Function and namespace conflict

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Hi guys, I had this bothersome question.

C++

#include <Windows.h>
namespace nSpace
{
	// Creates and registers the window
	class Init
	{
	private:
		BYTE CreateWindow();
	};
}

The problem with this code, is that I can't create a function called "CreateWindow" because in the global scope (that is, in one of the Windows' header files) there is a samely named function.
So can't I make it work it out a different way? Is there any solution so as to keep that name which is very convenient to me ??
Aren't supposed that namespaces and classes can encapsulate names of functions in their scope without interfering with any other and not having to resort to the parent's scope ones?
See you around.

Posted 10-Feb-13 8:39am

unscathed18

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Matthew Faithfull · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-10T08:50:00

The problem is that CreateWindow has already been declared as a C Preprocessor macro in WinUser.h

...
#ifdef UNICODE
#define CreateWindow CreateWindowW
#else
#define CreateWindow CreateWindowA
#endif
...

and C Preprocessor macros being an old school C feature take no account of namespaces.

There are 2 ways to deal with this. Either use a different name, I use mxCreateWindow for historical reasons or get rid of the macro definition before the parser finds your function.

#undef CreateWindow

That might seem simple enough but if you also use the global namespace CreateWindowW or CreateWindowA functions by using the name CreateWindow that code could now be broken because you've take away the macro that defined part of it.
One way round this is to use

#pragma push_macro("CreateWindow")

before your code and

#pragma pop_macro("CreateWindow")

after your code but this is very Microsoft Visual C++ specific and may not even work reliably with all versions of that so consider carefully.