C variable std ifstream ifs has initializer but incomplete type

Question

Sorry if this is pretty noobish  but I m pretty new to C    I m trying to open a file and read it using ifstream   vector lt string gt  load f string file      vector lt string gt  text     ifstream ifs file     string buffer  str line     int brackets   0    str line          while   getline ifs  buffer          buffer   Trim  buffer        size t s   buffer find first of             if  s    string  npos  str line         buffer      else         while   s    string  npos             str line         buffer substr 0  s   1           brackets     buffer s           1   -1            if   brackets    0               text push back  str line              str line                          buffer   buffer substr s   1           s   buffer find first of                             return text      However  I m getting the following error I m not quite sure how to fix   variable  std  ifstream ifs  has initializer but incomplete type   Answers very appreciated  Note that I never forgot to  include  lt fstream gt   since many have gotten the error due to just forgetting to include the header   EDIT   Turns out that I actually did forget to include fstream  but I had forgotten due to moving the function to another file

User · Answer

This seems to be answered -  include  lt fstream gt    The message means  -  incomplete type - the class has not been defined with a full class   The compiler has seen statements such as class ifstream  which allow it to understand that a class exists  but does not know how much memory the class takes up   The forward declaration allows the compiler to make more sense of  -  void BindInput  ifstream  amp  inputChannel       It understands the class exists  and can send pointers and references through code without being able to create the class  see any data within the class  or call any methods of the class   The has initializer seems a bit extraneous  but is saying that the incomplete object is being created

[c++] C++: variable 'std::ifstream ifs' has initializer but incomplete type

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