How can a C++ header file include implementation?

Question

Ok, not a C/C++ expert by any means, but I thought the point of a header file was to declare the functions, then the C/CPP file was to define the implementation.

How

Answer 1

It is perfectly valid to have an implementation of a function in a header file. The only issue with this is breaking the one-definition-rule. That is, if you include the header from multiple other files, you will get a compiler error.

However, there is one exception. If you declare a function to be inline, it is exempt from the one-definition-rule. This is what is happening here, since member functions defined inside a class definition are implicitly inline.

Inline itself is a hint to the compiler that a function may be a good candidate for inlining. That is, expanding any call to it into the definition of the function, rather than a simple function call. This is an optimization which trades the size of the generated file for faster code. In modern compilers, providing this inlining hint for a function is mostly ignored, except for the effects it has on the one-definition-rule. Also, a compiler is always free to inline any function it sees fit, even if it has not been declared inline (explicitly or implicitly).

In your example, the use of const after the argument list signals that the member function does not modify the object on which it is called. In practice, this means that the object pointed to by this, and by extension all class members, will be considered const. That is, trying to modify them will generate a compile-time error.