Qt: Signals and slots Error: undefined reference to `vtable for

Question

Following example from this link: http://developer.kde.org/documentation/books/kde-2.0-development/ch03lev1sec3.html

#include <QObject>
#include <QPushButton>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class MyWindow : public QWidget
{
    Q_OBJECT  // Enable slots and signals
    public:
        MyWindow();
    private slots:
        void slotButton1();
        void slotButton2();
        void slotButtons();
    private:
        QPushButton *button1;
        QPushButton *button2;
};

MyWindow :: MyWindow() : QWidget()
{
    // Create button1 and connect button1->clicked() to this->slotButton1()
    button1 = new QPushButton("Button1", this);
    button1->setGeometry(10,10,100,40);
    button1->show();
    connect(button1, SIGNAL(clicked()), this, SLOT(slotButton1()));

    // Create button2 and connect button2->clicked() to this->slotButton2()
    button2 = new QPushButton("Button2", this);
    button2->setGeometry(110,10,100,40);
    button2->show();
    connect(button2, SIGNAL(clicked()), this, SLOT(slotButton2()));

    // When any button is clicked, call this->slotButtons()
    connect(button1, SIGNAL(clicked()), this, SLOT(slotButtons()));
    connect(button2, SIGNAL(clicked()), this, SLOT(slotButtons()));
}

// This slot is called when button1 is clicked.
void MyWindow::slotButton1()
{
    cout << "Button1 was clicked" << endl;
}

// This slot is called when button2 is clicked
void MyWindow::slotButton2()
{
    cout << "Button2 was clicked" << endl;
}

// This slot is called when any of the buttons were clicked
void MyWindow::slotButtons()
{
    cout << "A button was clicked" << endl;
}

int main ()
{
    MyWindow a;
}

results in:

    [13:14:34 Mon May 02] ~/junkPrograms/src/nonsense  $make
g++ -c -m64 -pipe -O2 -Wall -W -D_REENTRANT -DQT_NO_DEBUG -DQT_GUI_LIB -DQT_CORE_LIB -DQT_SHARED -I/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/mkspecs/linux-g++-64 -I. -I/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/include/QtCore -I/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/include/QtGui -I/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/include -I. -I. -o signalsSlots.o signalsSlots.cpp
g++ -m64 -Wl,-O1 -Wl,-rpath,/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/lib -o nonsense signalsSlots.o    -L/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/lib -lQtGui -L/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/lib -L/usr/X11R6/lib64 -lQtCore -lpthread
signalsSlots.o: In function `MyWindow::MyWindow()':
signalsSlots.cpp:(.text+0x1a2): undefined reference to `vtable for MyWindow'
signalsSlots.cpp:(.text+0x1aa): undefined reference to `vtable for MyWindow'
signalsSlots.o: In function `MyWindow::MyWindow()':
signalsSlots.cpp:(.text+0x3e2): undefined reference to `vtable for MyWindow'
signalsSlots.cpp:(.text+0x3ea): undefined reference to `vtable for MyWindow'
signalsSlots.o: In function `main':
signalsSlots.cpp:(.text+0x614): undefined reference to `vtable for MyWindow'
signalsSlots.o:signalsSlots.cpp:(.text+0x61d): more undefined references to `vtable for MyWindow' follow
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [nonsense] Error 1

vtable is for virtual functions, AFAIK, what's the reason of error here?

Answer 1

It looks like moc doesn't generate code for your QObject because you declare it in the .cpp file. The easiest way to fix that is to move the declaration of MyWindow to a header, and add the header to the HEADERS list, in the .pro file:

HEADERS += yourheader.h 

Then rerun qmake.

(Please note that the KDE 2.0 book you look at is vastly outdated)