anonymous unions / structs

[full roost]

Hello ! I'm trying to make an AssetLoader in my game and I'm having issues with the whole 'anonymous unions / structs'.
What I would like is to be able to access the textures from wherever I want in the code using AssetLoader::TEXTURE_NAME.
However, I would like to be able to access my textures not only with this TEXTURE_NAME but also with a table with indexes (so AssetLoader::TEXTURE_NAME for instance would also be AssetLoader::table[0]).
The code down below feels like it should work and I don't understand why it doesn't. The error is :
error: member 'sf::Texture AssetLoader::<unnamed union>::<unnamed struct>::ACE' with constructor not allowed in anonymous aggregate

AssetLoader.h ```Cpp
#pragma once
#include <SFML/Graphics/Texture.hpp>

struct AssetLoader final
{
inline static union {
sf::Texture table[4] {};
struct { sf::Texture ACE;
sf::Texture KING;
sf::Texture QUEEN;
sf::Texture JACK; };
} CARDS;

inline static sf::Texture BACKGROUND;

};

`main.cpp` ```Cpp
#include "AssetLoader.h"

int main()
{
    if ( AssetLoader::CARDS.ACE.loadFromFile( "../assets/cards/ace.png" ) == false ) throw;
    if ( AssetLoader::CARDS.KING.loadFromFile( "../assets/cards/king.png" ) == false ) throw;
    if ( AssetLoader::CARDS.QUEEN.loadFromFile( "../assets/cards/queen.png" ) == false ) throw;
    if ( AssetLoader::CARDS.JACK.loadFromFile( "../assets/cards/jack.png" ) == false ) throw;
    return 0;
}

Does anyone have an idea of how to do what I'm trying to do ?

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[full roost]

I looked online and saw that the issue was with the fact that sf::Texture has a 'human-made' constructor and so it can't be in an anonymous struct

But the thing is, if I name the struct then I'll have to do something like this : ```Cpp
struct { ... } NAMES;

AssetLoader::CARDS.NAMES.ACE.loadFromFile( ... )

[full roost]

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated ❤

anonymous unions / structs

[split cobalt]

I would avoid unions all together, they're simply not worth the hassle

[full roost]

so rather have like a method with a switch inside ?

to get card by index

[barren tapir]

wtf it is, union struct..... hmmm

maybe not use it?

[full roost]

what do you mean ?

[split cobalt]

well you have many options

one quick solution is this

enum cardId {
    ACE,
    KING,
    QUEEN,
    JACK,
    NUM_CARDS
};

...
sf::Texture table[NUM_CARDS];```

you can do table[ACE] to get the ACE texture etc etc

or use explicit methods that return the appropriate reference

[barren tapir]

why there only 4 pieces

[full roost]

because my game isn't really about cards, it was simply to have a simpler example than my actual code

[split cobalt]

struct ... {
      sf::Texture textures[4];
      auto& get_ace() { return textures[0]; }
};```

[full roost]

and about having a struct with static variables for textures : is it a good idea ?

[split cobalt]

wdym

[full roost]

this :

struct AssetLoader
{
    inline static sf::Texture BACKGROUND;
    inline static sf::Texture SQUARES[4];
};

[split cobalt]

it's fine

[full roost]

alr

thx

[split cobalt]

usually with games you want the assets to be freely available to use

although I don't think AssetLoader to be a nice name

[full roost]

what would you name it ?

[split cobalt]

maybe Assets or AssetStore or Textures or smth

[full roost]

alr

Well, thank you !

!solved