Expected constructor, destructor, type conversion

I get these two errors when I compile

Code:

/home/sterling/CODE/UnorderedList/UnorderedList.cpp|22|error: expected constructor, destructor, or type conversion before ‘&’ token|
/home/sterling/CODE/UnorderedList/UnorderedList.cpp|23|error: expected constructor, destructor, or type conversion before ‘&’ token|

The part of the file that it's telling me about are these two functions -

Code:

//GETTER FUNCTIONS
Node& UnorderedList::Node::getNext() {return next;}
Node& UnorderedList::Node::getPrevious() {return previous;}

I feel like it's telling me that it doesn't recognize Node, but I don't understand why. Node is a nested class in UnorderedList.h. That file is this -

Code:

#ifndef UNORDEREDLIST_H
#define UNORDEREDLIST_H
#include <exception>

class UnorderedList {
public:

    class EmptyListException: public std::exception {
        public:
            virtual const char* what() const throw();
    };  //END EMPTYLISTEXCEPTION

    class InvalidInputException: public std::exception {
        public:
            virtual const char* what() const throw();
    };  //END INVALIDINPUTEXCEPTION

    class Node {
        public:
            Node(int element);
            ~Node();

            Node& getNext();
            Node& getPrevious();
            int& getElement();

        private:
            int element;
            Node* next;
            Node* previous;
    };  //END NODE CLASS

    UnorderedList();
    ~UnorderedList();

    void add(int element);
    int remove(int element);
    void print();
    int size();
    bool isEmpty();

private:
    Node* head;
    int count;
};

#endif

I don't see why the exception classes compile fine but Node doesn't. I have tried changing the return from Node& to Node*, changing the return in .cpp to UnorderedList::Node&, and other random things. None have worked though. Can anyone tell me what's wrong? Thanks.

I notice that for the return type, you write Node instead of UnorderedList::Node.

Do you mean in the .h or .cpp? I tried having

Code:

UnorderedList::Node& UnorderedList::Node::getNext() {return next;}

But that gave me this error

Code:

/home/sterling/CODE/UnorderedList/UnorderedList.cpp|22|error: invalid initialization of reference of type ‘UnorderedList::Node&’ from expression of type ‘UnorderedList::Node*’|

I tried changing it to UnorderedList::Node in both files, but I got the same error.

Ah, but this error is different. It now says that your implementation of the function is wrong, e.g., it should return *next;

Oh okay, thank you!

Quick semi-related question,

next and previous are pointers to a Node object. If I return the pointer (Node* instead of Node&), will it return the pointer to where I could change it? Or does it copy the pointer?

It would return a copy of the pointer.