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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-25T19:23:37+00:00

I have a header file that has a number of declarations like this: extern

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I have a header file that has a number of declarations like this:

extern ID3D10Device* device;

I can’t make these static because of a problem with multiple translation units, and I can’t have them as normal pointers for a similar reason. However when I try to build the program I get unresolved external symbol linker errors. I’m assuming that this is because I’m attempting to use the pointers without defining them first. This is the problem however, as the way you initialise these DirectX objects is by passing the address of the pointers as parameters into specialist methods. – I may be wrong but I am assuming this is the problem as the compiler / linker / whatever can’t see the definitions.

All I’m trying to do is have these pointers (for the graphics device, depth buffer etc) visible to multiple classes. How can this be achieved?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You need the pointers to be defined in some translation unit. The linker is complaining because it seems you haven’t done that anywhere. You should declare them at file scope as

    ID3D10Device* device = NULL;

    in the source file where you call the DirectX function that initializes them. Just make sure the declaration is only made in one source file, then the extern statement should be placed in the associated header file which is included by all translation units that need to use these pointers.

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