Single Inheritance C++ and header files

Question

I'm getting an

expected class-name before '{' token

in the following code

the saltwaterfish.h header file:

#ifndef SALTWATERFISH_H
#define SALTWATERFISH_H


class saltwaterfish: public fish
{
public:
    saltwaterfish();
    float GetUnitPrice();
    float GetWeight();
};

#endif // SALTWATERFISH_H

Is this the correct way to define the header file for

"saltwaterfish is a subclass of fish" ?

the only thing I have in saltwaterfish.cpp is

#include "fish.h"
#include "saltwaterfish.h"

the fish.cpp class:

#include "fish.h"
#include <iostream>

#include "freshwaterfish.h"
#include "saltwaterfish.h"

using namespace std;

fish::fish()
{
};

float fish::CalculatePrice()
{
    return GetUnitPrice()*GetWeight();
}

float fish::GetUnitPrice()
{
    return 1.0;
}

float fish::GetWeight()
{
    return 1.0;
}

Can you post code for fish class here.Probably you are missing `};` at the end of fish class. — Singh, Mar 19 '14 at 04:53
Remove the semicolon after the body of the `fish` constructor. — barak manos, Mar 19 '14 at 05:00
Your header file is not self-contained. fish is not defined at that point your your header file. — user3427419, Mar 19 '14 at 05:01

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 19 '14 at 06:02

2

Include the fish.h header file in saltwaterfish.h

//saltwaterfish.h
#include"fish.h"
#ifndef SALTWATERFISH_H
#define SALTWATERFISH_H


class saltwaterfish: public fish
{
public:
    saltwaterfish();
    float GetUnitPrice();
    float GetWeight();
};
#endif // SALTWATERFISH_H

The compiler does not see that Fish is a class, hence the error.

edited Mar 19 '14 at 06:02

AndyG

39,700
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answered Mar 19 '14 at 04:59

balaji

81
6

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 19 '14 at 04:56

0

You should put

#include "fish.h"

in the header file itself. (saltwaterfish.h)

Otherwise this code won't have access to fish class.

Good luck.

answered Mar 19 '14 at 04:56

Tanmay Patil

6,882
2
25
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Doesn't explain the problem though (unless it's in a different source file, not mentioned in the question). – barak manos Mar 19 '14 at 04:57
`#ifndef SALTWATERFISH_H` at the top of the code suggests that this code is in saltwaterfish.h – Tanmay Patil Mar 19 '14 at 04:59
@TanmayPatil is there a difference between putting `"fish.h"` and `` ? – ahtmatrix Mar 19 '14 at 05:06
1

Yes. means that the compiler will search in all include directories. On the other hand, "fish.h" will make the compiler search in the sources as well. – Tanmay Patil Mar 19 '14 at 05:10
Although this is compiler implementation dependent, more on this at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21593/what-is-the-difference-between-include-filename-and-include-filename – Tanmay Patil Mar 19 '14 at 05:11

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 19 '14 at 05:02

0

The error means "the thing before the { is supposed to be a class name, but it's not." So 'fish' is not a class name. Look for the declaration of the fish class, and make sure it's loaded before this declaration.

answered Mar 19 '14 at 05:02

John Deters

4,295
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41

Single Inheritance C++ and header files

3 Answers3

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