C++ not compiling because its say the file doesn't exist but it is in the same directory

Question

in a folder I got the following files:

book.h, book.cpp , card.h, card.cpp

these are the content of the book.h

class book {

public:
        string title;
        string author;
        string get_title();
        string get_author();

}

book::book(string title, string author){
   title = title;
   author = author;
}

this is my book.cpp:

#include <book.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>

using namespace std;

string book::get_title(){

  return title;
}

string book::get_author(){
 return author;
}

int main(){

cout << ¨it works! \n¨ 
}

I I try to compile using g++ -c book.cpp, I keep getting an error message saying:

book.cpp:1:18: fatal error: book.h: No such file or directory compilation terminated.

Not the answer but... your book.h looks wrong anyway. You need to use std::string and include the in header as well. — Adrian Lis, Jan 13 '17 at 17:04
There are some other problems with this code. `book.h` should `#include `, and have `std::string`. throughout instead of `string`. Don't do `using namespace std` ever, it's a bad idea. `title = title;` doesn't do what you think it does. Having public data members defeats the purpose of accessors. — n. m. could be an AI, Jan 13 '17 at 17:07
Look i dont know better ok? I am new to this sorry for the confusion — Tito, Jan 13 '17 at 17:45
Don't name your constructor variables the same as your class variables unless you know what you are doing. — rlam12, Jan 13 '17 at 19:02
Another possibility is that the file isn't actually named `"book.h"` but `"Book.h"`. — Bo Persson, Jan 13 '17 at 19:25

Alan Milton · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-17T17:49:29.550

The difference between

#include <book.h>

and

#include "book.h"

is that the first one looks for the file book.h in INCLUDE path only. The latter looks for the file first in the directory where the source file is and if it was not found then it looks for it in INCLUDE path. So you can resolve your issue either by replacing angle brackets with quotes, or by adding your directory to INCLUDE. You can do it by compiling like this

g++ -I . -c book.cpp

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 13 '17 at 17:03

#include statements use <> brackets when the included file is part of your "Include" path, typically (though not exclusively) when the file is coming from a library, or the C++ Standard Library.

"" is used instead when the file is local to the project and local to the source code.

If you mix them up, you're going to have a bad time.

C++ not compiling because its say the file doesn't exist but it is in the same directory

2 Answers2