missing ';' before '*' after instance declaration - c++

Question

I've encountered an error which I cannot seem to find a solution to anywhere else.
The error occurs when I'm trying to declare an instance of the "EncodeWindow" class.The compiler is giving errors C2143,C4430 and C2238. I am simply trying to give the "MainWindow" class an instance of "EncodeWindow".
File mainWindow.h:
#ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
#define MAINWINDOW_H
#include <QMainWindow>
#include <QString>
#include <QLabel>
#include "Image.h"
#include "encodewindow.h"
namespace Ui {
class MainWindow;
}
class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
MainWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
~MainWindow();
/*Check whether a given file path is valid*/
bool CheckFilePath(QString);
/*Sets UI widgets*/
void setOriginalImage_Label(const char*);
void setEncodedImage_Label(const char*);
void setDebug_TextBox(QString);
/*Saves all information about current encoding/decoding*/
void saveFile();
private slots:
void on_Encode_Button_clicked();
void on_Reset_Button_clicked();
void on_Save_Button_clicked();
void on_AddEncodeImage_Debug_Button_clicked();
void on_AddImage_Button_clicked();
void on_pushButton_clicked();
private:
Ui::MainWindow *ui;
EncodeWindow *CurrentEncodeWindow = new EncodeWindow; //ERROR HERE!! C2143
int fileNumber = 0;
};
#endif // MAINWINDOW_H
File encodeWindow.h:
#ifndef ENCODEWINDOW_H
#define ENCODEWINDOW_H
#include <QMainWindow>
#include "mainwindow.h"
namespace Ui {
class EncodeWindow;
}
class EncodeWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit EncodeWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
~EncodeWindow();
/*Get filepaths from 'result' object (For access to filepaths without 'encode' Window)*/
const char* getOriginalFilePath();
const char* getEncodeFilePath();
const char* getSaveFilePath();
bool checkUI(const char*,const char*,const char*,bool*);
bool CheckFilePath(const char*);
std::string readInText(const char*);
private slots:
void on_RedChannel_CheckBox_clicked(bool);
void on_GreenChannel_CheckBox_clicked(bool);
void on_BlueChannel_CheckBox_clicked(bool);
void on_AlphaChannel_CheckBox_clicked(bool);
void on_BitDepth_Slider_sliderMoved(int);
void on_BitDepth_SpinBox_valueChanged(int);
void on_Encode_Button_clicked();
private:
Ui::EncodeWindow *ui;
Encoded result; //Enocoded object (child of Image class)
};
#endif // ENCODEWINDOW_H
Any help would be great. The code was done in Qt for an image steganography project.
Thanks.

Answer 1

You have circular includes. "mainwindow.h" includes "encodewindow.h" and "encodewindow.h" includes "mainwindow.h". The include guards stop the cycle, but the class definitions for whichever header is included first won't be complete in the second include file, which will result in your errors.
In the snippet above, there's nothing that I see in encodewindow.h that uses anything in mainwindow.h, so just remove the include of mainwindow.h from encodewindow.h.