Enumeration problem

**baniakjr** · 11-11-2006

i've got such problem.I have enumeration declared in main.h header file and i wont to use it in files name.cpp ans name.h wich have definition and declaration of class name. And when i'm using enumeration in name.cpp everythink works fine but when i'm trying to use it in name.h it says unidentifed symbol

main.h file

Code:

#ifndef _MAIN
#define MAIN

enum
{
  Number=7,
  Unitcount=3
};

#endif

name.cpp

Code:

#include<iostream.h>
#include"main.h"
#include"name.h"

name::name()
{
  for (int i=0;i<Unitcount;i++)
  {
     a[i]=Number;
  }
}

name::~name()
{
}

name.h that works fine and now when i try to substitute 3 with Unitcount it says unidentified symbol 'Unitcount' and if i try to include main.h in here then it says multiple declaration

Code:

#ifndef _MODIFIERSET
#define MODIFIERSET

class name
{
  public:
  name();
  ~name();

  private:
  int a[3];
};

#endif

what's wrong or how to do it?

**Dave_Sinkula** · 11-11-2006

The header guards are supposed to match.

Code:

#ifndef _MODIFIERSET
#define MODIFIERSET

Otherwise, they aren't guards.

And avoid leading underscores.

**baniakjr** · 11-11-2006

Thanks.Hmm such an obvious mistake.

**Mario F.** · 11-11-2006

include main.h in the name.h and remove it from name.cpp

Also, ifndef and define preprocessor directive in main.h don't match. it's either _MAIN or MAIN.

Also, use neither. _MAIN is a big nono. You shouldn't start any identifiers with the underscore symbol. They are reserved by the implementation. MAIN is a terrible name for guard headers. Use a sligtly more complex mechanism. One possible way can be:

<YOUR_INITIALS>_<FILE_NAME>_<FILE_EXTENSION>_INC L

So instead of MAIN you could have

MJF_MAIN_H_INCL

**maxorator** · 11-11-2006

Code:

enum
{
  Number=7,
  Unitcount=3
};

Should enum have a name?

**Mario F.** · 11-11-2006

It's an hack.

Number and Unitcount are equivalent to static consts with that name and those values. It seems old code had to do this. You couldn't define static variables or something similar inside classes (i'm not sure exactly what it was. Someone correct me on this if it's wrong). Nowadays it makes little sense. However if may be a convenient way to declare a bunch of sequential statics.

**maxorator** · 11-11-2006

And how is that enum accessed?

**King Mir** · 11-11-2006

Originally Posted by maxorator

And how is that enum accessed?

Like Mario F. said, they behave like constant ints.

You can store there value in an int like this:
int num = Number;

**Mario F.** · 11-11-2006

just like any other const static var...

myclass.identifier --> where identifier is one of the enum identifiers.

Or if simply identifier if, just like with the OPs case, the enum belongs instead outside the scope of a class. (I just noticed the OP was declaring the enum on the global scope, no inside a class.)

There is no rule that states an enumerator must be named. But on that case no variables of the type enumeration can be created. Instead the enum is of type static const int (although I suspect this is implementation defined).

I have actually used for a short period unnamed enums inside namespaces as support for classes definitions. I since then switched over.

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