereferencing incorrectly. It should be:

this->number = new string(*account.number);

Answer 2

The class BankAccount should probably just contain string objects rather then pointers to strings

class BankAccount
{
    string name;
    string number;
};

Edit: as pointed out by other users, you now no longer need to write a copy constructor or destructor as std strings take care of themselves