Inheritance : expected class-name before ‘{’ token

Question

I'm trying to create an exception class in C++ and it doesn't work. I've reduced the code to a minimum and I still can't find the error. Here is my header file :

#ifndef LISTEXCEPTION_H
#define LISTEXCEPTION_H

// C++ standard libraries
#include <exception>

/* CLASS DEFINITION */
class ListException: public exception {
};

#endif //LISTEXCEPTION_H

and here is the error I get :

error: expected class-name before ‘{’ token

This is quite unexpected. How do I solve this?

Answer 1

Did you mean

class ListException: public std::exception
//                          ^^^

?

Answer 2

It's subtly telling you that exception isn't the name of a class (with a declaration that's in scope, anyway).

You probably intended std::exception instead.

Answer 3

exception lives in the std namespace:

class ListException: public std::exception { ... }