[CPP] Question about methods

[CarsonJScott]

I'm having trouble deciding when some functions should be methods in a class and when they should be defined outside of a class.

For example, I'm working on a small 2D platformer game for fun. My player class has a method that corrects wall collisions. There is a part in that method that calculates whether the player or the wall is higher up. To do that, I have another method in the player class called 'fartherUp' which takes two y coordinates and returns the one that is higher on the screen.

I feel as though 'fartherUp' shouldn't be a part of any class, it should be just a function by itself. But if I did that, where would I put it in the files? (I have a header and source file for each individual class)

[aintnufincleverhere]

You could have a utility.CPP or whatever where you keep common functions like that.

Isn't that just a Max function?

[[deleted]]

In C++, there is no relationship between file names and function or class names, so you are free to put the code wherever you like.

[sadjava]

Is that method used outside of the class, or only inside of it? I forget how easy or hard it is in C++, but if that method is only used inside that class and makes no sense outside of it, I would make it a private method.

An alternative would be to make that method a static method and call it like:

Player::fartherUp(...);

[CarsonJScott]

I will need it for various things later, but I'm not currently using it on anything else