object of the class inside its definition?

[sanctus]

Is it possible to put an object of class inside a class? What I mean isexmplified in this code:

class  Spline : public Mathobject, AnchorEnabled {
public:
//(...)
 Spline *mother;
//(...)
 

Is maybe possible becuase there is redundant inclusion of a header file: the header file includes itself, it's called spline.h and at the start you have a:

#include<spline.h>

[DeMan]

You can declare an instance of a class inside itself (very useful for most data structures).
One of the ways you can get around problems this might cause in teh .h being included multiple times is to put in a failsafe....

in Spline.h, surround exerything in the file with:

#ifndef _SPLINE_H
#define _SPLINE_H
 
/* Do all the normal things here */
 
#endif
 

This means when Spline.h is included for the first time you set a value to show that you have already declared this header, and it won't be declared again.

[sanctus]

You can declare an instance of a class inside itself (very useful for most data structures).

But why is it useful? I mean if the compiler doesn't read twice the definition of the class it does not know what and object of type spline is.

One of the ways you can get around problems this might cause in teh .h being included multiple times is to put in a failsafe....

in Spline.h, surround exerything in the file with:

#ifndef _SPLINE_H
#define _SPLINE_H
 
/* Do all the normal things here */
 
#endif
 

This is already done, it's not me who is writing the program I'm trying to understand it, but thanks for the clarification.