Trouble returning a struct from a function

Question

I want to have a function return a struct. So, in my header file, I defined the struct and the function signature. In my code file, I then have the actual function. I get errors about "unknown type name". Everything appears to be following a very standard format for this.

Any ideas why this isn't working?

TestClass.h

class TestClass {
public:

    struct foo{
        double a;
        double b;
    };

    foo trashme(int x);

}

TestClass.cpp

#include "testClass.h"

foo trashme(int x){

    foo temp;
    foo.a = x*2;
    foo.b = x*3;

    return(foo)

}

Answer 1

foo is a child class of TestClass , and trashme is a member function of TestClass , so you need to qualify them:

TestClass::foo TestClass::trashme(int x){

    foo temp;  // <-- you don't need to qualify it here, because you're in the member function scope
    temp.a = x*2;  // <-- and set the variable, not the class
    temp.b = x*3;

    return temp;  // <-- and return the variable, not the class, with a semicolon at the end
                  // also, you don't need parentheses around the return expression

}

Answer 2

foo isn't in the global namespace, so trashme() can't find it. What you want is this:

TestClass::foo TestClass::trashme(int x){ //foo and trashme are inside of TestClass

    TestClass::foo temp; //foo is inside of TestClass
    temp.a = x*2; //note: temp, not foo
    temp.b = x*3; //note: temp, not foo

    return(temp) //note: temp, not foo

}