c++ - How to declare friend method when class definitions cross reference?

Question

I want to define two classes, A and B. A has a data member which is a Class B object and is in-class initialised. A also has a method to retrieve the value in this B type data member and this method would be declared as a friend method in B. Here is my code:

class A{
public:
    int getBValue();
private:
    B b=B(1);
};

class B{
public:
    friend int A::getBValue();
    B(int i):value(i){}
private:
    int value;
};

int A::getBValue(){
    return b.value;
}

And unsurprisingly the compilation had failed because of unknown type B in class A definition. I had tried to swap the definitions of A and B in the source and the result was even worse. Is there a possible way to resolve this cross reference issue between A and B?

Answer 1

If this is the complete code as you have it, then the problem is that the compiler doesn't know what a B is at the time it is compiling class A. One way to solve it is by creating a pointer to B instead of having a B itself:

A.h

#ifndef CLASS_A
#define CLASS_A

class B;

class A{
public:
    int getBValue();
private:
    B *b;
};

#endif

B.h

#ifndef CLASS_B
#define CLASS_B

#include "A.h"

class B{
public:
    friend int A::getBValue();
    B(int i):value(i){}
private:
    int value;
};

#endif

A.cpp

#include "A.h"
#include "B.h"

int A::getBValue(){
    return b->value;
}