So the other day, I was looking through some old C++ books and noticed a way of creating a C++ class I had never seen before. Everything I have seen up to that point had always used the #include "header.h" and compiled the implementation files separately. What I saw the author of this book do is actually put an include directive to the implementation at the end of the header file and omitting the .cpp file from the compilation. Has anybody used this style?
For Example: I have main.cpp employee.h employee.cpp
//main.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string>
#include "employee.h"
void main()
{/*some code*/}
//employee.h
#ifndef EMPLOYEE_H
#define EMPLOYEE_H
class employee
{
public:
//public members
private:
//private members
}
#endif
//employee.cpp
#include "employee.h"
#include <string>
//public member definitions
I would normaly compile this project like so:
g++ main.cpp employee.cpp
But in the author's example is like this
//main.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string>
#include "employee.h"
void main()
{/*some code*/}
//employee.h
#ifndef EMPLOYEE_H
#define EMPLOYEE_H
class employee
{
public:
//public members
private:
//private members
}
#include "employee.cpp" // <-- the line of code that caught my attention
#endif
//employee.cpp
#include <string>
//public member definitions
And the resulting code compiles as
g++ main.cpp
Is this merely a style preference or are there any real benefits in this? I would think it wouldn't scale very well, but I am not a super proficient C++ programmer either.
