Unknown class? C2143 syntax error: missing ";" before '*'

Question

I get the error "C2143: syntax error: missing ';' before '*' in Track.h I believe this is due to a "missing" class definition.

These are the 3 header files:

Topics.h, the package-level header file, which #includes everything else:

#ifndef Topics_H
#define Topics_H

#include <oxf\oxf.h>
#include "Request.h"
#include "TDPoint.h"
#include "Track.h"
#include "TrackReport.h"

#endif

Then there's TDPoint (as in "3DPoint"), which simply defines a class with 3 long attributes:

#ifndef TDPoint_H
#define TDPoint_H

#include <oxf\oxf.h> // Just IBM Rational Rhapsody's Framework
#include "Topics.h"

class TDPoint {
    ////    Constructors and destructors    ////

public :

    TDPoint();

    ~TDPoint();

    ////    Additional operations    ////

long getX() const;    
void setX(long p_x);
long getY() const;    
void setY(long p_y);    
long getZ() const;
void setZ(long p_z);

    ////    Attributes    ////

protected :

    long x;    
    long y;    
    long z;};

#endif

But the problem lies here, in the marked line:

#ifndef Track_H
#define Track_H

#include <oxf\oxf.h> // Just IBM Rational Rhapsody's Framework
#include "Topics.h"
#include "TDPoint.h"

class Track {

public :

    ////    Operations     ////

    std::string getId() const;

    void setId(std::string p_id);

    TDPoint* getPosition() const; // <--- This line, the first line to use TDPoint, throws the error

    ////    Attributes    ////

protected :

    std::string id;   

    TDPoint position;

public :

     Track();
     ~Track();
};

#endif

My guess was that the compiler (MS VS2008/ MSVC9) simply didn't know the class "TDPoint." But even defining the class in the same header file as "Track", or using a forward declaration like "class TDPoint" (which then throws the error: undefined class) didn't help. The code was auto-generated from Rhapsody, if that makes any difference.

But maybe the error is something else entirely?

Answer 1

Topics.h includes TDPoint.h and Track.h

TDPoint.h includes Topics.h

and Track.h includes both Topics.h and TDPoint.h

This feels like a circular include... You should either forward declare your classes to solve it or modify Topics.h to not to have circularity.