How is it possible to define the class in terms of itself?

[DrDolittle]

class intnode
{
public:
int info;
intnode *next; // this is the part i wanted to know
intnode(int i, intnode *in=0)
{
info = i;next = in;
}
};

you can ignore what is in the loop. As the comments denote, that is the part i wanted explanation for. info and next are data members of the class intnode. But how is it possible to define the class in terms of itself. Can somebody explain this ? i would very much appreciate if someone could come up with more examples. Tack!(thanks)

Regards
drdolittle

 

[Darth Maul]

Re: please explain this

this is pointer to intnode, right? not intnode itself. it is not possible to declare a data member of an object to be the same type as the object itself, but it is possible to declare a pointer to an object that has the same type. a type is different from a pointer to that type. an intnode is an intnode, but a pointer to intnode is a variable containing the address of some object that has the type of intnode.

i think this is a linked list. you can find many more examples in books about data structure and algorithm. linked list is usually used in stacks, queues, etc.