Including .cpp file in the header file for a template class

Question

I do know that template class's definition and implementation should be on the same header file. But I was taught a bit differently at school.

I'll have the template class's definition in the header file, and at the end of the header file, I'll do #include "MyFile.cpp", which contains the implementation of the templated class.

Is this bad programming practice?

Nope, it's very common for implementations to do this although they tend to give a different suffix to make it clear it's not meant to be compiled separately like "tcc" in the case of GCC. — user657267
– user657267, Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 7:07
You just have to make sure that whatever build system you're using doesn't automatically try to compile the .cpp file. And include it within the include guards. — juanchopanza
– juanchopanza, Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 7:08
It's a pointless slight of hand in my view. A cpp (or tcc) file included in a header is a header for all intents and purposes. Might as well do the straightforward thing and put all the code in a single file. — john
– john, Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 7:16

πάντα ῥεῖ · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-14 07:13:04Z

5

"Is this bad programming practice?"

In general not and it's a very common technique. But the problem is the .cpp file extension, that would affect many IDEs and build systems to consider it as a regular source file. More commonly used extensions are .tcc, .tpc.

answered Aug 14, 2015 at 7:13

πάντα ῥεῖ

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3 Comments

R2-Dequeue Over a year ago

+1 .tcc; There are so many ways software can mess up already, no sense using .cpp to confuse your build system when .tcc is common.

Morwenn Over a year ago

I've also seen .tpp and .inl, the latter being used because inline functions deserve the same treatment.

πάντα ῥεῖ Over a year ago

@Morwenn There's not really a common convention, and I have seen a lot of different styles. The important point is to make it distinct from what is used by the build system to find regular c++ source files.

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