constructor in struct defined in idl leads to MIDL2025

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Hi, I keep running into a nasty compiler error telling me that I am doing something seriously wrong.
The error I get is: error MIDL2025 : syntax error : expecting a type specification near "tagDevice". The following struct is defined in the IDL which definitely has something to do with it as the same compiles (and works) without any problem from a regular .h / .cpp file.

typedef struct tagDevice
{
    tagDevice()
    {
        DeviceName = NULL;
        DeviceId  = -1;
    }

    BSTR    DeviceName;
    int     DeviceId;
}Device;

Remove the constructor and it all compiles OK but I don't want to have to initialize the values manually each and every time.

Anybody got an idea of how I can get this to work?

Posted 18-Dec-11 21:22pm

Addy Tas

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Albert Holguin · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-19T02:42:00

Solution 1

It's generally a good idea not to have a constructor on a structure anyway and treat it like plain old data. I do believe COM expects C-style structs which do not support constructors, so that may explain the error you're seeing.

Posted 19-Dec-11 2:42am

Albert Holguin

Comments

Addy Tas 21-Dec-11 2:26am

It seems that your answer is the only answer and therefore must be the acceptable answer. Normally I don't add constructors to structs but in this case it seemed that as the struct is already used all over the place and the BSTR DeviceName is causing a mem leak I figured that init the value might already help, then on destruction free the mem. Guess I have to do this manually all over the place.

Anyway; thanks for the answer.Cheers, AT

Albert Holguin 21-Dec-11 10:10am

I think it works fine in C++ (constructors in structures), but when using it with COM it won't work.

Albert Holguin 21-Dec-11 10:12am

You can always make an initialization function somewhere that you call... make it a global C-style function or make it a static in a class so you can call it independent of the class instance.

Addy Tas 21-Dec-11 13:27pm

Hi, I already figured out that it would come down to something like that. The nasty part of this is that I wanted to have a destructor that automatcally cleaned up the allocated mem when it goes out of scope or is deleted.
So once and a while i get so used to the comfort of C++ ( or better yet c#) that i can't figure out why we had to do everything manually in the (not so) distant past.

Thanks, AT

Amir Mahfoozi 17-Jan-12 0:33am

+5

Albert Holguin 17-Jan-12 9:54am

thank you Amir