Question

Simplification of the code to express the concept:

class classA
{

public:

private:
   int a;
   seta(int x);
};

//local prototype
void somefunction();

int main()
{
  classA object; //create an object of the class

  somefunction(object);
  return 0;
}

void somefunction(classA &object)
{

  object.seta(5);    
}

}

If I move seta() to the public section of the class there is no error and it executes.

However, if I move seta() to the private section, I get the following error:

error C2248:
‘anonymous-namespace'::classA::seta' : cannot access
private member declared in class 'anonymous-namespace’::classA’

If the function is private and only this class is calling it, why is there an issue?

EDIT I am passing the object from main to the local function

Answer 1

The function that is calling seta() is not part of classA, so this is an error; that’s the very definition of private. If you were to make somefunction() a member of classA, or declare it to be a friend of classA, then this would work.