Getting error C2280 when trying to add an object to a vector

Question

I keep getting the C2280 error when I try to add an object to a vector of type class. Below are the files that are giving me the error

'interfaceText::interfaceText(const interfaceText &)': attempting to reference a deleted function"

interfaceText.h

#include<SFML/Graphics.hpp>
#include<vector>
#include<iostream>
#include<math.h>
#include<sstream>
#include<ctime>
#include<cstdlib>
class interfaceText{
    private:
        std::string createString();
        std::ostringstream stringStream;
        sf::Text text;
        sf::Vector2f position;
        sf::Font font;
        sf::Color color;
        //DEBUG
        int currentAngle = 1;
        sf::Color generateRandomColors();

    public:
        sf::Text returnRenderObject();
        interfaceText(sf::Vector2f textPosition, sf::Color textColor);
        void updateText(float currentangle);//std::string string, sf::Vector2f   textPosition,  sf::Color textColor);
};
extern std::vector<interfaceText>  textArray;

interfaceText.cpp

#include "interfaceText.h"

interfaceText::interfaceText(sf::Vector2f textPosition, sf::Color textColor):position(textPosition),color(textColor){

    font.loadFromFile("AvenirNextLTPro-Cn.otf");
    text.setString(createString());
    text.setPosition(position);
    text.setFont(font);
    text.setColor(color);
    textArray.push_back(*this); //<-Code that causes error?
}


std::string interfaceText::createString() {
    std::string TESTSTRING="DEBUG";
    return TESTSTRING;
}

void interfaceText::updateText(float currentAngle){//std::string string,     sf::Vector2f textPosition, sf::Color textColor) {
    text.setString(createString());
    position.x = (cos(currentAngle*3.14 / 180)* position.x/2);
    position.y = (sin(currentAngle*3.14 / 180)* position.y/ 2);
    text.setPosition(position);
    text.setColor(generateRandomColors());
    //std::cout << text.getPosition().x<<" " << text.getPosition().y <<'\n';
    currentAngle+=1;
}

sf::Text interfaceText::returnRenderObject() {
    return text;
}
sf::Color interfaceText::generateRandomColors() {
    srand(time(NULL));
    sf::Color newColor (rand()%255, rand() % 255, rand() % 255,255);
    return newColor;
}

An in main.cpp (this it not all of it because I removed code I deemed irrelevant)

#include"interfaceText.h"
#include<vector>
int main(){
    interfaceText newText(sf::Vector2f(100, 100), sf::Color(255, 255, 255, 255));
    return 0;
}

I am sure that the code that is causing this error (or at least triggering the compiler to give an error message ) is

textArray.push_back(*this);

in the interfaceText.cpp file

There are also some notes given with the error message as shown below:

 note: compiler has generated 'interfaceText::interfaceText' here

 see reference to function template instantiation 'void std::allocator<_Ty>::construct<_Objty,interfaceText&>(_Objty *,interfaceText &)' being compiled

from the notes I gather that the compiler is trying to add a new ctor for the interfaceText class but I don't know why

Answer 1

When you do textArray.push_back(*this); you make a copy of the object. Unfortunately you cannot copy a interfaceText since it contains a std::ostringstream . A std::ostringstream is not copyable so any class that includes it as a member has the default generated copy constructor marked as deleted.

You will either need to make your own copy constructor and construct the std::ostringstream in there or you can move the instance into the vector since streams are moveable.