Writing C++ program Arguments and Classes

I want to write a C++ program that uses a class to do some calculations.
I pass arguments to the program, some of which are used to set up class members. A class function will then perform the necessary calculations.

I am wondering how I should pass the arguments from the program to set the class members and then call the function performing the algorithm.

One way to do this is by parsing all the to the class (using a list consisting of a key and a value) and creating a class function

set_param( Parsing& List ) 

It checks all the keys and if the key matches some predefined strings, it will set the class member value.

I would like some opinions and alternative ways to do all this, outlining both advantages and disadvantages when using them, and which one might be good candidate for implementation.

is this homework?

Not homework. I feel I should pass all arguments to the class and then it does what it needs, much like in qt. Trying to find a good way to program as this project will take several years.