Nested Class member function can't access function of enclosing class. Why?

Posted by Rahul on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Rahul
Published on 2010-06-17T01:07:59Z Indexed on 2010/06/17 1:12 UTC
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Please see the example code below:

class A
{
private:
    class B
    {
    public:
        foobar();
    };
public:
    foo();
    bar();
};

Within class A & B implementation:

A::foo()
{
    //do something
}

A::bar()
{
    //some code
    foo();
    //more code
}

A::B::foobar()
{
    //some code
    foo(); //<<compiler doesn't like this
}

The compiler flags the call to foo() within the method foobar(). Earlier, I had foo() as private member function of class A but changed to public assuming that B's function can't see it. Of course, it didn't help. I am trying to re-use the functionality provided by A's method. Why doesn't the compiler allow this function call? As I see it, they are part of same enclosing class (A). I thought the accessibility issue for nested class meebers for enclosing class in C++ standards was resolved.

How can I achieve what I am trying to do without re-writing the same method (foo()) for B, which keeping B nested within A?

I am using VC++ compiler ver-9 (Visual Studio 2008). Thank you for your help.

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