Using structs inside one another

Question

I am trying to define two structs inside a header file that both of them contain each other as objects. More specifically:

typedef struct Dweller {
    int id;
    int age;
    std::string name, lastname;

    Room room;

    float foodconsume;
    float waterconsume;
};

typedef struct Room {
    int id;

    int WIDTH = 400;
    int HEIGHT = 100;

    std::vector<Dweller> dwellers;
    float energyconsumed;
    int property;
    int floor, roomno;
};

But as you might have noticed, this is an issue because the Dweller doesn't know what Room is at that point of the code. I am using C++, and I am aware that I can make them classes, then forward declare them. But I want to know if I can achieve something like this without getting them into classes. I also want to use them seperately, so I don't want one of them getting declared inside other one.

Answer 1

Several things:

1. As Sam said, get rid of the typedefs.

2. Change the declaration Room room in Dweller to Room* room and vice versa.

3. To satisfy the compiler, put two forward declarations up front:

   struct Dweller;
   struct Room;