unresolved symbol -_- (static int)

btw: the -_- is a face looking gloom, not a var name

Code:

---

#include <iostream.h>

class Person
{
private:
        static int myCount;
        char* name;
public:
        Person(char* name)
        {
                this->name=name;
                myCount++;
        }
        Person()
        {
                name="Unknown";
                myCount++;
        }
        virtual ~Person()
        {
                myCount--;
                name="";
        }
        static int count()
        {
                return myCount;
        }
        friend ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, Person& in);
};

ostream& operator << (ostream& out, Person& in)
{
        out<<in.name;
        return out;
}

int main()
{
        Person john("John");
        Person* ptr = new Person("Johnny boy");
        cout<<john<<endl;
        cout<<*ptr<<endl;
        cout<<Person::count()<<endl;
        delete ptr;
        cout<<Person::count()<<endl;
        return 0;
}

---

Just playing around with something and I get the error:

Code:

---

haha.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "private: static int  Person::myCount" (?myCount@Person@@0HA)

---

I tried playing with some different ways of putting it etc but couldn't really come up with something that worked. Anyone have an idea of what's wrong besides the fact that im using windows -_-.

-LC

try:

Code:

---

int Person::myCount = 0;

---

after the class declaration and before int main.

PS. Is there a reason you are using the old, non-standard <iostream.h> header?

because I always do.
thanks for the help, though I thought static ints were guaranteed to be initialized to 0, I guess not in Classes.

-LC

It is not that it's not initialized, that code is there because myCount doesn't *exist* until you do that.

A static variable in a class only *declares* the variable. It just says "I will make a variable with this name somewhere". In one source file, you need to actually create it.