What is name lookup mechanism?

Question

I\'d like to know what C++ name lookup mechanism is.

Answer 1

At its core, it's the process that the compiler uses to figure out what the given name corresponds to - be a it a variable or a function or some other language construct. It has to find the underlying language construct that the name refers to.

e.g. When you call the function printf(), the compiler has to find the declaration for printf so that it understands what it is and can properly compile it.

As previously pointed out, there are various name lookup mechanisms that C++ uses, and you can find information on them pretty easily with google. Wikipedia has some basic information on it as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_resolution