C++ All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5. Dividing Between Source-Code Files

In This Chapter

• Creating multiple source-code files

• Creating header files

• Sharing variables among source files

• Making use of the mysterious header wrappers

Just as you can divide your work into functions, you can also divide your work into multiple source-code files. The main reason to do so is, simply, to help keep your project more manageable. Also, with multiple source-code files, you can have several people working on a single project, each working on a different source-code file at the same time. The goal, of course, is to make sure that your coworkers work on the harder parts that are more grueling and no fun while you get all the credit.

The key to multiple source files is knowing where to break the source code into pieces. Like anything else, if you break the source code in the wrong place, it will, well, break.

In this chapter, we show you how to divide your source code into multiple files (and in all the right places). The examples we give use CodeBlocks; however, we also provide a few Makefile tips if you're using other tools.

Creating Multiple Source Files

In this section, we talk about how to create multiple source-code files, first for CodeBlocks and then for other compilers. This process is far simpler in CodeBlocks, and we highly recommend that approach.

When you create a second source-code file, this code becomes part of your project. And when you compile, the compiler compiles all the source-code files in your project, assuming ...