How to overcome circular dependence with declarations?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
How can I declare classes that refer to each other?

Below is my code in a .h file. Compiler will complain about having SP object in CPattern. I can't place SP's declaration above CPattern as it's also declaring CPattern object in it. How do I solve this? Thank you for your help!

class CPattern
{
public:
    CPattern(void);
    ~CPattern(void);

    SP & Create(void);
};


class SP
{
private:
    const CPattern*    pPat;
public:
    SP()
    {
    }
    ~SP()
    {
        // pointer no longer requried
        delete pPat;
    }    
};

See [this answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/3110269/1641234) on forward declarations. — Anthony Burleigh, Sep 28 '12 at 03:11

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 28 '12 at 03:09

3

Add class SP; at the top of your file. This is a forward declaration which tells the compiler what an SP is but doesn't describe its implementation.

answered Sep 28 '12 at 03:09

Keith Randall

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Ahhh.... Totally forgotten about this! Thank you! – AvatarBlue Sep 28 '12 at 03:15

How to overcome circular dependence with declarations?

1 Answers1