Why and how should I use namespaces in C++?

Question

I have never used namespaces for my code before. (Other than for using STL functions)

1. Other than for avoiding name conflicts, is there any other reason to use namespaces?
2. Do I have to enclose both declarations and definitions in namespace scope?

Answer 1

Here is a good reason (apart from the obvious stated by you).

Since namespace can be discontiguous and spread across translation units, they can also be used to separate interface from implementation details.

Definitions of names in a namespace can be provided either in the same namespace or in any of the enclosing namespaces (with fully qualified names).

Answer 2

One reason that's often overlooked is that simply by changing a single line of code to select one namespaces over another you can select an alternative set of functions/variables/types/constants - such as another version of a protocol, or single-threaded versus multi-threaded support, OS support for platform X or Y - compile and run. The same kind of effect might be achieved by including a header with different declarations, or with #defines and #ifdefs, but that crudely affects the entire translation unit and if linking different versions you can get undefined behaviour. With namespaces, you can make selections via using namespace that only apply within the active namespace, or do so via a namespace alias so they only apply where that alias is used, but they're actually resolved to distinct linker symbols so can be combined without undefined behaviour. This can be used in a way similar to template policies, but the effect is more implicit, automatic and pervasive - a very powerful language feature.

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UPDATE: addressing marcv81's comment...

Why not use an interface with two implementations?

"interface + implementations" is conceptually what choosing a namespace to alias above is doing, but if you mean specifically runtime polymorphism and virtual dispatch:

• the resultant library or executable doesn't need to contain all implementations and constantly direct calls to the selected one at runtime

• as one implementation's incorporated the compiler can use myriad optimisations including inlining, dead code elimination, and constants differing between the "implementations" can be used for e.g. sizes of arrays - allowing automatic memory allocation instead of slower dynamic allocation

• different namespaces have to support the same semantics of usage, but aren't bound to support the exact same set of function signatures as is the case for virtual dispatch

• with namespaces you can supply custom non-member functions and templates: that's impossible with virtual dispatch (and non-member functions help with symmetric operator overloading - e.g. supporting 22 + my_type as well as my_type + 22)

• different namespaces can specify different types to be used for certain purposes (e.g. a hash function might return a 32 bit value in one namespace, but a 64 bit value in another), but a virtual interface needs to have unifying static types, which means clumsy and high-overhead indirection like boost::any or boost::variant or a worst case selection where high-order bits are sometimes meaningless

• virtual dispatch often involves compromises between fat interfaces and clumsy error handling: with namespaces there's the option to simply not provide functionality in namespaces where it makes no sense, giving a compile-time enforcement of necessary client porting effort

Answer 3

It can help you for a better comprehension.

eg:

std::func <- all function/class from C++ standard library
lib1::func <- all function/class from specific library
module1::func <-- all function/class for a module of your system

You can also think of it as module in your system.

It can also be usefull for an writing documentation (eg: you can easily document namespace entity in doxygen)

Answer 4

1. Aren't name collisions enough of a reason? ADL subtleties, especially with operator overloads, are another.

2. That's the easiest way. You can also prefix names with the namespace, e.g. my_namespace::name, when defining.

Answer 5

You can think of namespaces as logical separated units for your application, and logical here means that suppose we have two different classes, putting these two classes each in a file, but when you notice that these classes share something enough to be categorized under one category, that's one strong reason to use namespaces.

Answer 6

1. Answer: If you ever want to overload the new, placement new, or delete functions you're going to want to do them in a namespace. No one wants to be forced to use your version of new if they don't require the things you require.
2. Yes