Linker error

[GDICommander]

Hi, everyone!

I'm having trouble with a linker error (I'm using Visual Studio 2008) and I would like to have some tips on solving this problem:

This is my code:

Bill.cpp

#include "Bill.h"
#include "../Exceptions/InvalidArgumentException.h"

Bill::Bill()
{

}

Bill::Bill(string shopName)
{
	if (shopName == "")
	{
		throw(InvalidArgumentException("The shop name cannot be empty."));
	}

	m_shopName = shopName;
}

InvalidArgumentException.h

#ifndef INVALIDARGUMENTEXCEPTION_H
#define INVALIDARGUMENTEXCEPTION_H

#include <exception>

using namespace std;

class InvalidArgumentException : public exception
{
public:
	InvalidArgumentException(const char* invalidArgument);

	const char* what() const throw();

	static size_t MaximumMessageLength()
	{
		return 100;
	}

private:
	InvalidArgumentException();
	InvalidArgumentException(const InvalidArgumentException&);

	void InitializeMessage();
	void ValidateArgument(const char* invalidArgument);

	const char* m_invalidArgument;
	char m_message[100];		//TODO: Change the way of returning a const char*. That's ugly to use an automatic-allocated array.
};

#endif

InvalidArgumentException.cpp

#include <string>

#include "InvalidArgumentException.h"

//Public Methods

InvalidArgumentException::InvalidArgumentException(const char* invalidArgument)
{
	ValidateArgument(invalidArgument);

	m_invalidArgument = invalidArgument;
	InitializeMessage();
}

const char* InvalidArgumentException::what() const throw()
{
	return m_message;
}

//Private Methods

void InvalidArgumentException::InitializeMessage()
{
	strcpy_s(m_message, m_invalidArgument);
}

void InvalidArgumentException::ValidateArgument(const char* invalidArgument)
{
	if (invalidArgument == 0)
	{
		throw(std::exception("The message pointer is null."));
	}
	else if (strlen(invalidArgument) == 0)
	{
		throw(std::exception("The message is empty."));
	}
	else if (strlen(invalidArgument) > MaximumMessageLength())
	{
		throw(std::exception("The message is too long."));
	}
}

The linker output is:

1>Linking...
1>LINK : .\Output\Debug\Billzilla.exe not found or not built by the last incremental link; performing full link
1>Bill.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "private: __thiscall InvalidArgumentException::InvalidArgumentException(class InvalidArgumentException const &)" (??0InvalidArgumentException@@AAE@ABV0@@Z)
1>.\Output\Debug\Billzilla.exe : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals

Looks like Bill.obj can't find the constructor symbol in InvalidArgumentException.obj. It's the constructor call in the throw() of Bill.cpp that causes the error. It's been a long time using C++, and I'm unable to solve this problem. Can you help me?

[Agni]

InvalidArgumentException::InvalidArgumentException(class InvalidArgumentException const &)" (??0InvalidArgumentException@@AAE@ABV0@@Z)

I think the problem is that your copy ctor is declared but not defined and somewhere you are trying to make a copy of your class 'InvalidArgumentException' .

InvalidArgumentException(const InvalidArgumentException&);

so you could either provide a copy ctor definition or remove any copy attempts from your code or remove this declaration from your code so that the compiler generates it for you when needed

[GDICommander]

Thanks for the help! I didn't know that the copy constructor of a class that is thrown needs to be public.