The title might not be very clear, it's a bit more complex than that. I searched the web for something like my problem but I did not find anything that could help me.
This is not about infinite looping inclusions, I already put preprocessor directives to avoid that.
I have two classes Monster and Character, respectively declared in their own header files, monster.hpp and character.hpp, and respectively implemented in their own source files, monster.cpp and character.cpp.
The problem now is that both classes need each other to work.
monster.hpp :
#ifndef INCLUDE_MONSTER_HPP
#define INCLUDE_MONSTER_HPP
#include "character.hpp"
class Monster
{
private: //Atributes
public: //Methods
void attackM(Monster& id);
void attackC(Character& id);
};
#endif //MONSTER_HPP_INCLUDED
character.hpp :
#ifndef INCLUDE_CHARACTER_HPP
#define INCLUDE_CHARACTER_HPP
#include "monster.hpp"
class Character
{
private: //Attributes
public: //Methods
void attackM(Monster& id);
void attackC(Character& id);
};
#endif //CHARACTER_HPP_INCLUDED
and the main.cpp :
#include <iostream>
#include "character.hpp"
#include "monster.hpp"
using namespace std;
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
//Whatever
return 0;
}
And I get this error from the compiler :
In file included from character.hpp:7:0,
from main.cpp:3:
monster.hpp:24:16: error: 'Character' has not been declared
void attackC(Character& id);
(the line and column numbers may be wrong)
From what I understand, when monster.hpp is included into character.hpp, the compiler sees that the class Monster uses the class Character, which is not declared yet right at the moment when monster.hpp is included into character.hpp.
And I don't know how to fix that.
Any ideas ?
The way this works is that the header files of char and monster do not include each other. Instead you forward declare the classes and include the headers within the CPP files.
So basically replace #include "monster.hpp" in the.h with class Monster; and #include "monster.hpp" in the .cpp - and same for the other class.
See this question for more details: