New silly newb questoin. Returning vector from a class

Hi all,

Sorry for this, but it's driving me insane now, been at it for hours. Been searching the boards and google for similiar errors or even code examples of returning vectors, but not seeing anything similiar. Building on my last project of generating stars and planets, I decided to use a class to generate a vector filled with star names to associate with the stars I generated.

The problem I'm running into, is that I keep getting the compiler error " 'vector' does not name a type".

I realize(I think) that my problem is that the compiler is looking for a datatype to return from my method, but for the life of me I can't figure out what I should be placing there.

I'm guessing that it doesn't associate vector as a datatype, but rather a container, and wants to know what it contains. Is that right?

Anyways, the code I'm using is this...

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

using namespace std;

class Names
{
      public:
           
            Names()
            {
              vector<string> name_getter;
                   
                name_getter.push_back("Acrux");
                name_getter.push_back("Alcor");
                ........
                name_getter.push_back("Yildun");
                name_getter.push_back("Zosma");
            }
           
            ~Names();           
}
 
vector Names :: getNames()
 {
    return name_getter;
 }

---

If anyone could please toss me a hint how to return my vector?

Again, any help is much appriciated, Hope I'm not being annoying.

Code:

---

vector<string> Names :: getNames()

---

BTW, there are other problems
Post if you need help with those too

Ty!

(Scurries off back to work!)

Ty again for your offer Madcow, I took a little break and firgured out that ; is my friend and I should put it at the end of classes :) Also added the function getNames to the class and now it compiles fine.

Question:

In C++ does the class have to be part of the code of the main program for it to compile correctly, or can the class be a seperate file?

I ask because I created it as a seperate file, and I can declare an instance of it, the compiler will even automatically pull up the function getNames, but when I try to compile it tells me

"Names undeclared first use this function"

error on the line I declare my instance.

Code:

---

In C++ does the class have to be part of the code of the main program for it to compile correctly, or can the class be a seperate file?

---

Sure, you can put it in a header file

did you include the header file you saved the functions in?

Code:

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#include "some_file_with_code_and_dot_h_extension.h"

---

please excuse the long name, but it gets the point across

Nope,

That was what I was missing!

I hadn't realized in C++ that external classes needed saved in a different format, a valueable lesson learned today.

Thanks guys for all your help!

They don't need to be in a different format. All files that you write are simply plain-text files. The file extensions are just convention:

Header files: where you have your class and function declarations typically.
Extensions are often: .h .hh .hpp .hxx

Source files: where you have the definition of your classes and functions typically.
Extensions are often: .cpp .cc .C .cxx

Quote:

---

Header files: where you have your class and function declarations typically.
Extensions are often: .h .hh .hpp .hxx

Source files: where you have the definition of your classes and functions typically.
Extensions are often: .cpp .cc .C .cxx

---

Careful with that. Some compilers will decide whether to compile a given input as C or C++ based on the extension...