Question

Here is my code

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

class MyTestClass
{
    int MyTestIVar;

    public: 
        MyTestClass(void);
        int firstCallMethod(void);
        int secondCallMethod(void);
};

MyTestClass::MyTestClass(void)
{
    MyTestIVar = 4;
}
int MyTestClass::firstCallMethod(void)
{
    return secondCallMethod();
}
int MyTestClass::secondCallMethod(void)
{
    return MyTestIVar;
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    MyTestClass mTC;
    cout << mTC.firstCallMethod() << endl;
    return 0;
}

If use use

MyTestClass mTC();

instead it will disallow me to call any member functions and display this error

./experiment.cpp: In function ‘int main(int, char**)’:
./experiment.cpp:31:14: error: request for member ‘firstCallMethod’ in
‘mTC’, which is of non-class type ‘MyTestClass()’

I read the posts on value-initialize etc, but this error still doesn’t seem logical to me. Why would this affect member functions?

And help greatly appreciated 🙂

Answer 1

MyTestClass mTC();    

Does not declare an object of the MyTestClass class, as you think.

It Actually, declares a function by the name of mTC which does not take any parameters and returns an MyTestClass object.

This is known as the Most Vexing Parse in c++.