Better approach in accessing members of an object from another object c++

Question

I am not really good in c++ so I really need your help. I am using a method inside an object and I would like to access other object members. How can I do that in a better way and not violating OOP?

This is my .h

class XSection
{
private:    
    char *m_sname;
    XSection *m_snext;
};

class XIniFile
{

private:
    char *m_iname;
    XSection *m_isections;

XSection *addSection(const char *);
}

and I have something like this in .cpp

XSection *XIniFile::addSection(const char *d)
{
    XSection *sn = (XSection *) malloc (sizeof(XSection *));    

    sn->m_sname = strdup(d); 
    return sn;
}

I am having an error of char* XSection::m_sname is private char *m_name;

How could I use it?

Answer 1

In general, this is considered bad practice because it violates the concept of encapsulation . In this case, it would be best to give XSection a constructor that sets it up with the desired parameters, and use new instead of malloc. For example:

The constructor definition:

XSection(char* name);

Implementation:

XSection(char* name) : m_iname(name) { }

Usage:

XSection* sn = new XSection(strdup(d));

But to answer the question directly: if you must, you could make XIniFile a friend class of XSection:

class XSection
{
    friend class XIniFile;