Pointer troubles

[psyman_86]

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to implement a binary search tree but im having troubles with my Add function. The add function is supposed to take a pointer to a variable and add it to the tree.

To begin with, the add function is called from Insert, which sends the new variable to be added and a pointer to the root node, which is initially null. Inside the Add function it checks to see if the passed pointer is null, if it is then it creates a new pointer to a node with the passed value in it, and then assigns the new pointer to the passed pointer.

The first time this function is called should mean that the root pointer now points to the newly created node. However when i try and traverse the tree it root pointer is null.

Can someone please give me some direction, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

#ifndef CTREE_H
#define CTREE_H

#include <cstdio>
#include "CTNode.h"

using namespace std;
using namespace oneill_ctnode1;

namespace oneill_ctree1
{
	template <typename Item>
	class CTree
    {
    public:
		// Constructors
		CTree();
		CTree(Item* value);
		// Destructor
		~CTree();
		// Mutators
		bool Insert(Item*);
		// Query

		void traverse(); 
    private:
		void print(CTNode<Item>*);
		void Add(Item*,CTNode<Item>*);
		CTNode<Item>* root;
		CTNode<Item>* curr;
	};
}
#include "CTree.template"
#endif

#include <cstdio>
#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>
#include "CTNode.h"

using namespace std;
using namespace oneill_ctnode1;

namespace oneill_ctree1
{
    template <typename Item>
	CTree<Item>::CTree()
    {
        root = NULL;
    }
	template <typename Item>
	CTree<Item>::CTree(Item* value)
    {
		CTNode<Item>* temp = new CTNode<Item>(value,NULL,NULL);
		root = temp;
	}

	template <typename Item>
	CTree<Item>::~CTree()
    {
    }

	template <typename Item>
	bool CTree<Item>::Insert(Item* value)
	{
		//cout <<"Before: " <<root << endl;
		Add(value,root);
		//cout <<"After: " <<root << endl;
		return 1;	
	
	}
	
	template <typename Item>
    void CTree<Item>::Add(Item* value,CTNode<Item>* node)
	{
		
		if (node == NULL)
		{
			CTNode<Item>* temp = new CTNode<Item>(value,NULL,NULL);
			cout << "Node before: "<<node<<endl;
			node = temp;
			cout << "Node after: "<<node<<endl;
		}
		else 
		{
			if (*value < node->get_data())
			{
				Add(value, node->get_left());
				//cout << "To the left"<<endl;
			}
			else 
			{
				if (*value > node->get_data())
				{
					Add(value, node->get_right());
					//cout << "To the right"<<endl;		
				}
				else
				{
					node->set_count((node->get_count())+1);
				}
			}
		}
		
	}
	
	template <typename Item>
	void CTree<Item>::traverse()
	{
		CTNode<char>* temp;
		//print(root);
		if (root == NULL)
			cout <<"Root is NULL"<<endl;
		else
		cout<< root->get_data() <<endl;
		
		temp = root->get_left();
		if (temp == NULL)
			cout <<"Temp left is NULL"<<endl;
		else
		cout<< temp->get_data() <<endl;
		
		temp = root->get_right();
		if (temp == NULL)
			cout <<"Temp right is NULL"<<endl;
		else
		cout<< temp->get_data() <<endl;
	}
	
	template <typename Item>
	void  CTree<Item>::print(CTNode<Item>* node)
	{
		if(node != NULL)
		{
			print(node->get_left());
			cout << (node->get_data()) <<endl;
			print(node->get_right());
		}
	}
}

[ithelp]

You should pass pointer to pointer.

[psyman_86]

You should pass pointer to pointer.

Ahhh yes, thankyou, silly me. That is what i needed to do. However, I changed the function so that it accepts a reference to the pointer, and now it generates this error:

CTree.template:50: error: no matching function for call to `
oneill_ctree1::CTree<char>::Add(char*&, oneill_ctnode1::CTNode<char>*)'
CTree.template:41: error: candidates are: void
oneill_ctree1::CTree<Item>::Add(Item*&, oneill_ctnode1::CTNode<Item>*&)
[with Item = char]

From what I have read I thought that the call to a function did not have to know that the function was actually going to pass a reference variable. The refernce to the char pointer seems to be working, but not the reference to the node pointer. Shouldnt they behave exactly the same???

Declaration:

void Add(Item*&,CTNode<Item>*&);

Implementation

template <typename Item>
void CTree<Item>::Add(Item*& value,CTNode<Item>*& node)       //Line 41
	{
		if (node == NULL)
		{
			node = new CTNode<Item>(value,NULL,NULL);
		}
		else 
		{
			if (*value < node->get_data())
			{
				Add(value,root->get_left());                             //Line 50
				//cout << "To the left"<<endl;
			}
			else 
			{
				if (*value > node->get_data())
				{
					//Add(value, root->get_right());
					//cout << "To the right"<<endl;		
				}
				else
				{
					node->set_count((node->get_count())+1);
				}
			}
		}
		
	}