How do I declare an array of objects within it's own class?

Question

I am unsure how to create an array of objects within its own class. For example:

class A { 
public:
  const static int MAX_SIZE = 10;

 private:
  A arrayOfOBjects[MAX_SIZE];


}

I get an error saying, "incomplete type is now allowed" How would I go about this? If I declare an array of objects from another class inside Class A it will work.. But how do I create an array of objects within its own class?

Answer 1

use a pointer. or shared_ptr etc and dynamically allocate the objects

class A { 
public:
  const static int MAX_SIZE = 10;

 private:
  A * arrayOfOBjects[MAX_SIZE];


}

Answer 2

You obviously can't contain an instance of the object in itself. It would take infinite amount of storage ;-)

For the same reason you can't contain several. Maybe you meant the array to be a static member that doesn't add to the state of one instance?

Answer 3

By using pointers you can solve this problem

class A { 
public:
  const static int MAX_SIZE = 10;
  void allocate(){
     arrayOfOBjects=new A[MAX_SIZE];
  }
 private:
  A *arrayOfOBjects;
};

You can use this as following

A a;
a.allocate();