Class question - solved

Why do I have to have these things that are marked in bold below in the code?

Code:

---

class keeper
{
private:
        int hours;
        int minutes;
public:
        keeper();
        keeper(int s, int p);
        void addKeeper(int, int);
        void writeKeeper(keeper &k);
        keeper getKeeper(keeper &h, char *name);        keeper operator+(const keeper &k) const;
        void show();
        ~keeper() {};
};
.
.
.
keeper keeper::getKeeper(keeper &h, char *name)
{
        ifstream fin;
        fin.open(name);

        for(int i=0;i<3;i++)
        {
                switch(i)
                {
                case 0: fin >> h.hours;
                        break;
                case 1: fin >> h.minutes;
                        break;
                }
        }
        fin.close();

        return h;


}

---

I know I can't have void keeper::........, but why do I have to have keeper beofre the code?

thanx

You're returning a copy of a reference already passed into the function :confused:

Either take out the reference being passed, or change it to a void. When you pass a reference you can change it from the function.

I think you should have keeper& as return value

It's quite useful when building expresions with the sideeffect-paradigm

For instance:

char source[10]="something";
char* copy=strncpy(new char[10],source,10);

Problem solved thanks to Kedaman and Parksie, thank you!