nested classes and multiple files

[Alfonso Morra]

I have a (largish) "master" header file (>130 loc). I also have a number
of seperate "satelite" header files which declare various objects used
by the object declared in the "master" header file. In a clean design,
these "satelite" objects (i.e. declared in the satellite header files),
should really be nested classes within the master file.

However, if I was to put all the declarations in one massive file, it
will easily exceed 1000 lines in the one header file.

My question is that is the anyway that I can change these satilite
object declarations into nested class declarations (I tried
MasterClass::myClass {...}; but the compiler complained that MyClass was
not a member of MasterClass - that makes sense anyway). Long story short
- can I maintain the satellite (smaller) header files and one master
header file, whilst changing the satellite objcet declarations to nested
classes (nested within the master class).

Any help will be much appreciated. MTIA

[Victor Bazarov]

Alfonso Morra wrote:

[..]
My question is that is the anyway that I can change these satilite
object declarations into nested class declarations [..]

Well, yes. You can declare the nested class in the main class definition
and then define it later, say, in a separate header:

---------------------- outer.h
class outer {
public:
class inner;
};
---------------------- inner.h
class outer::inner {
int a;
};
---------------------- main.cpp
#include "outer.h"
#include "inner.h"

int main() {
outer o;
outer::inner oi;
}
----------------------------------

V

[Alfonso Morra]

Victor Bazarov wrote:

Alfonso Morra wrote:

[..]
My question is that is the anyway that I can change these satilite
object declarations into nested class declarations [..]

Well, yes. You can declare the nested class in the main class definition
and then define it later, say, in a separate header:

---------------------- outer.h
class outer {
public:
class inner;
};
---------------------- inner.h
class outer::inner {
int a;
};
---------------------- main.cpp
#include "outer.h"
#include "inner.h"

int main() {
outer o;
outer::inner oi;
}
----------------------------------

V

Many Thanks Victor