[C++] Linking Source Files

Hi, you cannot "run" a source file or "jumo into" a source file. You can, however, call a function defined within another source file. From the pseudo code that you posted, it seems that you want to have a "ships.cpp" file and within that file you want to define a function named "ships", and just call that function from "main()". It's probably time to learn about functions, if you haven't already.

Apologies, I have learned basic C++ but its been a while since I did anything with it.

Thanks for the assistance and i'll post the results later (:

C++ is a statically compiled language. The source files are completely transformed into an executable before it is run. The compiler is not available once you are running the program, so you cannot "run" source files. In contrast, in some dynamic languages it would be possible to do this.

As D_Tr mentioned, what you want to do is call one or more functions that can be defined in separate files. You must instruct your compiler to compile and link all the files into one executable, otherwise you'll get errors. Your IDE will manage this for you automatically.

In order to call the function fighters(); i have used #include "fighters.cpp"

Snippet from main.cpp
// Main Ships Menu
void ships()
{
using namespace std;
cout << "Luther's Combine Ship Database v1.0" << endl;
cout << "Please make a selection" << endl;

int shipchoice;

cout << "1- Fighters" << endl;
cout << "2- Freighters" << endl;
cout << "3- Capitals" << endl;

cin >> shipchoice;
switch (shipchoice)
{
case 1:
fighters();
break;

Snippet from fighters.cpp

void fighters()

{
using namespace std;
cout << "Luther's Ships Database v1.0" << endl;
cout << "Fighters" << endl;
}

When trying to build the program, i get the following error message

1>fighters.obj : error LNK2005: "void __cdecl fighters(void)" (?fighters@@YAXXZ) already defined in Luthers Combine Database v1.0.obj
1>C:\Users\LUKE\Documents\Combine Database\v1.0\Project\Luthers Combine Database v1.0\Debug\Luthers Combine Database v1.0.exe : fatal error LNK1169: one or more multiply defined symbols found

Yet I havn't defined "fighters" in the main code, only called fighters();

How can I fix this?

Regards,
Luke

In order to call the function fighters(); i have used #include "fighters.cpp"

You need to put the function declaration in a header (fighters.h, probably) and #include that in fighters.cpp and any source file that wants to call your fighters function.

fighters.h might look like this:


#ifndef FIGHTERS_H_INCLUDED
#define FIGHTERS_H_INCLUDED

void fighters();

#endif // FIGHTERS_H_INCLUDED


Thanks, very much appreciated

Got it working now, so should be set for a while. Its just a case of knuckling down and getting some hard work done