C++ compilling errors when using Quadprog++ with Eigen together

Question

this is my first question here, I've searched it all over for a long time yet no solution. I'm using QUadprog++ to solve a quadratic problem. When I use it in a test alone, it was alright. But when I implement it into my project, which contains Eigen, the Eigen operations will have errors like "Matrix A has no member named ‘lu_inverse’". If I comment the header files of Quadprog++ (Array.hh and Quadprog++.hh) out, the errors just disappear. So I assume that it was a conflict error between the header files of Eigen and Quadprog++. Does anyone have some clue? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

if your using namespace quadprogpp; then dont. your different libraries have the same typenames and thats causing the errors you have. It may be a few more characters to type quadprogpp::someFunction(); but its worth it. This is also why you shouldn't ever put a using namespace in a header ever. Its because you pollute all files that include that header with the namespace symbols and name conflicts can ensue which is the same kind of error your having right now.

the Quadprog library is in it's own namespace.

#if !defined(_ARRAY_HH)
#define _ARRAY_HH

#include <set>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <cmath>
#include <cstdlib>

namespace quadprogpp {

enum MType { DIAG };

template <typename T>
class Vector

notice how just after the #includes there is a decleration of namespace quadprogpp{} and everything that is defined in its enclosing brackets will be defined in scope to quadprogpp, so to use any of this library you have to prefix eveything with the namespace name. this is no different than using things from the standard library. I'm quite sure you've written the standard c++ hello world

#include<iostream>
int main()
{
  std::cout << "hello world!" << std::endl;
  return 0;
}

cout and endl being part of namespace std have to be prefixed with std:: to access them. Many new programmers to c++ dislike this and one of the very first things they google is how to not have to type out namespaces.

#include<iostream>

using namespace std;
int main()
{
  cout << "hello world" << endl;
  return 0;
}

the next thing new programmers often do is learn to place their definitions in header files and their program logic in cpp files. Thats when they commit the next common mistake.

#ifndef MYHEADER
#define MYHEADER
#include<string>
#include<vector>
#include<iostream>

using namespace std; //Never do this in a header. 

doing that pollutes all of your code with everything in the standard library. That may seem like a trivial thing but when you start using another library or perhaps you create your own type that has the same name as things in the standard library that causes name collisions.

That's when the compiler simply cant reason about which Vector you want. But both Quadprog.hh and Array.hh in Quadprog++ are wrapped in namespace quadprogpp to specifically prevent name collision, which is the whole purpose of namespaces. So there is somewhere in your code, likely a header file, where you've made the statement of using namespace quadprogpp;, or some other namespace that defines an Array type, and the compiler can't deduce which type your referring to in your code.

Other than removing your using namespace statements you can also prefix a typename with its namespace qualifer to disambiguate which type your talking about. In your case I'm confident your Array should be declared as quadprogpp::Array arraynamme; rather than simply Array arrayname;

Answer 2

You can also switch to one of QuadProgpp versions which can work with Eigen types directly: https://github.com/asherikov/QuadProgpp, https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~bstephe1/eiquadprog.hpp; or try an alternative implementation of the same algorithm (also Eigen based) https://github.com/asherikov/qpmad.