Error in assignment of member in read-only object

Question

I am working on worm_sim simulater , ubuntu, gcc, codeblocks IDE

traffic_source.h file

class Traffic_source : public Buffer_owner, public Connector, public Addressee{
private:
    static unsigned int id_base;
    unsigned int id;
    unsigned int packet_size;
    unsigned int flit_size;
    double packet_generating_rate;
    int pkt_id;
    traffic_source_state ts_state;
    double* packet_to_destination_rate;
    Traffic_mode traffic_mode;
    int period;                // period for packet generation using trace_file
    ifstream trace_file;
    int trace_file_loop_cnt;   // how many times we have gone over the trace file so far
    bool trace_file_empty;
    ofstream trace_dump;       // trace file to dump out

    typedef struct Message {
        int timestamp;
        unsigned int destination;
        unsigned int size;
    } Message, *pMessage;

    Message pre_fetched_message;
    bool get_next_message(Message & msg);

    unsigned int get_destination_uniform(void) const; 
    unsigned int get_destination_transpose1(void) const;
    unsigned int get_destination_transpose2(void) const;
    unsigned int get_destination_hotspot(void) const;
    unsigned int get_destination_customized(void) const;

    void generate_a_packet(unsigned int dst_id);
    void generate_packets(const Message & rec);

public:
    Traffic_source(Position p, int buf_sz);
    ~Traffic_source();
    bool can_send(void) const;
    bool can_receive(void) const { return false; }
    bool send(void);
    bool receive(class Flit * a_flit) { return false; }
    class Connector * get_receiver(void) const; 

    static void reset_id_base(void) { id_base = 0; }

    void tick(void);

    /* traffic control routines */
    void set_packet_generating_rate(double r);
    void set_packet_to_destination_rate(unsigned int dst_id, double rate);
    double get_packet_to_destination_rate(unsigned int dst_id) const;
    double get_total_packet_injection_rate(void) const;
    int set_trace_file(char * file_name);
    bool has_trace_file(void) { return (trace_file.is_open()); }
    int get_id(void) const { return id; }
};

traffic_source.cpp

Traffic_source::Traffic_source(Position p, int buf_sz) : Buffer_owner(buf_sz), Addressee(p) {
    id = id_base ++;
    packet_generating_rate = param.packet_generating_rate;
    packet_size = param.flits_per_packet;
    flit_size = param.flit_size;
    traffic_mode = param.traffic_mode;
    period = 0;
    packet_to_destination_rate = 0;
    pkt_id = 0;
    ts_state = OFF_

    if (param.dump_traffic_source_trace) {
        char file_name[20];
        sprintf(file_name, "%d.trace", id);
        trace_dump.open(file_name);
        if (!trace_dump.is_open() || !trace_dump.good()) {
            cerr << "Error in opening file " << file_name << " for trace dumping" << endl;
            exit(-1);
        }
        trace_dump << "PERIOD\t" << param.simulation_length << endl;
        trace_dump << "#Trace file dumped by worm_sim from node " << id << endl;
        trace_dump << "#Folloing lines are with format as:" << endl
                   << "#timestamp\t" << "destination\t" << "message_size(bits):" << endl;
    }
}

bool Traffic_source::can_send(void) const
{
    int router_id=get_id();
    unsigned int local_availability;

    pRouter a_router= param.network->get_router(router_id);
    local_availability=a_router->get_port_availability(0);
    //cout<<local_availability<<endl;
    if (buffer.is_empty())
        return false;
    if(local_availability <= 0)
    {
        packet_generating_rate = 0; //error: assignment of member ‘Traffic_source::packet_generating_rate’ in read-only object|
        set_packet_generating_rate(0); // error: passing ‘const Traffic_source’ as ‘this’ argument of ‘void Traffic_source::set_packet_generating_rate(double)’ discards qualifiers [-fpermissive]|
        return false;
    }


    // This is somehow trick, we need to verify whether the first flit in the fifo
    // is received right in this clock cycle. If so, we can not send it
    const Flit * first_flit = buffer.peek_flit();
    if (first_flit->arrived_in_this_cycle())
        return false;

    pConnector receiver = get_receiver();

    if (receiver)
        return receiver->can_receive();
    else
        return false;
}

the value packet_generating_rate is not const but when i try to modify it either directly or using the set function it give me errors

packet_generating_rate = 0; //error: assignment of member    
 ‘Traffic_source::packet_generating_rate’ in read-only object|

set_packet_generating_rate(0); // error: passing ‘const Traffic_source’ as ‘this’ argument of ‘void Traffic_source::set_packet_generating_rate(double)’ discards qualifiers [-fpermissive]|

although it is used on other files with no problem, any suggestion plz

Answer 1

bool Traffic_source::can_send(void) const

As other's have already pointed out, the problem is that inside a const function (last const in the line) you cannot modify the members of the object. Effectively the member function is translated into something similar to: bool Traffic_source__can_send( const Traffic_source* this, void ), there the this argument is a pointer to const. Which in turn means that packet_generating_rate is const in the context of the function.

There are three alternatives that you can follow here:

• don't modify the member
• don't mark the function const
• make packet_generating_rate mutable

The first two options are the common ones: either the function is const and does not modify the object, or it is not const and can modify the object. There are cases however, where you want to modify a member within a const member pointer. In that case you can mark the member declaration as mutable to enable modification inside const member functions.

Note however that in general this is done when the member variable does not take part on the visible state of the object. For example a mutex variable does not change the value returned from a getter or the state of the object afterwards, but getters need to lock (modify) the object to obtain a consistent view of the object in multithreaded environments. The second typical example is a cache, where an object may offer an operation that is expensive to calculate, so the function performing that operation might cache the result for later. Again, whether the value is recalculated or retrieved from the cache it will be the same, so the visible state of the object does not change. Finally, sometimes you might need to abuse the construct to conform to an existing interface.

Now it is up to you to determine which of the three options to apply to your design. If you need to modify the member attribute, then either the member is part of the visible state and the function should not be const, or else it is not part of the state of the object and can be marked mutable.