Header files - where to include

I'm currently writing some code to read a .ini file and set variables according to its contents. I've decided to wrap this in a very simple class. The class is declared in IniParser.h:

Code:

---

#ifndef INIPARSER_H
#define INIPARSER_H

class IniParser
{
public:
  void Parse(char *fileName);
};

#endif // INIPARSER_H

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IniParser::Parse is implemented in IniParser.cpp (code is probably crappy and/or buggy, so I've commented it out for now):

Code:

---

void IniParser::Parse(char *fileName)
{
  /*
  ifstream iniFile (*fileName);
  if(!iniFile.is_open())
  {
      std::cout << "Could not open ini file: " << *fileName << std::endl;
      return 0; // Probably bad since return type is void..
  }

  char inputStr[128];
  int inputInt;
  float inputFloat;

  while(iniFile >> inputStr)
  {
      switch (*inputStr) {
        case "testVar":
            iniFile >> inputFloat; // Is this possible?
            std::cout << "testVar = " << inputFloat << std::endl;
            //TODO: Set the variable testVar to the content of inputFloat
            break;
        default:
            std::cout << "Unknown variable encountered while reading"<< *fileName << std::endl;
            break;
      }
  }*/
}

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I'm unsure how/where I should include the header file now. If I include it from the main file like this:

Code:

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#include "IniParser.h"
#include "IniParser.cpp"

---

I get "iniparser.cpp(5) : error C2653: 'IniParser' : is not a class or namespace name"

If I include the header inside the IniParser.cpp I get "error LNK2005: "public: void __thiscall IniParser::Parse(char *)" (?Parse@IniParser@@QAEXPAD@Z) already defined in Shard Server.obj" - where Shard Server.obj is the main file.

What is the 'right' way to use header files?

You dont include cpp files.. Just include header files..

Thanks, it works. I'm new to C++ and in the scripting language I'm used to, no header files are used, just includes of source files (no project manager or linker either).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by C+/-

Thanks, it works. I'm new to C++ and in the scripting language I'm used to, no header files are used, just includes of source files (no project manager or linker either).

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No problem.
What language are you used to?

I'm guessing PHP. Most scripting languages don't include, just reference.

C-script, the scripting language used in the A6 game engine. The c-script compiler just starts at the entry point source file and pastes the code of included files at the position of the include statements, that's all, no compilation units, linking, etc. It's a very good language to learn programming because of its simplicity (also syntactically), but very restrictive when you want to do more complex things.