Cannot access private variable from constructor - not in scope (C++) - c++

Question

I'm creating a simple game in SDL2 and learning about C++ classes, however I'm having difficulty with private variables and class constructors. I'm attempting to access an SDL_Texture that is defined as a private variable and modify it within the constructor.
Upon compilation the code below causes the following error:
In constructor 'PlayerShip::PlayerShip(SDL_Texture*)':
|5| error: 'ShipSprite' was not declared in this scope
Header file (PlayerShip.h):
#ifndef PLAYERSHIP_H
#define PLAYERSHIP_H
#include "SDL2/SDL.h"
class PlayerShip
{
public:
PlayerShip(SDL_Texture * tex);
private:
SDL_Texture * ShipSprite = nullptr; //The variable/texture I want to modify
};
#endif
CPP file (PlayerShip.cpp)
#include "PlayerShip.h"
PlayerShip::PlayerShip(SDL_Texture * tex) //ctor
{
ShipSprite = tex; //This needs to change the private variable above. However "ShipSprite" is apparently not in scope.
}
It is defined in the header, however I'm not sure why it won't access it even though it's inside the class. I've tried searching for solutions to this problem, however the ones I found were not related to my issue.
On top of this, I've tried changing ShipSprite = tex; to the following but with no success:
PlayerShip::ShipSprite = tex; and
this->ShipSprite = tex;
Any ideas for this would be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

Depending on how recent your compiler is, it may not accept initialization of a non-static member that doesn't have integer type. Or it may not know the keyword nullptr.
SDL_Texture * ShipSprite = nullptr;
Try instead
SDL_Texture * ShipSprite;

Answer 2

See if you don't define the include guard (#ifndef PLAYERSHIP_H) somewhere else.
Also, check the output of minGW, which files it uses, maybe your assumptions are wrong? You can also do quick and dirty debug things like introducing a syntax error in your header file. If it isn't caught, the file isn't even used.
Other than that I'd suggest a few other things (unrelated to your question):
Have a naming convention for member variables that is different from that of class names. ShipSprite could be shipSprite_, m_shipSprite, shipSprite, or what have you. (A good set of recommendations: http://geosoft.no/development/cppstyle.html)
If you want to initialize member variables, prefer to do so with the constructor initializer list. I.e.:
PlayerShip::PlayerShip(SDL_Texture * tex) : ShipSprite(tex) {
} The compiler might be more helpful if you are more precise in what you want to do.

Answer 3

It would appear that I may have accidentally compiled the header file separately before I added the variable, and it left a PlayerShip.gch file in the same folder as my headers. GCC probably tried to use it instead of the normal header file and thus gave me that error.
Nonetheless deleting the .gch file seems to have fixed the issue for me and now the program compiles properly. Not sure how I completely missed that.
Thanks again everyone for your suggestions and help.
Edit: How do I go about closing this?