What Should Go into An. H File?
When Dividing Your Code up into Multiple Files Just What Exactly Should Go into An. H File and What Should Go into A. Cpp File? 4 12 Answers Header Files (. H)...
When dividing your code up into multiple files just what exactly should go into an .h file and what should go into a .cpp file?
12 Answers
Header files (.h) are designed to provide the information that will be needed in multiple files. Things like class declarations, function prototypes, and enumerations typically go in header files. In a word, "definitions".
Code files (.cpp) are designed to provide the implementation information that only needs to be known in one file. In general, function bodies, and internal variables that should/will never be accessed by other modules, are what belong in .cpp files. In a word, "implementations".
The simplest question to ask yourself to determine what belongs where is "if I change this, will I have to change code in other files to make things compile again?" If the answer is "yes" it probably belongs in the header file; if the answer is "no" it probably belongs in the code file.
Fact is, in C++, this is somewhat more complicated that the C header/source organization.
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What does the compiler see?
The compiler sees one big source (.cpp) file with its headers properly included. The source file is the compilation unit that will be compiled into an object file.
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