Question

I’m trying to create a method in a C++ class that can be called without creating an instance of the class (like a static method in Java), but I keep running into this error: error: expected unqualified-id before ‘.’ token

Here’s the .cpp file I’m trying to compile:

using namespace std;
#include <iostream>

class Method {
    public:
    void printStuff(void) {
        cout << "hahaha!";
    }
};

int main(void){
    Method.printStuff(); // this doesn't work as expected!
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

In C++ it’s

Method::printStuff();

and you have to declare the method as static.

class Method{
    public:
    static void printStuff(void){
        cout << "hahaha!";
    }
};

:: is called the scope resolution operator. You can call the method with . if it’s on a class instance, but the instance is not required (it being static and all…).