Question

I’m sure it’s something obvious but I just can’t see it: xcode is suddenly giving me all sorts of errors when I try to use my Note class (which is used very frequently).

Here’s what the class header looks like:

class Note : public Playable{

private:

public:

    double theta;
    double frequency;
    int duration; 
    int startTime; // tussen 1 en 32
    int measureNumber;
    float velocity;
    Playable *track;
    virtual float getValue();

    static double calculateNoteFrequency(int aOctaveNumber, note_name aNoteName);

    Note(double aFreq, float aVelocity, int aDuration, int aMeasureNumber, int aStarttimeInsideMeasure, Playable *aTrack){
//      theta = 0;
        Note();
        frequency = aFreq;
        duration = aDuration;
        velocity = aVelocity;
        measureNumber = aMeasureNumber;
        startTime = aStarttimeInsideMeasure;
        track = aTrack;
    }

    Note(){
        theta = 0;
    }
    void toString();

};

EDIT

Here’s the full compiler error message:

In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Note.cpp:9:
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Note.h:14:
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Track.h:16:
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Pattern.h:19:12: error: use of undeclared identifier 'Note'
    vector<Note> notelist;
           ^
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Pattern.h:19:18: error: C++ requires a type specifier for all declarations
    vector<Note> notelist;
                 ^~~~~~~~
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Pattern.h:23:12: error: use of undeclared identifier 'Note'
    vector<Note> getNotelist();
           ^
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Pattern.h:23:18: error: C++ requires a type specifier for all declarations
    vector<Note> getNotelist();
                 ^~~~~~~~~~~
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Pattern.h:24:18: error: unknown type name 'Note'
    void addNote(Note const &note){
                 ^
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Pattern.h:24:23: error: expected ')'
    void addNote(Note const &note){
                      ^
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Pattern.h:24:17: note: to match this '('
    void addNote(Note const &note){
                ^
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Note.cpp:9:
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Note.h:14:
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Track.h:17:
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Synth.h:11:
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Oscillator.h:21:18: error: unknown type name 'Note'
    void setNote(Note &aNote);
                 ^
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Oscillator.h:23:20: error: unknown type name 'Note'
    float getValue(Note &note);
                   ^
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Note.cpp:9:
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Note.h:14:
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Track.h:17:
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Synth.h:47:21: error: unknown type name 'Note'
    float getSample(Note &note);
                    ^
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Note.cpp:9:
In file included from /Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Note.h:14:
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Track.h:30:17: error: use of undeclared identifier 'Note'
        multimap<long, Note> noteList;
                       ^
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Track.h:30:23: error: C++ requires a type specifier for all declarations
        multimap<long, Note> noteList;
                             ^~~~~~~~
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Track.h:33:2: error: unknown type name 'Note'
        Note &addNoteAndReturnReference(Note &note);
        ^
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Track.h:33:34: error: unknown type name 'Note'
        Note &addNoteAndReturnReference(Note &note);
                                        ^
/Users/osxursnm/Development/SynthSequencer2/SynthSequencer2/Track.h:34:18: error: unknown type name 'Note'
        void removeNote(Note &note);
                        ^
14 errors generated.

Answer 1

My guess is that you have a cross-referencing problem.

In Note.h you include Track.h which uses an object of type Note. Use a forward declaration for Note in the Track.h file and include the Note.h file only in Track.cpp.

So try with

class Note;

before the declaration of class Track in the Track.h file and remove the #include "Note.h" statement at the beginning of the file.