The "duplicate symbol" message means that you're declaring some name (in this case, _x) twice in the same scope. Say you had code like this:
int _x = 1;
int _x = 2;
You'd expect to get an error then, right? You can use the same name for two things at the same time.
The error you're getting is essentially the same. You're declaring _x somewhere, and from the compiler's point of view you're doing it twice. There are a few ways to deal with this, depending on what _x represents.
chrahey's answer explains about forward class declarations. I won't cover that again here except to say that a forward declaration helps you resolve circular references, where the definition of class A depends on class B and vice versa.
If _x is a variable, it's likely that you're trying to declare it in a header file. The compiler basically copies the contents of each header file that you import into the source file, so if you declare a variable in a header file and then import that header into two or more implementation files, you'll end up with multiple declarations of that variable. To get around that, use the extern keyword to tell the compiler "this name will be declared somewhere else" and then put the real declaration in an implementation file:
Foo.h:
extern int _x;
Foo.m
int _x;
Pretty much the same thing goes for functions. It doesn't appear that _x is a function, but if it were, and if you were silly enough to put the function definition in a header file, then you'd again get an error if that file were imported into more than one implementation file. This is why header files contain prototypes, not definitions:
Foo.h:
int foo(int a);
Foo.m
int foo(int a)
{
return a + 10;
}
