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Language: C++
Expertise: Beginner

May 16, 2000

Question:
I was trying to test a base class and I came across an unusual question: in the below code, why doesn't the compiler complain about the return code type being a private member?

class TestCompile
{
   private:
      enum action { encrypt, decrypt };
   public:
      action getAction(){return encrypt;}
};

I believe it should complain, or at least warn the developer of the situation. I am using HPUX and aCC.

Answer:
Your code is valid. Remember that getAction() is a member of TestCompile, and as such, it's allowed to access any member of its class, including returning a member's value. The following program therefore is perfectly legal:

int main()
{
 TestCompile tc;
 tc.getAction(); //ok
}

One caveat here, though: you can't really do anything with getAction outside its class. It's impossible to declare a variable of type TestCompile::action to store the result:

TestCompile::action a; //error; type action inacessible 
a = tc.getAction(); //error

A nitpicky compiler might issue a warning message in this case, but it's not required to.