Question

I just created this new class :

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#ifndef MULTITHREADEDVECTOR_H
#define MULTITHREADEDVECTOR_H
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#include <vector>
#include <GL/GLFW.h>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
template<class T>
class MultithreadedVector {

    public:

        MultithreadedVector();

        void push_back(T data);

        void erase(typename std::vector<T>::iterator it);

        std::vector<T> get_container();
    private:

        std::vector<T> container_;
        GLFWmutex th_mutex_;


};
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#endif // MULTITHREADEDVECTOR_H_INCLUDED
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The definition of the class :

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#include "MultithreadedVector.h"
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
using namespace std;
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
template<class T>
MultithreadedVector<T>::MultithreadedVector() {

    th_mutex_ = glfwCreateMutex();
}

template<class T>
void MultithreadedVector<T>::push_back(T data) {

    glfwLockMutex(th_mutex_);
    container_.push_back(data);
    glfwUnlockMutex(th_mutex_);

}

template<class T>
void MultithreadedVector<T>::erase(typename vector<T>::iterator it) {

    glfwLockMutex(th_mutex_);
    container_.erase(it);
    glfwUnlockMutex(th_mutex_);
}

template<class T>
vector<T> MultithreadedVector<T>::get_container() {


    return container_;

}

Now the problem is that when i try to use it in my code as a static member of another class :

// VehicleManager.h
#ifndef MULTITHREADEDVECTOR_H
#define MULTITHREADEDVECTOR_H

#include "MultithreadedVector.h"
#include "Vehicle.h"
class Foo {

   public:
     // stuffs
   private:
     static MultithreadedVector<Vehicle> vehicles_; 
     ...
}

#endif

Then inside : VehicleManager.cpp

#include "VehicleManager.h"

MultithreadedVector<Vehicle> VehicleManager::vehicles_;

void VehicleManager::Method() {

  Vehicle vehicle;
  VehicleManager::vehicles_.push_back(vehicle);

}

But it doesn’t compile :(, i get this error msg everytime :

C:\***\VehicleManager.cpp|188|undefined reference to `MultithreadedVector<Vehicle>::push_back(Vehicle)'|

I really don’t understand why, especially that i have defined the static class member at the global scope of VehicleManager.cpp.

PS: I’m using Code::Blocks.

Thanks !

Answer 1

That’s what will happen when blindly moving a class template implementation to a cpp file.

To make that work, you must know exactly for what types of T you will instantiate the class template and specify them in the cpp file.

In this case, put this in the cpp file:

template class MultithreadedVector<Vehicle>;

Note that the cpp file must know about Vehicle then.