C++ – LNK2019 error c++ unresolved external symbol

Ive got these error messages:

Error 1 error LNK2019: unresolved
external symbol "public: void
__thiscall ArrayIntStorage::sortOwn(void)"
(?sortOwn@ArrayIntStorage@@QAEXXZ)
referenced in function
_main G:\08227\ACW\MAIN\08227_ACW2_Test_Harnesses_2010-11\C_Style_Array\main.obj C_Style_Array

Error 2 error LNK2019: unresolved
external symbol "public: void
__thiscall ArrayIntStorage::sortStd(void)"
(?sortStd@ArrayIntStorage@@QAEXXZ)
referenced in function
_main G:\08227\ACW\MAIN\08227_ACW2_Test_Harnesses_2010-11\C_Style_Array\main.obj C_Style_Array

Error 3 error LNK2019: unresolved
external symbol "class
std::basic_ostream > & __cdecl
operator<<(class
std::basic_ostream > &,class
ArrayIntStorage const &)"
(??6@YAAAV?$basic_ostream@DU?$char_traits@D@std@@@std@@AAV01@ABVArrayIntStorage@@@Z)
referenced in function
_main G:\08227\ACW\MAIN\08227_ACW2_Test_Harnesses_2010-11\C_Style_Array\main.obj C_Style_Array

Error 4 error LNK2019: unresolved
external symbol "class
std::basic_istream > & __cdecl
operator>>(class
std::basic_istream > &,class
ArrayIntStorage &)"
(??5@YAAAV?$basic_istream@DU?$char_traits@D@std@@@std@@AAV01@AAVArrayIntStorage@@@Z)
referenced in function
_main G:\08227\ACW\MAIN\08227_ACW2_Test_Harnesses_2010-11\C_Style_Array\main.obj C_Style_Array

Error 5 error LNK2019: unresolved
external symbol "public: bool
__thiscall ArrayIntStorage::setReadSort(bool)"
(?setReadSort@ArrayIntStorage@@QAE_N_N@Z)
referenced in function
_main G:\08227\ACW\MAIN\08227_ACW2_Test_Harnesses_2010-11\C_Style_Array\main.obj C_Style_Array

Error 6 error LNK1120: 5 unresolved
externals G:\08227\ACW\MAIN\08227_ACW2_Test_Harnesses_2010-11\C_Style_Array\Debug\C_Style_Array.exe 1 1 C_Style_Array

and I dont know whats going on, I wonder if ive missed something?
I am new to this and Its not giving me any line numbers so Im not sure which code to give you so Ill give you this part

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
#include "ArrayIntStorage.h"

int main(int argc, char **argv) {

ifstream fin1("ACW2_data.txt");
ofstream out1("1-arrayUnsortedRead.txt");
ofstream out2("2-arrayUnsortedRead-thenSTDSort.txt");

if(!fin1.is_open()) 
{
    cout << "FAIL" << endl;
    return 1;
}

ArrayIntStorage arrayStorage1;
arrayStorage1.setReadSort(false);   // do not read sort

// read in int values into data structure
fin1 >> arrayStorage1;

// output int values in data structure to file
out1 << arrayStorage1;

// sort data structure using std
arrayStorage1.sortStd();

// output int values in data structure to file
out2 << arrayStorage1;

fin1.close();
out1.close();
out2.close();

Best Answer

Your linker (part of the compiler) cannot find where ArrayIntStorage::sortOwn() is defined.

This usually occurs either:

The definition of ArrayIntStorage::sortOwn() is in another .c file which you forgot to tell the compiler about (and so wasn't compiled),
ArrayIntStorage is a header only library (so there is no other .c file), in which case you probably have forgotten to implement the function sortOwn(), and have only declaired it.
ArrayIntStorage is an external library which has not been linked. (as Tomalak Geretkal Notes, and is solved by following the steps set out by paxdiablo)

If its neither of these, or you find these options confusing, please post the header file ArrayIntStorage.h and the corresponding .c file (should there be one).

Related Solutions

C++ – an undefined reference/unresolved external symbol error and how to fix it

Compiling a C++ program takes place in several steps, as specified by 2.2 (credits to Keith Thompson for the reference):

The precedence among the syntax rules of translation is specified by the following phases [see footnote].

Physical source file characters are mapped, in an implementation-defined manner, to the basic source character set (introducing new-line characters for end-of-line indicators) if necessary. [SNIP]

Each instance of a backslash character (\) immediately followed by a new-line character is deleted, splicing physical source lines to form logical source lines. [SNIP]

The source file is decomposed into preprocessing tokens (2.5) and sequences of white-space characters (including comments). [SNIP]

Preprocessing directives are executed, macro invocations are expanded, and _Pragma unary operator expressions are executed. [SNIP]

Each source character set member in a character literal or a string literal, as well as each escape sequence and universal-character-name in a character literal or a non-raw string literal, is converted to the corresponding member of the execution character set; [SNIP]

Adjacent string literal tokens are concatenated.

White-space characters separating tokens are no longer significant. Each preprocessing token is converted into a token. (2.7). The resulting tokens are syntactically and semantically analyzed and translated as a translation unit. [SNIP]

Translated translation units and instantiation units are combined as follows: [SNIP]

All external entity references are resolved. Library components are linked to satisfy external references to entities not defined in the current translation. All such translator output is collected into a program image which contains information needed for execution in its execution environment. (emphasis mine)

[footnote] Implementations must behave as if these separate phases occur, although in practice different phases might be folded together.

The specified errors occur during this last stage of compilation, most commonly referred to as linking. It basically means that you compiled a bunch of implementation files into object files or libraries and now you want to get them to work together.

Say you defined symbol a in a.cpp. Now, b.cpp declared that symbol and used it. Before linking, it simply assumes that that symbol was defined somewhere, but it doesn't yet care where. The linking phase is responsible for finding the symbol and correctly linking it to b.cpp (well, actually to the object or library that uses it).

If you're using Microsoft Visual Studio, you'll see that projects generate .lib files. These contain a table of exported symbols, and a table of imported symbols. The imported symbols are resolved against the libraries you link against, and the exported symbols are provided for the libraries that use that .lib (if any).

Similar mechanisms exist for other compilers/ platforms.

Common error messages are error LNK2001, error LNK1120, error LNK2019 for Microsoft Visual Studio and undefined reference to symbolName for GCC.

The code:

struct X
{
   virtual void foo();
};
struct Y : X
{
   void foo() {}
};
struct A
{
   virtual ~A() = 0;
};
struct B: A
{
   virtual ~B(){}
};
extern int x;
void foo();
int main()
{
   x = 0;
   foo();
   Y y;
   B b;
}

will generate the following errors with GCC:

/home/AbiSfw/ccvvuHoX.o: In function `main':
prog.cpp:(.text+0x10): undefined reference to `x'
prog.cpp:(.text+0x19): undefined reference to `foo()'
prog.cpp:(.text+0x2d): undefined reference to `A::~A()'
/home/AbiSfw/ccvvuHoX.o: In function `B::~B()':
prog.cpp:(.text._ZN1BD1Ev[B::~B()]+0xb): undefined reference to `A::~A()'
/home/AbiSfw/ccvvuHoX.o: In function `B::~B()':
prog.cpp:(.text._ZN1BD0Ev[B::~B()]+0x12): undefined reference to `A::~A()'
/home/AbiSfw/ccvvuHoX.o:(.rodata._ZTI1Y[typeinfo for Y]+0x8): undefined reference to `typeinfo for X'
/home/AbiSfw/ccvvuHoX.o:(.rodata._ZTI1B[typeinfo for B]+0x8): undefined reference to `typeinfo for A'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

and similar errors with Microsoft Visual Studio:

1>test2.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "void __cdecl foo(void)" (?foo@@YAXXZ)
1>test2.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "int x" (?x@@3HA)
1>test2.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "public: virtual __thiscall A::~A(void)" (??1A@@UAE@XZ)
1>test2.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "public: virtual void __thiscall X::foo(void)" (?foo@X@@UAEXXZ)
1>...\test2.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 4 unresolved externals

Common causes include:

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C++ – an undefined reference/unresolved external symbol error and how to fix it

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