Accessing member variables of recursive classes

Question

class B;
class A
{
public:
    string name;
    B* box;
};

class B
{
public:
    string name;
    A appple;
};


int main()
{
  A theobjectA;
  theobjectA.name  = "lalal";
  B* bbb = new B;
  theobjectA.box = bbb;
  bbb->name = "asasasdd";

  cout<<theobjectA.name<<*(theobjectA.box);
}

I wanted to know why I am not able to access the box value in class A?It does not allow to dereference the pointer.Moreover,I am unable to understand how would I be able to use this mutually recursive classes.

Answer 1

You are accessing it. Your program fails since you're trying to send the object of class B type to operator << of object cout . Naturally, the general operator << doesn't know what to do with such input. If you want to print the name member of your object, you should send it to operator << instead of the entire object: theobjectA.box->name .

Edit : Thanks to @AlgirdasPreidžius for noticing a typo.