Plethora of build errrors

[ResidentBiscuit]

So, I was in the process of making a test for some target acquiring, and I got hit with a fair amount of build errors.

Header

#ifndef ENEMYLIST_H
#define ENEMYLIST_H

class EnemyList
{
    private:
        Enemy* enemyList;

    public:
        EnemyList();
        ~EnemyList();
        void addEnemy(Enemy enemy);
        void removeEnemy(Enemy enemy);
};
#endif 

Source

#include "EnemyList.h"
#include <vector>

EnemyList::EnemyList()
{
    enemyList = new std::vector<Enemy>;
}

EnemyList::~EnemyList()
{
    delete[] enemyList;
}

void EnemyList::addEnemy(Enemy enemy)
{
    enemyList.push_back(enemy);
}

Aaand build log

C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.h:13: error: 'Enemy' has not been declared
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp: In constructor 'EnemyList::EnemyList()':
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp:6: error: 'enemyList' was not declared in this scope
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp:6: error: 'Enemy' was not declared in this scope
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp:6: error: template argument 1 is invalid
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp:6: error: template argument 2 is invalid
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp: In destructor 'EnemyList::~EnemyList()':
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp:11: error: 'enemyList' was not declared in this scope
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp: At global scope:
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp:14: error: variable or field 'addEnemy' declared void
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp:14: error: 'Enemy' was not declared in this scope
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp:18: error: variable or field 'removeEnemy' declared void
C:\Users\Jared\Documents\Programs\EnemyList.cpp:18: error: 'Enemy' was not declared in this scope

Not sure what the issue is, but I'm sure I'm gonna feel dumb when it's pointed out to me

[Zhuge]

Did you forget to forward declare the class Enemy in your header?

[ResidentBiscuit]

I've never used forward declaration. I kind of know what it is, not sure how to use it though.

Including Enemy.h did fix most of these problems. How would I use forward declaration here?

Is there a reason I can't do this:

Enemy* enemyList
enemyList = new vector<Enemy>;

?

[naraku9333]

#ifndef ENEMYLIST_H
#define ENEMYLIST_H

class Enemy;//pre declaration
class EnemyList
{
    private:
        Enemy* enemyList;

    public:
        EnemyList();
        ~EnemyList();
        void addEnemy(Enemy enemy);
        void removeEnemy(Enemy enemy);
};
#endif  

ResidentBiscuit wrote:

Is there a reason I can't do this:

Enemy* enemyList
enemyList = new vector<Enemy>;

Unless enemyList is a pointer to a vector, it doesn't make sense. you can do Enemy* enemies = new Enemy[x]; or std::vector<Enemy> enemies; or std::vector<Enemy*> enemies;

[ResidentBiscuit]

Ah I thought it would work similar to arrays. I changed it up and it works fine now.

The forward declaration brings up all sorts of errors though. Just including the enemy.h seems to work fine. Is there a reason to use one or the other?

[Zhuge]

Use forward declaration when you are only using pointers. Include the header in other cases. Without forward declaration, this would be impossible:

class A {
    B* b; // error, B not yet defined
};
class B {
    A* a;
};

[ResidentBiscuit]

Oooh, that makes sense. Hmm, well I don't think I need pointers here. I can just pass out a pointer to the vector when I need it.

[firedraco]

What is the point of the EnemyList class? Is there any reason you can't just use an std::list<Enemy> where it is needed?

[ResidentBiscuit]

I was trying to be fancy. I now realize that it just complicated things. As I can't reasonably pass it anywhere.

Think it's time to scratch the class