/******************************************************************************
 ***   FILE: special_value.cpp
 ***   DATE: 03/17/2004
 *** AUTHOR: Daniel Dementiev
 ***   GOAL: This program illustrates how to use 'special value' technique
 ***         for error checking. Please note that unlike other examples
 ***         method Array::Item() returns an integer, not a reference to an
 ***         integer. We need to do this because we cannot return a reference
 ***         to a integer constant ( like return -1; )
 ******************************************************************************/
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Array {
   private:
      int count;
      int data[10];
      int size;
   public:
      Array() : count(0), size(10) {};
      int Count() const { return count; };
      int Size() const { return size; };
      int Item(int index);
};

int Array::Item(int index)
{
   if( index<0 || index>=10 )
      return -1;
   return data[index];
}


void main()
{
   Array a;
   cout<<"count = "<<a.Count()<<endl;
   cout<<" size = "<<a.Size()<<endl;
   cout<<"a.Item(10) = "<<a.Item(10)<<endl;
}     throw range_error("Let's emulate an error");