How can I avoid including class implementation files?

Question

Instead of doing

#include \"MyClass.cpp\"

I would like to do

#include \"MyClass.h\"

I\'ve read online tha

Answer 1

You needn't include .c or .cpp files - the compiler will compile them regardless whether they're #included in other files or not. However, the code in the .c/.cpp files is useless if the other files are unaware of the classes/methods/functions/global vars/whatever that's contained in them. And that's where headers come into play. In the headers, you only put declarations, such as this one:

//myfile.hpp
class MyClass {
    public:
        MyClass (void);
        void myMethod (void);
        static int myStaticVar;
    private:
        int myPrivateVar;
};

Now, all .c/.cpp files that will #include "myfile.hpp" will be able to create instances of MyClass, operate on myStaticVar and call MyClass::myMethod(), even though there's no actual implementation here! See?

The implementation (the actual code) goes into myfile.cpp, where you tell the compiler what all your stuff does:

//myfile.cpp
int MyClass::myStaticVar = 0;

MyClass::MyClass (void) {
    myPrivateVar = 0;
}

void MyClass::myMethod (void) {
    myPrivateVar++;
}

You never include this file anywhere, it's absolutely not necessary.

A tip: create a main.hpp (or main.h, if you prefer - makes no difference) file and put all the #includes there. Each .c/.cpp file will then only need to have have this line: #include "main.hpp". This is enough to have access to all classes, methods etc. you declared in your entire project :).