How do i separate a class definition into 2 header files?

Question

I need to split one class (.h file)

#ifndef _L_H
#define _L_H
template<class L> class Myclass{
public:
  L();
  firstoperator(..);
  secondoperator(..);
private:
 ...
}
template <class L> Myclass<L>::L() ...
template <class L> Myclass<L>::firstoperator(..) ...
template <class L> Myclass<L>::secondoperator(..) ...

in two different .h file in the following form:

#ifndef _L_H
#define _L_H
template<class L> class Myclass{
public:
  L();
  firstoperator(..);
private:
 ...
}
template <class L> Myclass<L>::L() ...
template <class L> Myclass<L>::firstoperator(..) ...

---

#ifndef _L_H
#define _L_H
template<class L> class Myclass{
public:
  secondoperator(..);
}

template <class L> Myclass<L>::secondoperator(..) ...

how can I do it correctly without conflict?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

You can technically do it, but it's ugly. Don't do it.

Class1.hpp:

class MyClass
{
    int something;
    int somethingElse;

Class2.hpp:

    int somethingBig;
    int somethingSmall;
};

I hope it's clear how disgusting that is :)

Answer 2

You can use heritage to split class to two headers.

You can declare half class on the base and the other half on the derived.

like this:

class C12{
public:
  void f1();
  void f2();
};

can be splitted to C1 and C12

class C1{
public:
  void f1();
};

class C12: public C1{
public:
  void f2();
};

now C12 is the same as before but splitted to 2 files.

Answer 3

"how can I do it correctly without conflict?"

You can't. It's not possible in c++ to spread a class declaration over several header files (unlike as with c#). The declarations of all class members must appear within the class declaration body, at a single point seen in each translation unit that uses the class.

You can separate template specializations or implementation to separate header's though.