What should header files contain?

[Dark Byte]

Sorry for the newbie question, but what are header files? What should they contain? Just classes and definitions?

[Kieran Y5]

"Header files commonly contain forward declarations of classes, subroutines, variables, and other identifiers." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Header_file

Hope this helps :)

[mrnutty]

If possible, header should contain a skeleton for the desired Object.
For example a header might contain a class skeleton named Car, and you might define
the actual implementation of Car in a different .cpp file. Another example, you
might declare some functions in a header, but do the actual implementation in a different .cpp file.

//BestClassInUniverse.h
// this header defines the skeleton for the BestClassInUniverse
class BestClassInUniverse{
public:
  void doTheBestThingInUniverse(); //skeleton
};

//BestClassInUniverse.cpp
//actually defines the implementations
BestClassInUniverse::doTheBestThingInUniverse(){
  //some  top secret code.
}

[Dark Byte]

Thanks. I understand it now.