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User-Defined Namespaces
Using the code from my previous article, "C++ Chain of Responsibility Pattern" (see the link at end of this article), Listing 1 illustrates the addition of a namespace called eventHandling to a header file EventHandler.h. Just add the first line in Listing 1 at the point where you want your namespace to begin and then surround the requisite code with braces. Hey presto! You have your first user-defined namespace! In this case, the namespace is called eventHandling, but you can choose any name you like (apart from reserved keywords!).
Listing 1 Creating Your First Namespace
namespace eventHandling
{
class EventHandler {
public:
EventHandler(EventHandler* = 0, Event = No_Event_Support);
virtual bool HasEventSupport();
virtual void SetHandler(EventHandler*, Event);
virtual void HandleEvent();
private:
EventHandler* _successor;
Event _event;
};
}
To test this, try building the corresponding C++ file EventHandler.cpp. You should see namespace-related errors relating to the EventHandler symbol because we effectively made the class EventHandler private. We can fix the problem by adding the second line in Listing 2 at the top of EventHandler.cpp.
Listing 2 Adding the new namespace contents to the current scope
using namespace std; // Now, inject the new namespace contents to the current scope using namespace eventHandling; const Event LINK_1_BROKEN = 1;
Now when you recompile the project, the new namespace code should function properly. We can use such new namespaces anywhere in a compilation unit—not just at the beginning as in Listing 2.