structures and classes

I was wanting to know if it is considered bad practice to declare a structure in my class? a snippet of the class definition below,

Code:

---

#ifndef READHEADER_H
#define READHEADER_H
 
#include <QObject>
...
 
struct headerInfo{
    int numberOfSamples;
    int numberOfLines;
    int numberOfBands;
    int dataType;
    QString fileName;
    QVector<double> wavelengths;
};
 
class readHeader : public QObject
{
    Q_OBJECT
public:
    explicit readHeader(QObject *parent = 0);
    headerInfo getHeaderInfo();
...
private:
...
signals:
...    
public slots:
 
private:
...
    headerInfo p_hdrinfo;
};
 
#endif // READHEADER_H

---

So in my main program when include my readheader.h I can of course access the structure directly, but instead I use the getheaderinfo function which returns the structure(i don't really know what my reasoning behind that was). This code/class will never be distributed to anyone and any code that does use it will be writing. I am aware that the way I have done it also allows the structure contents to be changed anywhere in my code. Doesn't feel right.
I should also say that the header file contains various information in various formats e.g. int, double, string and some vectors.
I cant help but feel that this is not the right thing to do and is most likely considered really bad practice. I am still very new to C++ and Qt. I did initially have a ton of getter public functions in my class but wanted to return everything at once rather than making umpteen million calls.

Any help/advice on such things would be really appreciated.

Cheers
Oz

If the structure is tightly related to the class, it can be declared as in your code however it might be better to declare it inside the class.

Code:

---

class readHeader : ... {
public:
  struct headerInfo {
    int numberOfSamples;
    int numberOfLines;
    // ...
  };
 
  headerInfo getHeaderInfo() const { ... }
};

---

Note that the fully qualified name of the struct then becomes readHeader::headerInfo.

I don't think i'm the one who can give an advice about "best practices"...
Anyway , what do you mean "I can of course access the structure directly" ? Maybe i'm missing something but it seems like you're confusing type's declaration with a type's instance. You've got a structure's declaration placed in a header file : that's it , this way you can do this :

Code:

---

// in wherver header/source file the readheader.h is included //
 
headerInfo newHeaderInfoObject ; 
 
newHeaderInfoObject.numberOfSamples = 10 ; 
// ...
// etc.

---

However , If you had the headerInfo declaration placed within a readHeader class :

Code:

---

// in wherver header/source file the readheader.h is included //
 
readHeader::headerInfo newHeaderInfoObject ; // if headerInfo declaration is placed in a PRIVATE section : ERROR 
 
readHeader::headerInfo newHeaderInfoObject ; // if headerInfo declaration is placed in a PROTECTED section : ERROR 
 
readHeader::headerInfo newHeaderInfoObject ; // if headerInfo declaration is placed in a PUBLIC section : OK

---

But , getting back to "I can of course access the structure directly" : since you've placed "headerInfo p_hdrinfo" in the PRIVATE section , there is no way you can access it directly .Isn't it the reason you've created methods for accessing it ?^^ So , depending on how you're gonna use the readHeader class in your application's data architecture , you'll probably have to place it in either PRIVATE or PROTECTED sections...