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Language: C++
Expertise: Intermediate

Apr 5, 1999

It is illegal to use forward declarations with typedef names, as in:

 
   class string;
   void f(string& s); //illegal, string is a typedef name

Even a typename won't do here:

 
   typename  std::string; //still illegal
   void f(std::string& s);  

The problem with these forward declarations is that std::string is not a class, but a typedef name defined like this:

 
   typedef basic_string<char, char_traits<char>, allocator<char> >string;

In order to generate the correct mangled name for the function f, the compiler has to see the non-typedef'd form of its argument. In other words, there is no escape from #including the header <string> in this case.