Question

Can someone explain what it is when a pointer is used as the name of the class when adding a method to the class? Something like this:

cMessage *Tic9::generateNewMessage()

Can’t find a way to search for that on google and my C++ knowledge is lacking.

Answer 1

It isn’t used as the name of the class, it’s part of the return type, pure and simple.

That declares a member (of Tic9) function named generateNewMessage which takes no parameters and returns a cMessage* (a pointer). Since it can’t be the in-class declaration (which wouldn’t be qualified by the class name), presumably it’s part of an out-of-class definition of the function (a definition is a declaration).

Or, if a declaration isn’t legal in the current context, it’s an expression multiplying cMessage by the result of calling a static member (of Tic9) function named generateNewMessage.