Ambiguous symbol error?

Question

int ii, maxnum;  
for(ii=1; ii<=num-1; ii++) {  
    if(count[ii]>max) {  // the part where I get C2872 Ambiguous Symbol error  
        max = count[ii]; // the part where I get C2872 Ambiguous Symbol error  
        maxnum = ii;  
    }  
}  

I've never gotten this error and this is frustrating.

Solution 1

Your variable max conflicts with std::max(). Try using a different name and it ought to fix that error.

Solution 2

I think the problem is not std::max() but these horrible #define's in minwindef.h:

#ifndef NOMINMAX
  #ifndef max
  #define max(a,b)            (((a) > (b)) ? (a) : (b))
  #endif
  #ifndef min
  #define min(a,b)            (((a) < (b)) ? (a) : (b))
  #endif
  #endif  /* NOMINMAX */

Use #define NOMINMAX in your project settings or stdafx.h.

Comments

[Andrew Marshall]

It's reasons like this that make using namespace std; such a nightmare.

[David Rodríguez - dribeas]

Rather than renaming max I would advice not to use the using directive using namespace std; for exactly this reason.

[outmind]

or explicitly define the namespace of max (::max)