Question

I’m trying to understand some C++ code which has the following class syntax:

class Q_MONKEY_EXPORT BasePlugin : public QObject
{
    // some code comes here
};

I cannot understand the syntax class Q_MONKEY_EXPORT BasePlugin. To me it looks like if there are two names for the class. What exactly does this kind of syntax mean in C++?

Answer 1

Q_MONKEY_EXPORT is most likely a #define somewhere. Defines like that are sometimes required, for example when the class is in a library and needs to be exported when the header file is included from somewhere else. In that case, the define resolves to something like __declspec(dllexport) (the exact syntax will depend on the tools you are using).