How to manage C++ Header and source files?

[abujarour]

Hi,
I am working on a c++ project. I want to define my own classes. I define each class in a separate header file, and define the body of its methods in another source cpp file. For example:
/

//Person.h
class Person
{
// data members and methods.
};
 
//Person.cpp
#include "Person.h"
//define the body of the methods here.

The problem that I face now, is that I have many classes (more than 50). That's why I decided to split classes among folders (like packages in java).
I put all header files in a structure like this:

-include

-humans

-employees

-students

and created another structure for source cpp files like this:
-humans

-employees

-students

The problem is that I have to provide the relative path of the file I want to include. For example, if I want to include Pupil.h in the source file Pupil.cpp :

#include "../../include/humans/students.Pupil.h";

which looks ugly!

I guess using namespaces could help, right ?
Any ideas?

Thanks,

[Darryl]

You could add the paths to list of paths your compiler searches when looking for headers.

[weaknessforcats]

problem is that I have to provide the relative path of the file I want to include. For example, if I want to include Pupil.h in the source file Pupil.cpp :

Code: ( text )
#include "../../include/humans/students.Pupil.h";

What Darryl means is that you should change your code to:

#include <Pupil.h>

and add the path to Pupil.h as a standard search path for the preprocessor.

If you use Visual C++, go to the Project Properties, select c/C++, select Preprocsssor and add the path to Pupil .h. If you have many paths, seprate the paths by semi-colons.

As a variation you can:

#include "Pupil.h"

which causes the proprocessor to firts look in your project folder. If the file is not there, the search reverts back to #include <Pupil.h>.

Avoid relative paths in your code. Big no-no.