undefined reference to `typeinfo and 'vtable

Question

i'm currently working on a program that employs the user of virtual functions. I am using only one virtual function and have come across what seems to be a common problem with a common solution which I have tried but unfortunately to no success.

I originally had virtual void calcArea(); in BasicShape.h without any definition or designation as a pure virtual function. I changed it and added {} at the end (as suggested on another thread with a similar problem) but I still get the following error:

I input:

g++ BasicShape.h BasicShape.cpp circle.h circle.cpp Rectangle.h Rectangle.cpp driver.cpp -o Lab4

And then I get:

/tmp/ccf1Y4Br.o: In function `BasicShape::BasicShape()': circle.cpp:(.text._ZN10BasicShapeC2Ev[_ZN10BasicShapeC5Ev]+0xf): undefined reference to `vtable for BasicShape'
/tmp/ccf1Y4Br.o:(.rodata._ZTI6circle[_ZTI6circle]+0x10): undefined reference to `typeinfo for BasicShape'
/tmp/ccc7gjtH.o:(.rodata._ZTI9Rectangle[_ZTI9Rectangle]+0x10): undefined reference to `typeinfo for BasicShape'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Any ideas?

This is the implementation file BasicShape.h:

#ifndef BASICSHAPE_H
#define BASICSHAPE_H

class BasicShape 
{
  protected: 
    double area;

  public:
    double getArea() const;
     virtual void calcArea();
};

#endif

The accompanying BasicShape.cpp file:

#include "BasicShape.h"

double BasicShape::getArea() const
{
  return area;
}

void BasicShape::calcArea()
{
}

circle.h:

#include "BasicShape.h"

#ifndef CIRCLE_H
#define CIRCLE_H

class circle : public BasicShape
{
  private:
    long centerX;
    long centerY;
    double radius;

  public:
    circle(long, long, double);
    long getCenterX() const;
    long getCenterY() const;
    virtual void calcArea();
};

#endif

circle.cpp:

#include "circle.h"

// constructor
circle::circle(long userIn, long userIn2, double userIn3)
{
  centerX = userIn;
  centerY = userIn2;
  radius = userIn3;
  calcArea();
}

// accesors
long circle::getCenterX() const
{
  return centerX;
}

long circle::getCenterY() const
{
  return centerY;
}

// virtual function
void circle::calcArea()
{
  area = (3.14159 * radius * radius);
}

Rectangle.h

#include "BasicShape.h"

#ifndef RECTANGLE_H
#define RECTANGLE_H

class Rectangle : public BasicShape
{
  private:
    long width;
    long length;

  public:
    Rectangle(long, long);
    long getWidth() const;
    long getLength() const;
    virtual void calcArea();
};

#endif

Rectangle.cpp:

#include "Rectangle.h"

// constructor
Rectangle::Rectangle(long userIn, long userIn2)
{
  width = userIn;
  length = userIn2;
  calcArea();
}

// accessors
long Rectangle::getWidth() const
{
  return width;
}

long Rectangle::getLength() const
{
  return length;
}

void Rectangle::calcArea()
{
  area = (length * width);
}

The driver program is incomplete, but irrelevant to my problem anyway (at least I think so).

#include <cassert>
#include <iostream>
#include "BasicShape.h"
#include "Rectangle.h"
#include "circle.h"
using namespace std;

int main()
{

  cout << "Testing the functionality and efficiency of the circle class...\n";
  // declare circle object and test accessors and area computation
  circle objCircle(8,8,4);
  assert(objCircle.getCenterX() == 8);
  assert(objCircle.getCenterY() == 8);
  assert(objCircle.getArea() == 50.26544);
  cout << "Circle object testing completed successfully\n";

  cout << "Testing the functionality and efficiency of the Rectangle class...\n";
  // declare rectangle object and test accessors and area computation  
  //Rectangle objRec();

  return 0;
}

Answer 1

Ok, so apparently this all seems to be a compiler issue. This entire time I was using gedit as a text editor and g++ as a compiler, but when I switched over to code blocks it was working just fine.