How to properly include Header and Implementation Files? - c++

Question

I am a novice programmer in c++, and I am currently getting a compiling error
Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64
Supposedly this originates from how the header files and implementation files are included/coded.
Below is some code that generates the compiling error I am receiving
Main
//Main.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include "Animal.hpp"
using namespace std;
int main(){
Animal myPet;
myPet.shout();
return 0;
}
Header
//Animal.hpp
#ifndef H_Animal
#define H_Animal
using namespace std;
#include <string>
class Animal{
public:
Animal();
void shout();
private:
string roar;
};
#endif
Implementation
//Animal.cpp
#include "Animal.hpp"
#include <string>
Animal::Animal(){
roar = "...";
}
void Animal::shout(){
roar = "ROAR";
cout << roar;
}
This code generates my compiling issue. How would this issue be resolved?
Thanks for your time
EDIT
Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64:
"Animal::shout()", referenced from:
_main in test-5f7f84.o
"Animal::Animal()", referenced from:
_main in test-5f7f84.o
ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

Answer 1

maybe you might want to see an alternative set of your 3 files, where things are a little more "sorted", you know, where things are put at places where they "really" belong to.
So here's the "new" header file ..
//Animal.hpp
#ifndef H_Animal
#define H_Animal
#include <string> // suffices
// Interface.
class Animal {
std::string roar; // private
public:
Animal();
void shout();
};
#endif
then the source file ..
//Animal.cpp
#include "Animal.hpp"
#include <iostream> // suffices
// Constructor.
Animal::Animal()
:
roar("...") // data member initializer
{}
// Member function.
void Animal::shout() {
roar = "ROAR";
std::cout << roar;
}
and the main program ..
//Main.cpp
#include "Animal.hpp"
int main(){
Animal thePet;
thePet.shout(); // outputs: `ROAR'
}
plus a little GNU makefile ..
all: default run
default: Animal.cpp Main.cpp
g++ -o Main.exe Animal.cpp Main.cpp
run:
./Main.exe
clean:
$(RM) *.o *.exe
Kick-off things typing just "make" in your cmd-line. Did you like it? --
Regards, M.

Answer 2

I can only find one error in your code and your compiler should have told you that one.
In Animal.cpp, you are using std::cout but you're not #includeing <iostream>. You #include it in Main.cpp but it is not needed there.
If you (really) want to refer to std::cout as cout in Animal.cpp, you also have to add a using namespace std directive in that file.
The using directive in the header file (Animal.hpp) is evil. Get rid of it and type std::string instead. Putting using directives into headers litters the namespaces of all files that use it.
I also don't understand your intentions with the roar member. What is the point of assigning "..." to it in the constructor and re-assigning "ROAR" to it every time shout is called? Couldn't you do without that variable and simply have
void
Animal::shout()
{
std::cout << "ROAR\n";
}
? I have added a newline because you'd probably want one.

Answer 3

The main issue I was having with this coding project was solved by #JamesMoore.
"#Nicholas Hayden Okay if you have three files, test.cpp(which has main), animal.cpp, and animal.hpp. The command should be g++ animal.cpp test.cpp. You need to compile all source files."
I am currently not using an IDE. So, when I was calling the compiler to compile my main.cpp - It was an issue of compiling the implementation file.
g++ test.cpp
needed to become
g++ test.cpp animal.cpp
This would call the compiler to compile everything the program needed.