Source file inclusion

From cppreference.com
 
 
C++ language
General topics
Flow control
Conditional execution statements
Iteration statements
Jump statements
Functions
function declaration
lambda function declaration
function template
inline specifier
exception specifications (deprecated)
noexcept specifier (C++11)
Exceptions
Namespaces
Types
decltype specifier (C++11)
Specifiers
cv specifiers
storage duration specifiers
constexpr specifier (C++11)
auto specifier (C++11)
alignas specifier (C++11)
Initialization
Literals
Expressions
alternative representations
Utilities
Types
typedef declaration
type alias declaration (C++11)
attributes (C++11)
Casts
implicit conversions
const_cast conversion
static_cast conversion
dynamic_cast conversion
reinterpret_cast conversion
C-style and functional cast
Memory allocation
Classes
Class-specific function properties
Special member functions
Templates
class template
function template
template specialization
parameter packs (C++11)
Miscellaneous
Inline assembly
 
 

Includes other source file into current source file at the line immediately after the directive .

Contents

[edit] Syntax

#include <filename> (1)
#include "filename" (2)

[edit] Explanation

Includes source file, identified by filename into the current source file at the line immediately after the directive. In the case the file is not found, program is ill-formed.

1) searches only standard include directories. The standard C++ library, as well as standard C library, is implicitly included in standard include directories. The standard include directories can be controlled by the user through compiler options.
2) firstly searches the directory where the current file resides and, only if the file is not found, searches the standard include directories.

Any preprocessing tokens (macro constants or expressions) are permitted as arguments to #include as long as they expand to a sequence of characters surrounded by < > or " ".

[edit] Example

#ifndef TEXT
    #include <iostream>
 
    int main()
    {
    #define TEXT "Hello, world!"
    #include __FILE__
    #define TEXT "Hello again!"
    #include __FILE__
 
    }
#else
    std::cout << TEXT << '\n';
    #undef TEXT
#endif

Output:

Hello, world!
Hello again!

[edit] See also

cpp/header a list of C++ Standard Library header files