Class Definition in cpp file

[baray98]

I am putting my declaration and implementation of "private classes" (only the containing cpp files can instantiate it) in my the cpp files like below

//in my header file
 
class MyMainClass
{
   public:
      int someStuff();
   private:
};
 
//in my cpp file
 
class MyPrivateClass
{
  public:
     int getSomeStuff()
    {
 
      int the_result =    // do some stuff and return the result
       return the_result;
    }
};
 
int MyMainClass::someStuff()
{
    MyPrivateClass p;
    return p.getSomeStuff() + 5; 
}

//in my header file

class MyMainClass
{
   public:
      int someStuff();
   private:
};

//in my cpp file

class MyPrivateClass
{
  public:
     int getSomeStuff()
    {

      int the_result =    // do some stuff and return the result
       return the_result;
    }
};

int MyMainClass::someStuff()
{
    MyPrivateClass p;
    return p.getSomeStuff() + 5; 
}

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is this considered bad practice? as alleged by some of my co-worker.

My reasoning behind doing this is that i don't want to share my "MyPrivateClass" so i did not create a header and cpp file for it. My concern is that they might start using my "MyPrivateClass" which is not designed to be shared if i will create another files for it.

[AlexSudnik]

I think the problem is not that you'll have more headers and source files , i think it's a pure design problem : If MyPrivateClass's by is not supposed to interact only with certain types : it's interface must completely reflect this. Of course it depends on how exactly MyMainClass and MyPrivateClass , and it's child classes are being used , but yeah , sharing one source entity between two classes does look kinda suspicious.

[amleto]

What you are doing is essentially a version of the pimpl idiom, which seems fine.

e.g.
http://www.gamedev.net/page/resource...-c-pimpl-r1794

[baray98]

I will Always do this when I am coding a unit test where mocked classes are written in my cpp files
I don't think this is a bad practice