undefined reference to static member variable
- by Max
Hi. I have this class that has a static member. it is also a base class for several other classes in my program. Here's its header file:
#ifndef YARL_OBJECT_HPP
#define YARL_OBJECT_HPP
namespace yarlObject
{
class YarlObject
{
// Member Variables
private:
static int nextID; // keeps track of the next ID number to be used
int ID; // the identifier for a specific object
// Member Functions
public:
YarlObject(): ID(++nextID) {}
virtual ~YarlObject() {}
int getID() const {return ID;}
};
}
#endif
and here's its implementation file.
#include "YarlObject.hpp"
namespace yarlObject
{
int YarlObject::nextID = 0;
}
I'm using g++, and it returns three undefined reference to 'yarlObject::YarlObject::nextID linker errors. If I change the ++nextID phrase in the constructor to just nextID, then I only get one error, and if I change it to 1, then it links correctly. I imagine it's something simple, but what's going on?
