I recently downloaded the Shooter Game for Unreal 4 Engine and I am just trying to pick apart the c++ but my c++ isn't the best I notice a variable called
class AShooterCharacter* MyPawn;
Set in the header file for ShooterWeapon.h
I am trying to understand what the class part is.
[Edit] I notice people downed my question so I changed it to one question. I hope people are willing to help rather then degrade my question. Theres no such thing as a dumb question :)... Especially in programming
If AShooterCharacter is already in scope, then it probably means basically nothing.
class AShooterCharacter* MyPawn;
// ^ the same as just:
// AShooterCharacter* MyPawn;
In C, when naming structure types, you had to use the struct keyword:
struct Foo
{
int x, y, z;
};
struct Foo obj;
In C++, you don't need to do that because Foo becomes a nameable type in its own right:
Foo obj;
But you still can write struct Foo if you want to.
The same applies for class, just as a consequence of how the language grammar and semantics are defined.
There are only two times when it makes a difference.
You can use it to specify that you want to refer to an in-scope type name when it is otherwise being hidden by some other name, e.g.:
class Foo {};
int main()
{
const int Foo = 3;
// Foo x; // invalid because `Foo` is now a variable, not a type
class Foo x; // a declaration of a `Foo` called `x`;
}
But if you find yourself "needing" this then, in my opinion, you have bigger problems!
Otherwise, it is the same as doing this:
class Foo; // a forward declaration
Foo* x;
Arguably it saves a line of code if you are going to forward declare the type and immediately declare a pointer to an object of that type.
It's not common style, though.